Delegates who attended the Develop Croydon lunch on Friday were given a behind the scenes tour of Selhurst Park and an update on the proposals for the Premier League side’s stadium.
Over 50 developers, investors and business leaders were hosted by Crystal Palace Football Club and were impressed by the facilities on offer as they enjoyed lunch and heard from the Eagles’ development team and architects about the expansion of the Main Stand.
Phil Alexander, Chief Executive, CPFC, welcomed guests, he said: “We share the ambition of a growing and developing town centre. What is going on in Croydon now is absolutely wonderful and has been many years coming, with so much happening and a strong economic centre just down the road from here. As it’s football club we are proud to represent Croydon in our world, it is a world game and we are playing on the world stage and it is your club.
“We have ambitions, we have secured resolution to grant permission for our new stand, and working in conjunction with Croydon Council’s planning department we managed to get it through in record time and are excited about the next few years.”
CPFC’S Development Manager, Guy Wickett spoke to attendees about the passion behind the project, explaining the club’s history, with its routes at the former Crystal Palace in 1905. The stadium’s new Main Stand will reflect this and has been designed by leading sports venue architects KSS, who have been responsible for work at other venues such as Anfield, Wimbledon Court No.1 and Twickenham.
Wickett said: “We are going to develop the stadium while keeping all four stands open, we are not going to close the stand as its important to keep that atmosphere. I have been continuing to look at where we can make improvements and felt the Main Stand was the best opportunity and most obvious route.
“It is a complicated project, but we would really like to be onsite in the summer of 2020 to do the enabling works with an estimated two-and-a-half-year build time.”
Nick Marshall, Director, KSS Group, explained further about the plans for the project: “The main aim of the expansion is to increase capacity in what is quite a tight site due to it sitting in a residential area. Our starting point was the spectator experience and how well fans can see the pitch, so we have improved the height of the stand.
“The requirements for fans are now changing too as they want an experience both before and after the match, so it was important to create bigger and better facilities to support that, as well as facilities that can be used during the week for functions and commercial use, which have all been incorporated into the design. With this we created a concept design, including the Eagles wings and the glass design from Crystal Palace, as this was important to the team here.”
Cllr Tony Newman, Leader, London Borough of Croydon said: “It is a Premier League club in what is a premier league town in Croydon. There is dramatic and rapid change out there at the moment and many of you have been on that journey with us. We are very keen to stress the point as London’s growth borough in Croydon, this is not about growth at any price, it is not a race to the bottom it is a race to the top, we want a sustainable Croydon, we want the best businesses in Croydon, we want long term employment, we want to truly be London’s most sustainable borough, we want to make sure the success we are seeing in the borough at the moment, with cranes rising out the sky is actually a success story for the people of Croydon. I want to congratulate Phil Alexander and CPFC on their hard work.”
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