With a great recent win loss ratio in domestic soccer, a team of expensive and skilled international players and despite being one of the world’s richest men, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich still faces a major job over the next few years. Debt is the spectre which haunts Chelsea at the end of every season and despite the club owners generosity in writing off large portions of the clubs overdraft, resolving this will be the key issue for the club’s owner.
A team may be able to make a decent amount of money from club and kit advertisement deals, the sale of soccer merchandise, the sale of players to other teams and prize money won, if they are fortunate enough, but for Chelsea the enormous costs of maintaining their squad is still a big drain on resources. With UEFA now having rules in place that ensures by 2012, all teams who want to compete have to pass strict financial controls, there is a growing need for Chelsea to find an answer to their increasing debt.
The process of reducing the clubs debt began last summer when several high-income first team players were permitted to leave the club for new pastures. Michael Ballack left for Leverkusen, Deco and Juliano Belletti joined Fluminense, Joe Cole moved North to Liverpool and Ricardo Carvalho rejoined former manager Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid. This cutting of staff successfully had the effect of reducing the wage bill, but even these cuts have not fully resolved the issue of club debt.
Chelsea’s owner has spent alot of cash in the past aimed to help the club achieve his goal of the Londoners being considered as not only the greatest club in England, but also Europe and the world. Currently either Real Madrid, Manchester United or Barcelona can claim the status of the worlds ‘biggest’ club, depending on how you wish to define the criteria for that title and there are two big reasons why Chelsea, despite Abramovich’s vast expenditure and a policy for paying huge wages, have struggled to compete with the standards set by the existing soccer giants:
- The seat capacity of Stamford Bridge and the income the stadium generates.
- The clubs worldwide apparel in terms of merchandising.
The easiest issue to correct; the seating capacity of the local stadium and the income it brings to the club, could well corrected shortly. Stamford Bridge may, if the whispers are true, soon be part of Chelsea’s decorated past, rather than their future. While no specific details have been confirmed by any sources at Chelsea, rumours are circulating that Mr Abramovich has been considering moving the club into a brand new ground, with a capacity of atleast 60,000, and such a move is a must if Chelsea are realistically hoping to achieve the title of the world’s biggest club.
The proposed new ground and its larger capacity will have a positive, instantaneous effect on resolving Chelsea’s financial problems. A greater capacity, if the fans can fill it, will result in Chelsea earning far more a year in gate receipts. In turn, this added income will help reduce the strain the club feels from its consistent annual debt and means that Chelsea is in a far better position to meet the new UEFA rules, which need to be followed by 2012.
Another plus financially will be that Chelsea could choose to sell the naming rights to their biggest sponsor, as other teams such as Arsenal did with their new Emirates stadium.
Building a new ground could also improve the clubs potential to increase sales in merchandising as the added exposure would see the club achieve saturation in markets such as the Far East and the Americas.
If Chelsea are ever to complete their owners ambitions, the time has arrived for them to stop wasting money on high transfer fees and players wages and spend it on the infrastructure of the club. If Mr Abramovich is prepared to move Chelsea onto the same level as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United, then he needs to invest his money into a bigger stadium as that is a required step that this great London team must take in order to achieve the levels of greatness to which they aspire.
Click Here if your interested in the support Chelsea in their new arena with the latest Chelsea soccer gear.