Chelsea return to Stamford Bridge for the first time since their win over Watford on the final day of last season. The Premier League term has wasted little time ensuring a monumental home occasion as the Blues take on Tottenham Hotspur and Antonio Conte.
In May, Chelsea came away 2-1 victors thanks to a stoppage-time goal from Ross Barkley and the club’s prospective owners at the time, Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and Jose E. Feliciano, all in attendance. The trio saw their first Chelsea win at Stamford Bridge as they took to the pitch to greet the players amid the usual end-of-season festivities.
Since that day, Boehly and co have taken ownership of the Blues and committed to investing money in Stamford Bridge as part of their successful bid. The group have wasted little time in starting to implement their changes.
While there are plans to see Stamford Bridge developed, that will be a longer-term process, but more immediate alterations await that reflect Boehly’s philosophy over what a stadium should offer.
Boehly told Bloomberg back in 2019. “The new stadiums that [English clubs] are building, they’re starting to take an American approach to stadiums and making them environments. They were very utilitarian, historically, but now they’re starting to think about themselves as ‘lifestyle’.
“If you look at what Americans are good at, it’s been building lifestyle within stadiums. Originally stadiums would be a place where you would go and then leave, just watch an event.
“Now they’re starting to think about how do we entertain you earlier and how do we keep you longer. That obviously works on lots of levels — it drives the experience, it drives the economics, and it also takes away from the congestion of arrival and departure.”
The club have requested planning permission to make a number of alterations, but the matchday experience itself will see changes in time for the match against Spurs.
The stadium’s facilities will see extended opening times, with bars and kiosks open two hours before kick-off on the weekend and 90 minutes on weekdays. They will remain open until 25 minutes into the second half of games. Each of Jimmy’s, Dixon’s and the Tea Bar will be open to supporters from two-and-a-half hours before kick-off and throughout matches. Post-match bars will be open for 90 minutes following the final whistle, with fans invited to remain in Stamford Bridge’s West Lower concourse.
The West Lower will further see enlarged televisions and a new sound system with 102 television screens added to public areas of the ground. Nine LCD screens have been added to the Matthew Harding Lower, which has previously not housed such facilities. Further, Stamford Bridge will host a range of food trucks offering refreshments from as many as three hours before kick-off. The Spurs game will see Lebanese street food from Little Watan, Indian street food from Gully, Pietanic and Uncle G’s will be serving buttermilk chicken and chips.
For the first home match of the season against the Lilywhites, supporters can take up the offer of a free drinks voucher to be used before kick-off. The promotion will be available between 2pm and 3.15pm with vouchers distributed on the concourse.
