As potential Chelsea owner Todd Boehly reportedly considers plans to redevelop Stamford Bridge, the American's previous comments about sports stadiums have come to light.
The American, a part-owner of the LA Lakers and LA Dodgers, is part of a consortium interested in buying the Blues as Roman Abramovich looks to sell up. Boehly's group, which also includes Swiss businessman Hansjorg Wyss, was one of the first interested parties and remains in the mix after other candidates dropped out of the running.
The four remaining bids have until April 11 to make their case, with Boehly's consortium going up against bids from Josh Harris and David Blitzer, the Ricketts family, and Stephen Pagliuca. By then, more than a month will have passed since Abramovich - who has owned the Blues since 2003 - announced he planned to sell the club.
After earlier reports suggested Boehly had engaged the services of a property developer regarding the future of the Blues' stadium, his previous comments have been brought to light. The prospective buyers are believed to be prepared to invest heavily in the ground, which has been Chelsea's home for more than a century.
“The new stadiums that [English clubs] are building, they’re starting to take an American approach to stadiums and making them environments,” the businessman told Bloomberg in 2019. “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.”
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Stamford Bridge's capacity of just over 40,000 is lower than the stadiums of Chelsea's Premier League rivals. However, some may read a lot into Boehly's previous comments about football fanbases when identifying what he might be looking to do.
"I can’t believe American football can get to use the word ‘football’ because to me that word should be football ," he said. "The fact is it is still the best product in the world. It’s 90 minutes so it has a great timeline.
"The passion that the fans have for the activity and the sport and the teams is unparalleled. So when you start to think about what you’re trying to build with these teams is, you’re really trying to A, win and B, be part of the community.”
