FA Cup final 2012: Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich wanting to build a temple of power is no hollow fantasy On Saturday at the home of English football, they chase a seventh FA Cup win with a Wembley-loving striker (Didier Drogba) who has scored seven times in as many games at the £757 million north London mansion. The Liverpool game, though, is small beer compared to the Champions League final against Bayern Munich in Bavaria on May 19. Almucantar, Chelsea's property partner, based in Luxembourg, recently bought Centre Point and the Marble Arch Tower and were chosen by the MCC to redevelop Lord's. Battersea Power station fits snugly in that portfolio of desirable structures. A flying pig hovered above it on Pink Floyd's 1977 album cover for Animals but this proposal is more than a hollow fantasy. There are 10 other bids but this one offers spectacular regeneration near the site of the new US Embassy. Stamford Bridge lacks the scale of Old Trafford, the modernity of Arsenal's luxury cinema and the acreage of Man City's Etihad Campus. It has none of the drama of the Nou Camp, Bernabeu or San Siro. It retains the feel of the old Ken Bates redevelopment and is 14,000 seats below the capacity of Newcastle United's home. Abramovich could never reconcile his vast spending with the restrictions imposed by the current site. Once the Bridge rebuild scheme failed the club were bound to break out either to Earl's Court or Battersea. The pressure to dump power-based play in favour of entertainment is part of the equation. Sure, aesthetically Abramovich wants more Barcelona and less battering ram, but excitement has measurable commercial value, especially when you sometimes struggle to fill a 42,000-seat arena. The Chelsea of Drogba and John Terry would look at home in a building of coal "pulverises" and 15 boilers but the Old Guard would be long gone by the time that great new glow appeared beside the Thames. Doubtless the four chimneys could be illuminated with all sorts of inspiring imagery. No stadium project is complete these days without an accompanying shopping centre and new tube station and Chelsea are promising both, to entice Wandsworth council. And presumably Stamford Bridge would follow the Highbury template of being turned into luxury housing for shrine-hunting fans. When Chelsea broke the news on Friday their Wembley trip seemed instantly overshadowed. But then you remembered they will march into Munich's Allianz Arena for the Champions League final with another nag of jealousy about the homes some people get to play in. Psychologically, at least, the latest super-stadiums confer an air of grandeur and ambition that becomes self-perpetuating as the world's top players compile their mental lists of where they would like to work. The effect will be immediate. Just the bid itself has projected Chelsea into a future of light and space, at a site that speaks of great industrial power while crying out for rescue. For London to house Wembley, the Emirates, the Stratford Olympic stadium, Battersea and any new amphitheatre Spurs might be able to build would restore the capital's status as the greatest of all football cities, even if Premier League power now resides principally in Manchester. Liverpool, too, will be envious, as they study the £50 million bill for the non-appearing Stanley Park stadium. The architectural arms race is on again.