Chelsea are exploring the possibility of their women’s team sharing Plough Lane with AFC Wimbledon.
The reigning Women’s Super League (WSL) champions currently play most of their home league games at Kingsmeadow, which holds 4,850 fans. The team also play Champions League and some WSL fixtures at Stamford Bridge, but rarely sell out the 40,000-seater stadium.
More than 30,000 fans were at Stamford Bridge for Chelsea’s 2-0 loss to Arsenal on Saturday, but attendances generally fall short of their London rivals. Arsenal, who made the 60,700-capacity Emirates Stadium their main home ground from the 2024-25 season, topped last week’s Deloitte Football Money League ahead of Chelsea. Though Chelsea earned higher broadcast and commercial revenues, the £2.9m gap in matchday revenue saw Arsenal come out top.
Wimbledon’s Plough Lane — currently known as the Cherry Red Records Stadium — holds 9,000 fans and is seen as a possible middle ground, according to sources briefed on the situation speaking on the condition of anonymity. The League One side also have planning permission to expand the stadium’s capacity up to 20,000.
Both Chelsea and AFC Wimbledon declined to comment when approached by The Athletic.
“I think the club is having some really good conversations about plans for the future, about stadiums,” head coach Sonia Bompastor said at a press conference last week.
“I think in the women’s game, at a club like Chelsea, it’s always important to have a back-up plan because when you play many games in the season with your men’s team and women’s team, you play Champions League, sometimes you can have clashes.”
“We are close, probably, to maybe agreeing something in the future.”
“Congratulations to Arsenal, because they are doing an amazing job with their fanbase,” Bompastor added. “That’s probably where every club wants to be.”
“A lot of conversations are happening in the background with me, the ownership, our CEO Aki (Mandhar). We want to move to that direction.”
Plough Lane is around five miles away from Kingsmeadow. Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium, which has a capacity of 17,250, is also relatively nearby. Queens Park Rangers’ Loftus Road, though, is not an option.
Chelsea have also worked with AFC Wimbledon before, having bought Kingsmeadow from them in 2015 for their women’s and youth teams.
AFC Wimbledon was formed in 2002 by fans who opposed Wimbledon FC’s move 70 miles north to Milton Keynes. The club were based at Kingsmeadow until 2020, when they moved to their new stadium built at Plough Lane, close to their original stadium site.
Wimbledon are run with a fan-ownership structure, with supporters’ organisation the Dons Trust holding the majority of shares. Certain decisions about the club’s future therefore require supporter votes — for instance, the decision to allow rugby league side London Broncos to play at Plough Lane was voted on by fans. Fans also voted to sell Kingsmeadow in 2015.
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