RFU open to hosting Chelsea at Twickenham if Stamford Bridge redevelopment goes ahead

The Allianz Stadium could make sense as a temporary home for Chelsea if forced away temporarily from their west London home

The Allianz Stadium (PA Wire)

England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU) would be open to hosting Chelsea games at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham if the Premier League club are forced to play away from Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea, owned by a consortium led by Todd Boehly, are considering proposals for a redevelopment of their west London ground or a relocation, with talks held over a site in nearby Earl’s Court as they seek to expand their capacity.

A redevelopment could force the club away from the ground they have occupied since being formed in 1905, though no decision has yet been made.

Were they to seek a temporary home, Twickenham could potentially fit the bill with its southwest London location and 82,000 capacity, and the RFU has suggested it would be open to discussion over potentially hosting football games.

No discussions have so far taken place, but the union is hoping to expand the number of non-sporting events it is able to host each year as it looks to raise funds for its own £600m redevelopment of the ground in the next few years.

While a greater number of concerts is a likelier route to grow the income that Twickenham generates, chief executive Bill Sweeney admitted that dismissing any possible partnership with Chelsea would be unwise with the licence currently allowing them to host sporting events, even if he would expect opposition from Richmond Borough Council and local residents.

“[Our licence with the council] would allow it to happen,” Sweeney explained. “There have been conversations previously about possible Premier League clubs coming here. Richmond Council is more concerned about that in terms of impact on local residents, numbers of fans and so on, they’re a little bit more sensitive. It may depend on which club it is. [Hosting Chelsea would provide] a big financial number. I know Richmond borough would definitely have a conversation about that though.”

Chelsea could look to redevelop Stamford Bridge (Getty)

The RFU discussed a number of possible proposals before settling on a redevelopment of Twickenham, with a possible move to Milton Keynes or a site near Birmingham mooted, as well as a possible purchase of a 50 per cent share in Wembley.

It has always been the union’s preference to stay at the home of English rugby, though, having played at the ground for 118 years.

Key to any redevelopment will be growing the venue’s commercial potential: Allianz Stadium is currently unable to host more than three non-sporting events each year, with only one allowed on a Friday.

Sweeney revealed that a recent consultation with residents had brought more positive feedback from residents than he thought might be the case, raising hopes that the council will approve changes to the licence to allow more events.

Bill Sweeney, the RFU chief executive, is hoping to host more non-sporting events at Twickenham (Getty)

The RFU CEO said: “I think the figure was, and it was much bigger than we were expecting, 75 per cent support in terms of do you support the stadium hosting more or a lot of non-rugby events. I’m confident it’s going in the right direction.

“We’re making progress with Richmond. The conversations with them have been positive, it’s a cooperative process. They see the value that we bring to the area and they understand why we need to have more non-rugby events when you compare it to Tottenham, to Wembley, the O2, they can see why we need those non-rugby events to make the thing viable.”

The RFU again underlined their strong financial position despite reporting record losses of £37.9m last year. The organisation has no bank debt and had always forecast a loss given the impact the men’s World Cup had on reducing their revenue, with a lesser number of home fixtures during the 2023-24 financial year.

The redevelopment nonetheless looms as a major project within a sport far from thriving financially, though Sweeney is confident that his union will be able to unlock the required funds to modernise the ground after striking a naming rights deal with Allianz last year.

“It would be staged, you wouldn’t spend it all in one go,” he explained. “You might have an initial phase of say £200-250m – with our figures in terms of our balance sheet and cash position, we can invest some.

“We’ve also got the re-evaluation of the joint venture with [food service group] Compass coming up which historically generates a value benefit to the RFU as well but given that financial profile you’ve seen and our financial stability, our reserves, our no debt, our ability to generate cash on a regular basis, it’s not difficult to raise funds from private markets. So you’d expect us to go into some level of debt and have it debt-financed.

“We’ve always said our preference was to remain here. Not just for cultural reasons and the history. Hospitality and ticketing are 50 per cent of our revenue and from a geographical point of view this is a really important part of the country to be in. You’d expect us to, and we kicked this off three years ago, there was a lot of investigation into what the different options are and we came out saying our preference would be to remain here.”