Skip to main content

Palace move ahead on stadium redevelopment

Crystal Palace have cleared most of the formal barriers to begin work on the redevelopment of Selhurst Park, but costs have ballooned to around £150million ($184m).

The start of work to build a new 13,500-capacity Main Stand and improve other areas of the ground, which celebrates its 100th anniversary next year, has moved significantly closer after the relocation of nearby residents was completed.

The redevelopment of the stadium is seen as being crucial to Palace’s ability to compete in the Premier League, with chairman Steve Parish saying it would provide an extra £20m-£30m each season.

Palace have begun their search for a main contractor, having put other contracts out for tender. Exploratory work commenced this year in the car park at Selhurst to establish the ground conditions and prepare for the laying of the foundations for the new stand, with holes drilled down to 35 metres.

Since the redevelopment was proposed in 2017, with a budget of around £100million, costs have risen sharply and the expectation is that the project will now cost closer to £150million, a 50 per cent increase, primarily due to inflation. The intention is to fund these costs through loans from Palace’s shareholders.

Adding to the overall cost was the multi-million-pound deal agreed with Sainsbury’s, reached last year, to purchase a small piece of land in the supermarket’s car park. In 2010, the CPFC2010 consortium, led by Parish, paid £4million for the stadium, when the stadium and, separately, the club were bought out of administration.

Reaching an agreement with Sainsbury’s over that land was a requirement for any stadium redevelopment. This had long been a point of contention and the agreement was the product of lengthy negotiations.

Sainsbury’s raised no objections in principle to the redevelopment plans but highlighted several concerns, including that they had “not been sufficiently engaged on the application” and that plans failed “to create a safe and secure environment for our colleagues and customers”.

Work is expected to take between 27 and 30 months. Discussions would need to be held with the Premier League (or EFL should Palace be relegated before completion) to ensure Palace play the closing games of the the 2025-26 season and opening games of the 2026-27 season away from home to allow for contingencies. Liverpool and West Ham United have had similar requests accepted by the Premier League in recent seasons.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Millwall punch above their weight

Millwall’s season was overshadowed by the tragic death of owner John Berylson following a car accident. The American had been an exemplary owner, beloved by the fans for his leadership, passion and generosity. Millwall’s finances had been pretty good during his tenure, which we shall explore by looking at the most recent accounts from the 2022/23 season, when the club narrowly missed out on a place in the play-offs after finishing 8th. Millwall’s pre-tax loss slightly reduced from £12.6m to £12.2m, as revenue rose £0.8m (4%) from £18.6m to a club record £19.4m and player sales improved from a £0.1m loss to £2.5m profit. However, other operating income dropped from by £1.1m from £1.3m to £0.2m, while operating expenses increased £1.7m (5%) from £31.6m to £33.3m. The main driver of the revenue increase was broadcasting, which rose £1.1m (12%) from £9.1m to £10.2m, though match day was also up £0.4m (7%) from £5.8m to £6.2m. In contrast, commercial fell £0.7m (19%) from £3.7m to £3....
Post a Comment
Read more