Chelsea’s gift for two weeks of training: a $225,000 upgrade

When a world-renowned soccer club which brings in revenues of about $307 million a year goes on the road, it goes first class.

So it was with Chelsea F.C. from London, which spent the last two weeks training at UCLA in preparation for its two exhibition games at the Home Depot Center, including the 1-0 win over the Galaxy in David Beckham’s debut on Saturday evening.

But for their training period, Chelsea spent – in addition to its rental agreement – about $225,000 in improvements to the North Athletic Field and to what had been two locker rooms in Pauley Pavilion.

The field was graded in order to lower the crown and the entire field was re-sodded at a cost of more than $150,000. In Pauley, the visitors locker room and the old soccer locker room were both re-carpeted and lockers which dated from the 1970s were removed and new lockers made of dark wood, with individual safes, were installed. The shower facilities were also renovated with a temporary wall that separated the older locker rooms removed. Those improvements added about $75,000 to the tab.

A new wall that will re-split the two locker spaces will likely be installed before the basketball season begins, but teams visiting Pauley Pavilion in the future can thank Chelsea for a much nicer space to get ready to face the Bruins.

Comments

[Evan]

Chelsea trained for a few days at UCLA last summer--wonder if they thought after the first trip that the facilities were below their standards.

[Peter]

They probably wouldn't have returned if they had been below standards. Roman Abramovich is a very rich man.