On This Day – 2nd April
It was on this day in 1982 that Ken Bates dug deep into his pockets and bought Chelsea Football Club – for just £1!
Bates would stay as Chelsea chairman for the next 21 years, overseeing a complete renovation of the club’s home ground Stamford Bridge. The ground needed to be drastically altered due to the Taylor Report that came in after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, with three of the four stands needing to be demolished. This was due to all stadiums in the top flight needing to be made all-seater by 1995.
Before the Hillsborough Disaster, there was a lot of crowd violence that marred the national sport. Bates came up with the controversial idea of putting up some electric fences around the pitch at Stamford Bridge to prevent fans from running onto the pitch. The fences were put in place but the local council refused to allow the electric to be powered. A good job too, in my opinion!
During Bates’ time as Chelsea chairman, the club won the FA Cup twice and the League Cup in 1998. He sold the club to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for £140 million in 2003.
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