Ken Bates bought Chelsea Football Club for one pound in 1982. Less than 9,000 people showed up for his first game as chairman. By the time he sold to Roman Abramovich in 2003, Stamford Bridge was full and Chelsea was heading to the Champions League. That kind of transformation tends to make you a hero. But Bates was never that simple.
He died at 94, and the reaction tells you everything. Some fans called him the man who saved their club. Others called him a divisive, bombastic figure who made enemies as easily as he made money. Both things are true.
From council estate to boardroom
Bates grew up on a council estate in Ealing. He was raised by his grandparents after his mother died when he was a baby and his father left. He was born with a club foot that required multiple surgeries. By 23, according to reports, he had bought his first Bentley. The money came from a quarry business in Manchester, ready-mixed cement, dairy farming, sugar cane in Australia, and property in South Africa. He also founded a bank in Ireland that later had its license revoked after a lengthy investigation.
Before Chelsea, he ran Oldham for five years and co-owned Wigan. None of that prepared anyone for what he did at Stamford Bridge.
He rebuilt the stadium. He built the Chelsea Village complex around it. He created the Chelsea Pitch Owners to protect the ground from property developers who wanted to bulldoze it. He campaigned for lower-league clubs to get a bigger share of Premier League TV money. He helped clean out the hooligan element that had made Chelsea games a dangerous place in the 1980s. He also built an electric fence around the pitch. The council said no to turning the power on.
Bates could be offensive. He could be outrageous. He feuded bitterly with major investor Matthew Harding and made widely criticized remarks about him after Harding died in a helicopter crash in 1996. He was accused of shady dealings throughout his career. Settlements in and out of court were routine. But he got things done.
The Leeds years went differently
After selling Chelsea, Bates bought Leeds United in 2005. Another fallen giant. This time, it did not go well. He put the club into administration and then bought it back. He presided over their only relegation to the third tier. He waged war with protesting fans. Former director Melvyn Levi and his wife sued him for harassment. Bates lost that one. He finally sold Leeds to Gulf Finance House in 2013 for $28 million and retired to Monaco.
He had been working on his autobiography for nearly 20 years with his third wife and various journalists. Whether it ever sees print is an open question. A book about Ken Bates would be a legal minefield. But even if it never comes out, Bates will not be forgotten. Too many people loved him. Too many people loathed him. That is the point.
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