- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 435,422
- Reaction score
- 44
You must be registered for see images attach
Todd Boehly says the club is worth more now than when Clearlake bought it for £2.5bn - Bloomberg/Lam Yi
Todd Boehly has suggested that the future of Chelsea’s stadium will decide the long-term future of the club’s ownership.
Boehly is a co-controlling owner of Chelsea along with Clearlake Capital co-founders Behdad Eghbali and Jose E Feliciano, following the group’s takeover almost three years ago, and has claimed the club are now worth more than the £2.5 billion he and Clearlake paid.
It emerged earlier this season that Clearlake and Boehly are prepared to buy each other out, with sources telling Telegraph Sport that Boehly believes the working relationship between the two parties was reaching breaking point.
Clearlake has been adamant it will not sell any of its 61.5 per cent stake and will not allow Chelsea to go up for auction again after previous owner Roman Abramovich was forced to sell the club.
Boehly owns 38.5 per cent of Chelsea, which is split equally between himself, Hansjorg Wyss and Mark Walter.
There is said to be no prospect of Boehly selling his stake on its own to Eghbali and Feliciano, so Clearlake would also have to buy out Wyss and Walter at a total cost of more than £1.5bn to enable both to make a profit.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Boehly insisted that Chelsea’s ownership remains aligned but revealed the future of the club’s stadium will be key to whether or not the status quo remains.
You must be registered for see images attach
Stamford Bridge’s location on the Fulham Road in west London has rendered redevelopment plans problematic - Getty Images /Ryan Pierse
Chelsea have been examining the possibilities of building a new stadium on the current site of Stamford Bridge or moving to a new location, which would need the green light from the Chelsea Pitch Owners organisation, with president and chief operating officer Jason Gannon put in charge of the project.
Sources have indicated that Chelsea hope to make progress on their stadium plans in the summer and, asked about the future of the club’s ownership, Boehly said: “We have to think about long term, what we are trying to accomplish. We have a big stadium-development opportunity that we have to flush out. And I think that is going to be where we are either aligned or we ultimately decided to go different ways.
New stadium plans afoot
“We have 16-20 years to figure out. Inside of London, it is really complex. It’s not as though we’re building something in the middle of a rural environment. We have a lot of constituencies to make sure that we care about, certainly the Chelsea fan base is one. Long term, I think we are going to be building something new and we will figure it out.”
Boehly appeared to advocate for building a new Chelsea stadium that can host other sports by saying: “Stadium development is definitely a theme. You’re going to see the NBA go to Europe, they need stadiums, they need arenas. We’re just on the very front end of the sporting wave and sporting infrastructure is going to be a big thing about it.”
You must be registered for see images attach
Boehly is bullish about Chelsea’s prospects of hosting sporting events of the future once a new stadium is in situ - Getty Images/Robin Jones
Chelsea have yet to win a trophy or qualify for the Champions League under Boehly and Clearlake, but Boehly believes the club is already worth more than they paid for it.
“It’s not really a derivative of didn’t win last year or didn’t win this year,” said Boehly. “This is a club that just celebrated its 120 -year anniversary. I would say ‘yes’ [it’s more valuable than what we paid].
“The trend is our friend in this industry. The opportunity to grow the fan base around the world because unlike American sports, we have the ability to grow internationally and build our own revenue base on that international fan base. I think the opportunity is enormous and the Premier League is sitting in a great place.
“One of the frustrating things as Chelsea owner is the Premier League has become so competitive. But one of the great things about being in the Premier League is it has gotten so competitive.
“If you look at the evolution of the team, we’ve been aligned on what we are trying to do and trying to build. It’s a team that’s young, it’s a team that’s got long contracts. There’s core stability, there’s been a long-term theme and I think we’re executing on a plan that will ultimately have Chelsea where it belongs. We’re sitting top four in the table right now.”
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Continue reading...
