Crystal Palace Football Club has reached an agreement with Sainsbury’s over a piece of land needed for the expansion of the main stand at their Selhurst Park ground.
A small part of the supermarkets car park in Whitehorse Lane is required for the main stand expansion to be completed.
This news has been 12 years in the making with initial conversations taking place back in 2010 after the club had been saved by current Chairman Steve Parish and three local businessmen.
The news, first broken by The Athletic, has got fans feeling excited and Dan Cook, host of the HLTCO Palace Podcast said: “It’s been a long time coming but it now finally looks like everything is set to be sorted.
“The Sainsbury’s back and forth has been going on for years and whilst I know the club are paying well over what they would initially have liked to for the land, it’s a massive moment for us given what it means.”
The original planning application which was approved back in 2018 proposed that the work would be completed by the start of the 2020/2021 season, but the club didn’t sign a legal agreement related to the 2018 planning application meaning permission was never formally granted.
Work can’t begin immediately as there are still a couple of hurdles to overcome most notably the replacement of social housing on Wooderson Close but once a solution is reached work is expected to begin before the end of 2023.
The new Main Stand will incorporate a significant increase in corporate hospitality when its capacity increases by almost 8,000 seats taking the stadiums capacity from 26,000 to more than 34,000 and the club’s revenue will also dramatically rise.
Cook added: “It’s not just the extra capacity of the stadium but the hospitality options too, as we are constantly playing catch up to the rest of the division in terms of match day revenue.
“This will bring us far closer to our direct competitors income wise from week to week, I’m over the moon.”
For The Eagles, this should mark the beginning of an exciting future which sees them push towards greater financial stability and try and establish themselves as a top 10 Premier League side.
There is plenty to be optimistic about with the academy having been redeveloped, an exciting playing squad full of young talent and a recruitment model which is working well, the new stadium will be the final piece of the jigsaw.
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Feature image credit: Crystal Palace FC Youtube channel.
