Stamford Bridge London

CHELSEA FC

Chelsea were established in 1905. Their address is Stamford Bridge, London, SW 6 1HS. Tel (0171) 385 5545 they can also be found on the web at http://www.chelseafc.co.uk
Stamford Bridge has a capacity of around 32,000 and is now virtually unrecognisable to the Bridge of yesteryear. Since Ken Bates bought the club back in 1982 the ground has come under serious reconstruction. Not so long ago back in the early 80's the ground was being pursued by property developers and the club was nearly driven to the wall due to this but since surviving this it's been all upwards since. Stamford Bridge was actually built in 1887, as a home for London Athletics Club. New owners took over the ground in 1904 and invited Fulham to play their matches at the Bridge instead of Craven Cottage, but Fulham declined the offer. The owners then came up with the choice of either forming a new football club to play at Stamford Bridge or selling the ground to a local railway company, the later was the choice and Chelsea FC were formed. Before even playing a match Chelsea managed to gain admittance to the Football League after initially being refused membership to the Southern League and in season 1905/06 they played in the Second Division. Chelsea lost their first League game 1-0 at Stockport County but ended the season in a very respectable third.
Their first full season had seen average gates or around 6000 but by the end of their second season gates had almost trebled and by 1907 the club had gained promotion to the first division. The club remained in the top flight for 3 seasons with the highest average gates in the country - 32,000. The club were relegated in 1910, promoted again 2 season later and then struggled against relegation for the next 3 season or so before the war interrupted football. Chelsea did have some success in the cup though reaching the semi-final in 1911 and then the final in 1915, this during the war. The match, against Sheffield United, was played at Old Trafford, Manchester, the result a 3-0 defeat for Chelsea.
The club went on to finish third in the league in 1920, but were again relegated in 1924. Promotion was again achieved in 1930. Despite having a strong squad and some quality players bought from other clubs, the best Chelsea could achieve was two FA cup semi-finals in 1950 and 1952. Season 1951/52 season saw Ted Drake take over as manager. Drake introduced a youth policy at the club and within 4 years the club won it's first league title. Tommy Docherty succeeded Drake as manager but couldn't prevent them being relegated in 1962, but he was able to win them promotion back to the first within a season. This period was to see some of Chelsea's most famous players grace the shirt - Peter 'the Cat' Bonetti in goal, Alan Harris and brother Ron 'Chopper' Harris, Terry Venables, John Hollins, and George Graham. 1965 saw Chelsea lift the League Cup after beating Leicester in a two leg final, but were beaten by Spurs in 1967 FA Cup final - 2-1. The next Cup Final for Chelsea was the 1970 FA Cup Final against Leeds United, with Dave Sexton now at the helm for Chelsea. The team now had the famous names of Osgood, Hutchieson and Hudson playing in the blue of Chelsea. Chelsea won the 1970 Cup Final after a replay at Old Trafford. 1971 saw arguably Chelsea's best glory up till then, lifting the European Cup-Winners' Cup, beating Real Madrid in a replay. After a couple of reasonably successful season Chelsea ended up selling some of the big names of 1970's, mainly to pay for the building of a new East Stand, and Chelsea became something of a yo-yo club between the first and second division.
Then in 1982, Ken Bates, a self made millionaire, bought the club for £1 inheriting £2million in debts. To ease cash flow problems, Bates, leased the ground for 6 years to SBP, a company controlled by the Mears family, original owners of Chelsea. But then David Mears sold his share of SBP to developers, thus enraging Bates, and the developers planed to bulldoze Stamford Bridge and build luxury flats. After many campaigns and legal battles, Bates won the right to buy the freehold to the Bridge. Bates had his own redevelopment plans for the Bridge but these did include a football stadium. Bates still didn't have the financial backing to put his plans into action, even with Chelsea now in the Premiership and Glen Hoddle in charge. So in 1993 Bates advertised for financial backers, and Matthew Harding appeared on the scene lending Chelsea £7.5million towards a new stand and new squad members, this loan was convertible into shares if not repaid. Harding was a self-made millionaire but also a Chelsea fan and the partnership with Bates did not always run smoothly. Bates plan for the 'Chelsea Village' was not totally agreed by Harding, who wanted more emphasis on the football side of things, such as a 62,000 seater stadium compared to Bates' planned 42,000 seater. Harding went behind Bates' back to gain the freehold to Chelsea resulting in Bates repaying the loan to Harding and banning him from the boardroom. Bates now entertained politicians such John Major and David Mellor while Harding drank with the fans in the pubs around the ground and donated £1million to Tony Blair's Labour Party. A truce had taken place between the two when in October 1996 Harding was killed in a helicopter crash while returning from watching Chelsea in a match at Bolton. Later that season Chelsea, now under the manager ship of Ruud Gullit, reached the FA Cup final, beating Middlesborough 2-0.
Bates' 'Chelsea Village' was now taking shape, but in season 1997/98 Bates sacked Gullit and installed Gianluca Vialli as new coach, again this was down to Gullit finding it increasingly hard to work with Bates as had Hoddle a few seasons early. Vialli took over and lead Chelsea to four trophies in 1998 - the League Cup, the Cup-Winners' Cup, the European Super Cup and the Charity Shield. The following season saw no silverware but the club gained entry to the Champions League after finishing third in the league.
Success doesn't come cheap, just ask Chelsea fans, who have to pay some of the highest admission prices in the Premiership, the cheapest seats at something like £23.
Getting to the Bridge on the underground you should head for Fulham Broadway which is on the District Line, the train should have either Wimbledon or Parson's Green on the front, it's about a 10 minute walk from there. Visiting fans are usually allocated a part of the lower tier of the East Stand but sometimes the uncovered West Stand also, depending on the match and opposition.
The club has it's own merchandise - The Chelsea Megastore - open Monday to Saturday 10-6pm (later on match days), merchandise is also available on their web site. The club has it's own match day programme (£2) and monthly club magazine (£2.95) as well as there being a number of fanzines sold around the ground, the most popular of which is the 'Chelsea Independent'.
The days of the famous 'Shed' are long gone. The Shed was home to some of the most violent sets of supporters during the 1960's, 70's and early 80's. Chelsea's fans are unlike many fans of other London clubs and come from a wide catchment area, such as Surrey etc. Stamford Bridge is now one of the safer ground to go to but the Bridge did see some serious outbreaks of trouble in the early to mid eighties -  Leeds United in 1983/84 season, which saw Chelsea fans on the pitch trying to attack the Leeds support, the Leeds support replied by trying to smash up the scoreboard and again in 1988 Middlesborough fans were attacked by Chelsea fans who had again gained access to the pitch. The Shed end today has become the Chelsea Village.  


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