Chelsea considering bold change for Stamford Bridge during £500m rebuild

CHELSEA are considering introducing standing sections at Stamford Bridge when the stadium is rebuilt, according to reports.

The London club are hoping to embark on a £500m project to knock down and rebuild Stamford Bridge to increase its capacity from 41,000 to 60,000.

And as part of the redevelopment, Roman Abramovich’s club are considering adding standing sections for the fans.

The Daily Mail say the club are open to the idea, but will only explore the option if current legislation is changed.

At present standing sections are not allowed in the top two divisions of English football.

But the idea has been introduced at Celtic Park in Scotland and at Borussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park, among many others in Europe already.

The standing section(s) would be rail seating, with rows divided by rails that have seats attached to them.

The model allows the stadium to have both seated and standing fans in the same section depending on the match/event.

Teams such as Dortmund have to reduce the capacity of their ground for European games as UEFA legislation does not allow standing fans in its competitions.

But the standing sections allow the Bundesliga side to have more than 80,000 fans in for league games.