Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
Clearlake Capital have taken full control of Chelsea after purchasing stakes from Todd Boehly and Mark Walter.
It has been reported that Chelsea have paid Boehly and Walter £1bn to secure the stakes that they had in the club. Now having free rein at Chelsea, Clearlake must tackle what was arguably Boehly’s biggest failure as a co-owner.
After taking over the club, building a new stadium was one of Boehly’s biggest priorities, yet that seemed to be the thing that drove a wedge between him and Clearlake’s Behdad Eghbali. “We have a big stadium development opportunity that we have to flesh out,” Boehly told Bloomberg last year. “That’s where we either align or ultimately decide to go our different ways.”
Boehly is now gone, but Chelsea’s stadium situation still needs to be addressed. And with no board members to disagree with whatever Clearlake propose, we should start to see some movement.
Todd Boehly graphic
Photo by Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images
Of course, plenty of Chelsea fans are happy with the current Stamford Bridge. But the reality is it is holding the club back from competing financially with Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool, who all have bigger stadiums than the Blues. Those are all of their rivals whom they need to be keeping up with in every aspect.
After a disastrous 2025/26 campaign, Chelsea failed to qualify for the Champions League. Having a larger stadium to bring in more gate receipts would have softened the blow of missing out on the revenue that they would have received for playing in Europe’s elite competition.
Fortunately for the club, they were able to make plenty of money from sales in the summer, and that appears to be their model for the time being. But how sustainable that is remains to be seen. Are Chelsea going to have unwanted assets they can sell for £50m each every year? Past transfer windows indicate no.
Clearlake are backing Xabi Alonso and there have been some positives on the pitch under the Spaniard so far. But off the pitch, this stadium dilemma cannot be ignored any longer.