Interesting statement from the club, confirming that which many of us had deduced already - that they got worried about such a big investment, especially in light of covid, and put the breaks on the new stand, focusing instead on the training ground and academy.

The statement puts to bed the ideas that the council, mayor of London, or sainsburys are to blame for the lack of progress.

Anyone paying even the slightest attention would have known that the council has been extremely supportive and that the terms of the legal agreement were not only perfectly reasonable, but also far from insurmountable if the club had the will. The mayor had nothing much to say and very little to do with the process ultimately anyway. Whether the previous comments from Parish suggesting sainsburys were asking for an unreasonable fee for their bit of land were genuine or part of a bartering tactic is unclear, but given the apparent willingness of Croydon Council to use CPO powers if necessary, any notion that a disagreement over price could scupper the project can be laid to rest.

The stand isn't built because the club didn't want to risk building it yet, simple as that. I'm sure the slightly greater clarity around brexit, the presence of John Textor at the club, the semi-resolution around covid and the European super league being headed off have all helped reassure the board that the club can afford this debt, but for me there is an even more important factor which I'm sure Parish leans on more than any other: the transition from a reliable but aged squad with very little resale value to a young squad we can cash in on if needs be has taken place far more seamlessly and successfully than anyone could've hoped.

If it came to it, we could sell Mitchell, Olise, Eze and Guéhi and pay the stand debt off with ease. We've never had more paper profit on the pitch before.

If this were the case fans would be watching Championship football from the shiny new stand.

Possibly, but Parish wouldn't have to choose between having the stand and still having a club, which may well have been the case in the absence of such profitable assets on the pitch, as was the case over the last few years before last summer.

Apparently the external style is a nod to the original crystal palace building, which I can't quite see myself but there you go.

The top tier of the new stand slopes downwards at either end (rather than having full top corners like the holmesdale) because the footprint of the building is semicircular rather than rectangular. I would imagine this is so as to keep the distance between the stand and the remaining houses in Wooderson close to acceptable levels, and to reduce the amount of land we need from sainsburys at the other end.

I agree that it would be good to have the new main stand replicate the holmesdale. The club tried to do exactly that in the mid 90s, shortly after the holmesdale was built, but couldn't get permission due to the impact of such a large building on the houses in Wooderson Close (the idea that we could buy the houses and flatten them just to overcome a planning issue was unthinkable back then).

That attempt to get permission to redevelop the main stand in the 90s is interesting. In the end Palace got permission for a new main stand to perfectly mirror the holmesdale, but the footprint of the stand stopped level with the edge of the penalty area. It was never built of course, but whether that was because it would have been a dogs dinner, or because we got relegated, or because of the amount of land we'd have needed from sainsburys is unknown to me, but as far as I know that's as close as we ever got to replicating the holmesdale in a new main stand, despite Ron Noades at one stage having aspirations to do something like that, based on the infamous architects model that took pride of place in the reception area at the time.

The pattern of housing development and land ownership locally will make it inevitable that we will always have four stands of distinct style and shape.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (25 Jul 2022 9.08am)

If it were me, and it’s not I would buy the houses demolish them and rebuild in the borough. Compensate the tenants, job done move on. What if? Americans involved, they do love a statement stadium, what if they are trying to find land to build a new stadium? I know our home is Selhurst but it hasn’t hurt the enemy and infact I’m a little envious of the stadium and being out of town it is quite easy to get too. Just a thought but a 40k purpose built stadium would be special.

Ya think? Many of our players cost a pretty penny and Eze is about to enter the 3rd year of his contract with us. Is he worth that much more than we paid? I'm not sure.

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