CPO expecting Chelsea to finalize stadium plans ‘shortly’

Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO) felt compelled to put out a statement yesterday, clarifying their role and position in any potential action that may be undertaken as far as the redevelopment (or possible move) of the stadium goes. Not sure what prompted all that, but basically nothing has changed in so far as the CPO’s mission and purpose goes.

If Chelsea (i.e. the “Club”) were to decide that first-team matches would be held somewhere other than Stamford Bridge — be that temporarily while the stadium is torn down and rebuilt, or permanently, if we were to build a new stadium at some other location — the question would be put to a vote among the CPO (i.e. all the shareholders). I guess some reporting had assumed that the CPO’s Board would make the decision, so the statement clarifies that it would be indeed a general vote (with a limit placed on each individual owner regardless of how many shares they might own), with a 75 per cent supermajority needed to approve any such decision. (The last time such a momentous vote* was conducted, back in 2011, only a little over 60 per cent of voters were in favor of letting Roman Abramovich buy back the freehold from the CPO.)

*(Abramovich attempted to acquire a boatload of shares at the time, to literally buy the vote, which then prompted the limit to be set at 100 per individual voter — if I recall correctly. I didn’t check the exact number in the CPO Articles, and instead just wrote out this footnote of sorts.)

Anyway, buy a share now so you can vote, too!

The more interesting bit in the statement however is that the CPO “believe” that the club’s decision on what to do on the stadium issue is “due to be finalised shortly”. They don’t say how shortly, but at least they don’t say ... longly? Earlier this year, the word was that we wanted to be in our new building by around 2030, regardless of location.

Having recently appointed a new Chief Operations Officer in Jason Gannon, presumably with a view towards having him oversee the stadium project (just as he did in Los Angeles for the SoFi Stadium), hopefully we are indeed getting close to figuring out how to tackle this boondoggle.

Obviously, I’m personally in favor of simply resurrecting the Cathedral of Football plans. DO IT, TODD!

Image © Herzog & de Meuron