How do you buy tickets to see a game at Chelsea FC in London? Groundhopper Guides shares our tips for snagging those hard-to-get Premier League tickets for a home game at Stamford Bridge.

How Chelsea Tickets are Allocated

Let’s say Chelsea have a home game against Team X on December 31. Sometime in November, season ticket holders will get a chance to buy additional tickets – probably only one if Team X is another bigshot like Manchester United, maybe more if Team X is Burnley. This stage last for about a week.

The following week, paid members will get to buy tickets, with the number determined again by who Team X happens to be. (Related: Do You Need a Membership?) This process goes by loyalty points, which are earned by purchasing tickets. So early in this stage, members with lots of points can buy tickets; typically the number of required points drops by the day until this stage ends.

If there are still tickets around – and if Team X is Man U there won’t be – then the rest go on what’s called General Sale to non-members. (A Chelsea membership runs from £30-50 per season.) During this General Sale period — if it even happens — it’s quite hard to get more than one seat together, no matter who Team X is. Sometimes the general sale period is only a few weeks before the game, which makes it hard to plan your trip.

Ticket Exchange for Chelsea Members

Let’s say a season ticket holder or member has tickets they can’t use – and they have scruples, meaning they aren’t going to scalp them for hundreds of pounds on StubHub or something. They would release those tickets into the official Chelsea FC Ticket Exchange, which only paid members can access. This is a total crapshoot, something you have to check pretty much every day, and made all the harder if Team X is a bigshot.

Chelsea Hospitality Packages

A hospitality package is simply a ticket plus some other perk. This could be a stadium tour, a pregame meal, access to an otherwise private lounge, a chance to meet former players, whatever. Each club has these, and at big clubs like Chelsea, they are myriad. (Read more about hospitality packages.)

You can get them straight from Chelsea – they are called Matchday Packages – and you can also get them from third parties, which call them Match Breaks or Hotel Breaks. These folks tend to combine a ticket, or a regular Chelsea package, with a hotel room in London.

Check Out Our Chelsea Tickets and Hospitality Packages

You can also get hospitality packages from Groundhopper Soccer Guides. We are an official sub-agent of three resellers who buy them in bulk from Chelsea and other clubs. See above on what we have to offer, but very briefly, the options usually include:

• Seats in the middle tier around the penalty area, with a three-course meal, free non-alcohol drinks, and a match program
• Upper-tier seats around the penalty area with access to a an enhanced concourse, and in some cases a couple of free drinks.
• Upper-tier seats along the goal line with a museum pass, a mini behind-the-scenes tour on match day, two-course meal, drinks voucher for the concourse, and former players you can meet
• Lower-tier seats along the penalty area with a full meal and drinks beforehand.

Third-Party Sites

This would be folks like Stubhub or other less-known sites offering tickets. All we can say about these is that we have never dealt with them, and that readers we have heard from have never been ripped off but have occasionally found them frustrating to work with and the seats not that great.

Groundhopper Paul has had one experience with Craiglist, which he used to get into a Liverpool cup game. He only felt good about this because it was a member who was going to meet him outside, walk him in with her membership cards, then stand with him on the The Kop. Good times!

This won’t be your best chance at getting in.

Easier Chelsea Tickets: Cup Games

Buying Premier League tickets is one thing; buying a ticket for a League Cup or FA Cup game is something else entirely, especially in earlier rounds when the competition is from the lower leagues. Some of those games may even go to general sale.

These tickets can be easier and cheaper, but you should understand that Chelsea may well play their reserves, and the opponent may be somebody you’ve never heard of. Still, it’s a way into Stamford Bridge.

European Games

If Chelsea make the Champions League, Europa League or Conference League, these can be fun midweek evening games — but can also be tough tickets. If we’re talking about a group-stage game against somebody you’ve not heard of, we may have some basic hospitality options for $200-300. When you get into knockout games against some other European hotshot, expect that price to skyrocket.

Pregame at Stamford Bridge

The Bottom Line on Buying Chelsea FC Tickets

First things first: Call or email them and ask about the game you’re looking at. Ask about the odds it gets to General Sale, whether a member without points has a good shot at a ticket, and what hospitality options are available.

If you’re just looking for one ticket to one game, you can probably buy a membership for the season and then go to work on the ticket exchange. But if it’s a big opponent in the Premier League, that probably won’t work, either. At that point, you’re into third parties or hospitality packages.

If you want more than one together, unless it’s a cup game or a midweek small-time Premier League opponent, you probably won’t have any luck through the club, membership or no. Again, it’s third parties or hospitality packages.

Bonus Idea: Check out Smaller Clubs

We know that you (and/or your teenager) want to see Chelsea, but if it’s going to cost hundreds of dollars per person … well, you have to make that call for yourself. But having been to more than 100 games all over the country, we can tell you that we would much rather go to a lower-league game, if it’s a local rivalry or some other big event, than pay God-knows-what to sit with the other tourists and watch Chelsea dismantle some nobody.

So we encourage you – instead of or in addition to your Chelsea FC experience – to check out one of the many lower-league clubs around London.

More About Groundhopper Guides and English Soccer Tickets & Hospitality

You can read more about us and our hospitality sales here:

• Complete list of clubs where we sell tickets and hospitality
• How are we authorized to sell tickets and hospitality?
• Video: Buying Tickets and Hospitality From Us
• Read Google Reviews of Our Services
• See our refund policy here.
• Find out about our consulting (trip-planning) services.

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