Chelsea's financial transition means pain for some

Chelsea announced late last month that they were scrapping the coach subsidy that had, for more than a decade, offered a small group of fans road transport for £10 return on away trips within the United Kingdom.

This decision, made despite appeals to maintain the service during a lengthy consultation with the club’s fan advisory board, supporter groups and users of the coaches, drew swift condemnation from the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust (CST). “It appears that during a cost-of-living crisis, Chelsea FC are happy to increase the financial burden on many supporters by penny-pinching,” their stinging final line in a punchy statement read.

It is also worth noting that removing the coach subsidy is only one of a number of unpopular financial decisions taken since the appointment of Chris Jurasek as Chelsea’s new chief executive officer by the club’s ownership, led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, in May.

Most relate to the matchday experience, where prices have gone up between five and 15 per cent across the board. The cost of a burger inside Stamford Bridge has risen by £1.50, chips are 45p more expensive and a pint of beer is around £1 more than it was last season. Official match programmes now cost £4, up from £3.50, despite being reduced by around 30 pages.

Tickets to watch Chelsea Women now start at £10 for adults and £5 for juniors at Kingsmeadow and £10 for adults and £6.50 for juniors at Stamford Bridge, rising to as much as £60 for adults and £30 for juniors in the premium West View seats. 

The club say their decision to raise kit prices is a response to increases in the cost of materials and manufacturing. Similarly, the rises in food and drink prices are attributed to rising supplier costs being passed on to fans. Changes to the programme are explained as an attempt to make what is a loss-making venture for many clubs more financially sustainable, and it is stressed that many of the pages cut carried adverts rather than content.

From benefactor project to business

In the round, Chelsea regard these changes as unavoidable steps on the path to running the club more like a business than in the Roman Abramovich era, when a multitude of losses — big and small — were regularly underwritten by a billionaire benefactor not moved by conventional financial forces. Many of the club’s long-standing local supporters believe they are increasingly being treated as customers, and squeezed at a time of economic difficulty in the UK.

According to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, Chelsea lost an average of over £900,000 per week in the 19 years of Abramovich’s ownership. Financial sustainability was never a serious priority at Stamford Bridge from 2003 to 2022, and only frequent profits on player trading courtesy of significant sales kept the club narrowly on the right side of UEFA’s financial fair play (FFP) regulations.

Jurasek is a critical figure at Chelsea now. A highly regarded Clearlake executive for almost 10 years whose history with co-founder Behdad Eghbali goes back further than that, he is the man tasked with transforming the club from a loss-making machine into a revenue generator.

Part of that involves massively improving Chelsea’s commercial performance; more than 20 new partnerships are under discussion beyond the shirt sponsor deal with Infinite Athlete that is awaiting Premier League approval. Another part of it involves making unpopular decisions like the matchday ones detailed above, which the club insist are more about limiting losses than maximising profits. 

These off-field austerity measures sit very awkwardly with the historically lavish transfer spend that has almost totally overhauled Chelsea’s first-team squad over the past 12 months. Here the only argument against cognitive dissonance is Boehly and Clearlake’s firm belief they have made targeted long-term investments in elite younger talent.  But it could be argued that they have been penny wise and pound foolish.

Adult general admission season ticket prices have been frozen at Stamford Bridge since the 2011-12 season. Boehly and Clearlake opted to maintain the freeze for 2023-24, well aware of the hostility any hike would provoke in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis in the UK and after finishing 12th in the Premier League in the first season of their ownership.

But their announcement also pointed out that the freeze had meant Stamford Bridge adult general admission season ticket prices had actually fallen in real terms by 32 per cent since 2005, while Chelsea’s stadium and matchday operating costs had risen 31 per cent since 2018.  Chelsea have one of the oldest demographics in the Premier League in terms of their support.

The reality of Chelsea’s re-imagining as a business rather than a billionaire’s passion project is beginning to bite, and there are almost certain to be more flashpoints in the months ahead.  More success on the pitch could help to calm things down.