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Analyst, TSN Radio 690 Montreal

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In a week dominated by the walkout protest by Liverpool supporters over increasing ticket prices and the subsequent backtracking from the club on their pricing plans for the 2016/17 season, Stamford Bridge will welcome another sold-out crowd for the visit of Newcastle on Saturday. Newcastle, over the course of the last five seasons, has taken more points from Chelsea than any other in the Barclays Premier League.

As the controversy swirled over the widely perceived ever-increasing ticket prices for BPL clubs, Chelsea, for their part, have capped costs at Stamford Bridge for the last five seasons. Additionally, Chelsea contributes £10 ($20) toward the cost of each ticket for road matches and subsidizes the cost of travel outside of London. It’s reported this will cost Chelsea $1 million over the season - a sum more than twice the amount BPL clubs agreed to contribute toward supporters road travel costs this season.

The 2014/20015 Deloitte Football Money League, which was published just late last month and analyzes the revenue of the world’s biggest football clubs, places Chelsea in eighth spot with a combined revenue of £319.5m ($640 million). Real Madrid topped the table. According to Deloitte they banked an astronomical €577m ($869 million) last season. This was the eleventh straight season the Spanish giants have claimed top spot. 

A few days after the Deloitte Football Money league was published, a Spanish newspaper reported that the ten-time winner of the Champions League would soon announce a 10-year uniform deal  which will bring in more than £1bn ($2-billion) to the Bernabeu. By comparison, Chelsea’s deal, which was described by one U.K. tabloid as “Whopping” at the time it was announced back in June 2013, will see the BPL champions net £300m ($600-million) over the 10-year term. 

Currently in a very lowly 13th place, the prospect of Champions League football at Stamford Bridge next season is now purely reliant on the slim chance Chelsea win the competition this season. The financial hit of not participating in the most valuable competition in world club football will be offset by the dramatic increase in revenue for the BPL broadcast rights. 

Reportedly, once all of the global broadcast deals are announced, this total will amount to a staggering £8.3bn ($16.6 billion) over the three-year term. As the BPL negotiates as a single entity, unlike in Spain where it is the individual clubs, this massive sum will be distributed evenly amongst the league’s 20 clubs.

With total transfer spending in the BPL for the 2015/16 season breaking through the $2-billion threshold for the first time in league history you can be sure of another record-setting season in 2016/17. Frugal by their standards this season, Chelsea is likely to revert back to their more free-spending days under Roman Abramovich as they look to put their worst ever season since the BPL was formed firmly behind them.

While Chelsea’s 2014/15 matchday revenue at Stamford Bridge, according to Deloitte, edged through the £70m ($160-million) barrier, it is Arsenal’s 60,000-plus capacity home which is the top revenue generating stadium in all of world football. Over $200 million was taken at the Emirates box office last season.

To address this revenue shortfall and more vitally the over demand for season tickets and single matchday tickets, Chelsea is in first stages of the complete reconstruction of Stamford Bridge. The wide in scope and scale plans also call for the entire regeneration of the immediate surrounding area.

Late last fall, Chelsea submitted their planning application to the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, the local authority that has jurisdiction for Stamford Bridge. As stated on their website, “The council has received a full planning application to build a new football stadium within Stamford Bridge Grounds. The application comprises the demolition of the existing football stadium which has a capacity of 41,600 seats and other buildings within the ground, and the construction of a new larger football stadium with a 60,000 seat capacity.”

The application was only submitted following a lengthy consultation process with all stakeholders from season ticket holders, supporters, local residents and the local business community. Chelsea has called their current Stamford Bridge home for the last 100 years. It has been more than 25 years since the last time major renovations were carried out. Long rumoured to be moving out of the Stamford Bridge area, the club is not working to any set timescale. 

As can be well imagined, there are many moving parts and hurdles to overcome. Paramount of which is receiving all the required approvals to build a stadium, which is expected to cost Chelsea $1 billion at a minimum. Unlike in North America where the culture is for the local authority to foot the entire bill or a significant percentage of the costs for a new arena or stadium, it is reported that Chelsea owner Abramovich will meet the entire cost himself. 

With Wembley Stadium mooted as their first choice, construction will require Chelsea to find a temporary home for two seasons. Conservative estimates peg the 2020/21 season as the first one in the new stadium, which draws its design inspiration from Westminster Abbey (the venue of William and Kate’s wedding). 

With the business of Chelsea off the pitch looking very promising more immediately, things on the pitch have very much stabilized since the return to the club of Guus Hiddink two months ago. They are still unbeaten under the Dutchman, a string of 10 matches following last Sunday’s 1-1 tie with Manchester United.

Chelsea also has the longest current unbeaten streak in the entire league. And while they may not be scoring the volume of goals and winning the required matches they would have wanted to push up the table and to be realistically challenging for a top four finish, under Hiddink they are conceding less than a goal a game in all competitions. Under Mourinho that clip was a very poor 1.4 goals. 

Hiddink could care less for possession-based football, his primary concern is that when in possession, individually and as a team, the first thought must be to play vertical. Not sure his fellow countryman Louis van Gaal would agree. 

In the reverse fixture against Newcastle in late September, Chelsea were most fortunate to escape the north east with a share of the spoils in a 2-2 draw. Shoe in as Chelsea player of the year, Willian scored a very late equalizer. In doing so he saved a clearly blushing and frustrated looking Mourinho on the St. James Park sidelines that particular Saturday evening. 

Steve McLaren brings a remodeled Newcastle to SW6 Saturday evening. With one eye clearly on that BPL broadcast cash bonanza starting next season, club owner Mike Ashley behaved like a drunken sailor during the winter transfer window. Lavishing large sums in bringing the likes of Jonjo Shelvey, Henri Saivet and Andros Townsend to St-James Park last month – Newcastle outspent every other club in the league by some distance.

For their part, Chelsea posted a $40-million profit on player sales. Shipping Ramires to China, their only purchase was on 20-year-old New York Red Bulls centre half Matt Miazga.

Even though Chelsea have lost the very promising and highly talented young French international Kurt Zouma for the season to a horrific ACL injury sustained against Manchester United last Sunday, Hiddink confirmed Friday there are no plans to accelerate Miazga’s promotion this season from the Chelsea academy to the senior squad.

With many across world football getting in contact with Zouma this week to express their sympathy over his season-ending injury that will also keep him out of EURO 2016 in France this summer, Paul Pogba’s video tribute to a player who he grew up alongside in the French national system will not be lost on Abramovich. 

Chelsea, a long-time admirer of Pogba, will be toward the front of the queue of a number of suitors if, as is likely, the midfielder leaves Juventus after EURO 2016. If and when that would occur, don’t be shocked if one of the greatest talents in world football becomes the very first £100m player sometime this summer.   

Chelsea versus Newcastle United is live Saturday on the TSN Radio Network. Kick off 12:30 p.m. ET/ 9:30 a.m. PT