New Main Stand

 

Now that academy is finished. Parish and co can go “hell for leather” for the new stand. Let's look into what it will mean for the club.  Increase in seats in the main stand of 7,873, reduction in Family stand of 594 and filling in the corner of Arthur Wait to add 683 seats. That would put the ground at 34,259. It would make Selhurst Park the 14th biggest club ground in England. Looking through the plans, It looks like the club will really increase its corporate facilities with two floors of the five-floor stand just being for corporate. It looks good for all budgets of hospitality. Watching padded seat on TikTok, I have noticed very different levels of hospitality. Before that, I used to think it was all very high-end. Actually, there are more affordable packages but still expensive. 

New landmark

I remember in the early days of cpfc2010 they replaced the gates to the stadium car park. Before that, if there was a news story about Palace. The go-to picture was of the tatty main stand or Centenary mural. Now it's most likely to be the stadium gates. Often when walking up the Holmesdale road people are posing for pictures. There will be lots of good photo opportunities with the new stand. I think that this new stand will solidify people's opinions about Palace being a top-tier club.  

Bigger pitch

Removing rows on the family stand means that Palace can increase the size of the pitch. That will make it up to International standards. This means Palace will be able to host more matches. There are South American and African teams that have most of the players living in Europe. So if they don't have qualifiers in an international break they like to be based in Europe for friendlies. For example, last season Ivory Coast; played friendlies Togo and Guinea in France. This would be a nice package deal as they could use Palace’s training facilities and maybe Mukuru could sponsor the friendly. Mukuru is a sleeve sponsor. Their main business is international money transfers to Africa. 

Rugby

Back in 2012 London Welsh was looking to ground share as they were in the top tier of Rugby Union. Parish approached them about ground share but they moved to Oxford instead. At the moment there are quite a few London football grounds that also host Rugby, Brentford - London Irish, AFC Wimbledon - London Bronco’s (RL), also Tottenham and London Stadium are used for the odd big games. Recently watched the All Blacks second team vs Barbarians (Players that don’t play internationally). This was at the Tottenham stadium. It was good but the stadium was too big for it. There was only 35k it was half full. London Premiership grounds are between 10k to 17k. Selhurst could make sense as a 34k rugby stadium. It could be used for a couple of games a season or a club move. With the newly added Corporate facilities and options to only open part of the ground. 

More seats or better Quality? Juventus vs West Ham

Once this development is finished. I don't expect any more major work. Might bring in safe standing but realistically this is as big as Selhurst will get. I cannot imagine that after building this new stand we will move to another ground any time soon. So that’s it for the next twenty to thirty years. So it's important that owners make the correct choice about how big to make the stadium. 

Back in 2011, Juventus had a 41k stadium built on the site of the old Stadio Delle Alpi which was a 69k stadium. In the early 2000s, Juventus were getting an average of 40k. They choose to build it so that it was full every week. But what they did choose was 3,600 premium seats and 64 sky boxes. The original announcement video for a new main stand at Palace had 2,500 premium seats and 16 to 28 boxes. The first season in a new stadium was €31m from ticket sales and last year in Delle Alpi was €17m. So down grading the total number of seats led to almost doubling of the revenue. That’s the power of a nicer corporate experience and a nicer fan experience (as the fans were much closer to the pitch).

Whereas at West Ham the new stadium move increased the seats from 35k to 62k stadium. This has been transformative. Part of that was a very cheap deal that they are renting the stadium. In their penultimate season at Upton Park they had gate receipts of £20m and commercial £15m. The first season in the new ground was £29m and £26m. Commercial deals might have tickets as part of the bundle. They built up support with cheap tickets. Last season with European football they had gate receipts of £41m and commercial income of £49m.  

Unlimited funds

If Palace had unlimited funds then personally I would love for the club to create a Barcelona-style complex in Crystal Palace Park. I take my kids to that park when I can. It's a good park. The legal fight with residents would be too costly. I heard a rumour that it take a similar fight that Brighton had to build their ground at the time Palace was looking into that possibility. Which took about ten years and got the prime minister involved. It's not guaranteed to be granted after the legal fight. It's a massive money pit of legal/contractors/architects fees. 

All Year income

Selhurst is only open for around 19 home games and a couple of cup games a season. This is a unique business problem with sports teams that don’t maximise their asset. That said there are more events that happen at Selhurst. It is also used for Celebrations, Weddings, Tours, Christmas Parties, Business Meetings, Networking Events, and Beer Festivals. Having new high-end facilities that be used for these events. This will mean the club can maximize these assets.

Club Shop

There would be new club shop in the stadium. This would include Museum, Restaurant and Coffee shop. It's similar to Liverpool's new club shop (done by the same architect.)  This would create a almost tourist shopping environment. Remember when on holiday your more likely to spend more. Just look at the amount some people spend at Disney shops in the Disney places. Or maybe more like Planet Hollywood. Have some food and then look at a couple of things. Wonder if it will be British Museum style but would love for Parish and Freedman to go steal Greece's Euro trophy.

Bottom line

Since the original announcement, the costs of the project have almost certainly increased. Back then it was referred to as a £100m project. A lot has happened since then and construction is sink hole for cash. Especially football clubs. What is the upside? Well, Palace took £10.6m gate money and £10.9m in sponsorship pre covid. If you look at Southampton has lower than Palace’s new capacity but not far off. But most likely has fewer new corporate facilities. Pre Covid it was £15.9m matchday and £14.5m sponsorship. They went out in the 3rd round FA cup so that’s the minimum. At the announcement Parish was targeting similar revenue from hospitality as Tottenham before the stadium move. Tottenham doesn’t give out those numbers. In 16/17 the average attendance was 31k due to the demolition of the corner stand. The Premier League only numbers were £19m from tickets but hospitality numbers were included in £57m for Sponsorship and corporate hospitality revenue. But this also includes cup and Group Stages of the UEFA Champions League and the round of 32 of the UEFA Europa League. Last time that Spurs didn’t have European football the Premier League gate receipts were £20.1m and £25.8m for Sponsorship and corporate hospitality revenue. That kinda gives you a ceiling of how much this could generate. But Palace wouldn’t be charging the same amount for tickets or sponsorship.   

A unique selling point for corporate tickets is the atmosphere. I hope that the club would keep ticket prices low in the rest of the stadium. That corporate money would subsidise other tickets. If they increase prices elsewhere they could change the atmosphere.

So from this new stand, the club would be expecting at least £9m per season increase as floor. The upper limit is hard. It's not like another mid-table Premier League team has improved one stand with such a hospitality focus. Fulham development is similar but we will not have the figures for a long time. If I use those Spurs numbers then you're looking at a maximum of £25m but that’s not realistic. At the original announcement, Parish said £15m net income each season but the plans have changed slightly and were five years ago. (Football london quote) If we use that number then it would take around more than six seasons pay off the original investment. 

Palace is running at loss. Since Blitzer and Harris invested; the club has lost £30m per season. Would this extra revenue be used to reduce losses rather than be used on the playing squad? 

UEFA changing the version of FFP. It means every wage, transfer, and agent fee to 70% of club revenues. But Palace is not competing in UEFA. Premier League will most likely be adding a similar rule but the percentage isn’t yet public and expected to be higher than 70%. Pre covid Palace was 103% so added revenue is key. If it does add £15m then if Palace is in UEFA then Palace could have £10.5m more spent compared to if the new stand wasn’t built. 

Summary of new plans

Ground floor

• 1st team dressing room with gym and large amount of space

• Museum Restaurant - Looks like Planet Hollywood.

• New club shop - access to museum restaurant and coffee area

• Drop off area - for the players on the coach, looks cool for Sky to film the players pre-match.

• Ticket office

• Two normal entries to the side and hospitality in the middle,

• Also entrance to the boxes behind the goal.

• New Entrance to Whitehorse - just bit more concourse space

• Press conference room

• Mini interview room

• Players lounge near dressing room

• Tunnel club - All the rage in new developments have a drink while the players walk by. With interview room next to it. Might be like the below.

1st floor

• General concourse - 6 concession stands, baby changing facilities, seating area i
  n the middle.

• Two lounges - With access to the first balcony.

• In the corner new exit for the south side of Holmesdale Upper tier

2nd floor

• Silver Lunges - west side of the main stand with corner bar (Whitehorse might have access)  

• Gold Lunges - east side of the main stand with corner bar with high ceiling near the window

• Ten private boxes 

3rd floor

• Sixteen private boxes

• Networking lounge - prime position

• Directors box lounge

• Three Platinum Lounges - two with balconies

• Three TV studies in the corner

4th floor

• General concourse - 5 concession stands

• West corner bar

• 8 spots for tv cameras

• Control room - east corner

5th floor

• Access to commentary position

If you want you can look at the plans below.

https://publicaccess3.croydon.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=P3KE9CJLG9K00