Seven Years: The Main Stand in Waiting

7 years on from its grand announcement, Selhurst park has yet to see the proposed new main stand. We delve into the reasons why and what we have missed out on during this time.

Written by @HolmesdaleView

April 2018 looked set to kick start a new era at Selhurst Park as a new 13,500 main stand was announced, set to take Selhurst Park to over 34,000, included a new shop, museum and café and a new hospitality section to replace the current set up in the Whitehorse Lane stand. 7 years on and mix of Covid and construction delays leaves us still in limbo as to when this construction will take place.

Initial plans look set to begin at the conclusion of the 2018/19 season following planning permission granted by Croydon Council in April. The construction was set to last 3 years and be ready to open for the start of the 2021/22 season at a cost of around £100m.However, this was delayed as concern of fire safety caused new recommendations to alter the planning of the construction and thus cause the club to return to Croydon Council with a new plan requiring permission again.

This would quickly be followed up by a further delay as the COVID-19 pandemic brought a halt to proceedings and stopped any possibility of work commencing of the main stand in the immediate future. As finances took a hit and crowds only began to return in 2021, the need to raise finance again and seek planning permission once more took a back seat and the main stand looked no closer to even beginning construction.

Fast forward to October 2022, a new planning permission was proposed to Croydon Council with the revised changes and plans were put in place for the acquisition of 6 houses on Wooderson Close and land near the Sainsbury’s to provide the space for the new main stand. In August 2024, planning permission was granted and preliminary work finally begun as the away dressing room and club offices were temporarily moved for work to take place.

The last update the club released was in December 2024, highlighting the work was in the final planning phase and the club was in the middle of hiring contractors to carry out the work, beginning at the end of the 24/25 season.

Missed Financial Opportunity

So just how much has the club missed out on in the past 7 years? Well if we base this purely on ticket sales per match over the course of 7 season, an additional 8,000 tickets over 20-25 games is a significant amount of lost revenue. Don’t worry I’ve taken the time to do the maths so you don’t have to (You’re welcome).

To do this, the presumption will be taken that the stand was open for the 21/22 season and we will use the most recent gate receipt figure from 23/24 for the seasons up until the proposed finish of the work in 27/28.

The above graph is delve into what our current stadium capacity generates over the course of each season and how much of the stadium is being utilised year by year. Ever since our promotion in 2013, Selhurst Park has very rarely had an empty seat to show and we continuously sell out season tickets and match tickets on a regular basis, making the need for expansion even more of a necessity. It must be noted that the final 3 season are subjective figures using the previous figures as a benchmark.

Over the course of the 7 seasons, we would generate £98.1m at an average of £737,641 per game. This would average around £14m per year with the stadium remaining at 25,486 throughout the 7 years which we look set to be doing given the delays to the work.

These figures drastically change if the expansion was to go ahead for the 21/22 season. Using the same stadium usage %, below shows the change in financials from 25,486 to the proposed 34,000 post expansion.

Over the course of the 7 seasons, we would generate £130.9m at an average of £983,855 per game. The average per year would increase to £18.7m with the increase to 34,000, highlighting the difference in what the increase capacity could have done for us.

At the initial 2018 proposal, it was rumoured to have cost us £75-£100m for the expansion, a figure which would have been covered by gate receipts alone within 6 seasons. With costs rising to above £200m, it is imperative the expansion is completed as soon as possible to maximise all possible profits the club can make. At the new cost, it would take the club an additional 4 years to breakeven through gate receipts.

Will this happen?

The work that has gone into the new main stand seems to be at its most advanced stage it has ever been at since 2018. Underground work, movement of staff blocks and changing room shows the plans are beginning to take shape. The increasing cost of more than double before the main building has begun does raise some alarm bells but the long term benefits on a profitability side gives us such a big scope to cover the costs in the medium term.

I firmly believe this will go ahead and we will have the stand in place by 2028, I think we are due an update and that will be very telling as to when we can expect to see development accelerate.