Chelsea will now face that challenge of moving into such a bigger ground on a more permanent basis. The club has regularly sold out games at Kingsmeadow, their 4850-capacity ground that has hosted the majority of their home matches over the last nine years, making it clear that the Blues were starting to outgrow the venue. Moving to Stamford Bridge, though, sees the capacity jump quite dramatically, up to 41,312, and filling out the stands there will require a lot of hard work among the marketing and commercial teams, as well as patience.
So far this season, Chelsea's highest attendance from their seven games at the Bridge came when an impressive 30,545 turned out to watch the Blues lose 2-0 to Arsenal in January. Indeed, five of their seven games at the venue this term have attracted attendances of over 10,000, but games against Paris FC and Roma in the Champions League only drew in 2752 and 3914 fans, respectively.
Arsenal have shown the value of that hard work and patience, though, with their lowest attendance at the Emirates Stadium for the women's team this season being 18,087. In comparison, the Gunners' lowest turn-out last season was 5539. Though rivals on the pitch, Chelsea will hope to follow in the footsteps of their fellow London club in witnessing similar growth and success as they make the big move to Stamford Bridge.