Chelsea face finding a temporary home for up to three years as they roll out plans to build a new stadium at Stamford Bridge with a capacity over 60 000.
The London club informed its local residents, club members and season-ticket holders yesterday that the process was ready to move into a consultation phase.
Final plans will not be drawn until consultation is over, and the club insist they remain some distance from lodging any formal applications with Hammersmith and Fulham council.
But feasibility studies are leading Chelsea towards the idea that they will be forced to abandon the ground they have called home for the last 110 years, clear the site and start from scratch, digging below street level to create space for an arena with an improved capacity.
This would send them in search of somewhere to play while work is ongoing.
Nearby Twickenham would be an ideal venue, and there have been preliminary talks with the RFU, although this solution remains highly unlikely because of the opposition
from the rugby world to hosting football at HQ.
Wembley is viewed as a serious alternative, although this would also be far from straightforward not least because of a strict annual limit on the number of live events which can be held there.
Roman Abramovich has always been aware that an expansion project at Stamford Bridge would be fraught with complications.
It is a technical challenge because it is only 12 acres — when 20 acres is normally considered the minimum for a stadium of the proposed size — and it is hemmed in by railway lines and the Fulham Road, which is awash with listed buildings.
Chelsea will look at building stands up and over the railway lines and different ways of getting up to 20,000 extra fans in and out quickly and safely.
It is an extraordinarily ambitious undertaking and likely to leave Abramovich with a bill of up to £500million. – Daily Mail