In the early 1970s, the club's owners announced a modernisation of Stamford Brid

ge with plans for a stateoftheart

50,000 allseater
stadium.[35] Work began on the East Stand in 1972 but the project was beset with
problems
and was never completed; the cost brought the club close to bankruptcy, culminat
ing in the freehold being sold to
property developers. Following a long legal battle, it was not until the mid1990
s
that Chelsea's future at the
stadium was secured and renovation work resumed.[35] The north, west and souther
n parts of the ground were
converted into allseater
stands and moved closer to the pitch, a process completed by 2001.
When Stamford Bridge was redeveloped in the Bates era many additional features w
ere added to the complex
including two hotels, apartments, bars, restaurants, the Chelsea Megastore, and
an interactive visitor attraction
called Chelsea World of Sport. The intention was that these facilities would pro
vide extra revenue to support the
football side of the business, but they were less successful than hoped and befo
re the Abramovich takeover in 2003
the debt taken on to finance them was a major burden on the club. Soon after the
takeover a decision was taken to
drop the "Chelsea Village" brand and refocus on Chelsea as a football club. Howe
ver, the stadium is sometimes
still referred to as part of "Chelsea Village" or "The Village".