Chelsea suffering financially as they struggle to fill Stamford Bridge on matchdays
A research study done recently by OLGB.com (h/t Daily Star) has revealed that Chelsea is amongst the clubs that are losing out on the most matchday revenue from empty seats at Stamford Bridge. In fact, only Tottenham Hotspur are ahead of us in losses made due to this factor.
At the other end of the table, Leicester City were found to be the English PL club who missed out on the least revenue from a typical game day, missing out on £6,526 from an average of 251 empty seats per Premier League match. This pales in comparison to the £165,680 that Spurs miss out on at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which sees an average of 8,284 empty seats.
The research conducted by the group took each club’s average attendance so far this season and the lowest cost of an available ticket to work out the estimated money lost per home fixture. Chelsea ranks second in the list, despite boasting of a capacity far less than that of Spurs.
Most football fans would have expected Manchester City’s name to top the list, with their infamous monicker of playing at the ‘Emptyhad‘ stadium, but nothing could be further than the truth, with the Citizens only ranking fifth on the list.
Man City averaged 2,465 empty seats for each home game, resulting in a loss of £86,275 per game. Chelsea meanwhile, loses out on £154,254 per Premier League fixture at Stamford Bridge, having 3,282 empty seats per game.
A potential reason as to why Chelsea miss out on so much revenue despite having a lower stadium capacity than other top-six rivals is down to their ticket prices. The prices are considered to be steep and are hurting the team’s revenue streams.
Chelsea have arguably one of the smaller stadiums in the country, with its seating capacity not what one would expect from a club as successful as the Blues. The home of the defending European champions is also the oldest stadium in the Premier League.
Despite only boasting of a full capacity of around 40,000 people, we seem to be missing out on massive ticket sales for home games, which affects our revenue streams. It has been reported that our home tickets are priced higher than our counterparts and it appears to have come back to bite us.
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No one can take away the magic and atmosphere in a stadium during a home game, and football fans live for such an experience. It is surprising to come across so many empty seats not just at Stamford Bridge, but across the Premier League, as England is considered to be the home of football and has passionate fans of the game across all ages.
After Covid saw stadiums closed for the majority of last season, fans have rushed back to experience the matchday atmosphere and energy that only a full stadium offers. We can hope that more fans turn up in the games to come, backing the club not just on the field but off it.
