Selhurst Park
Encyclopedia
Selhurst Park is an English football
stadium
located in the London suburb of South Norwood
in the Borough of Croydon
. It is the current home ground of Crystal Palace Football Club
. Its present capacity is 26,309.
) was constructed by Humphreys of Kensington (a firm regularly used by Leitch) for around £30,000, and was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of London
on 30 August 1924. There was then only one stand (the present Main Stand), but this was unfinished due to industrial action; Crystal Palace played Sheffield Wednesday
and lost 0–1 in front of 25,000 fans.
Two years later, in 1926, England
played Wales
in an international at the stadium. England amateur matches and various other finals were also staged there, as were other sports including boxing
, bicycle polo (in the late 1940s) and cricket
and music concerts (in the 1980s). In addition to this, it hosted two games for the 1948 Summer Olympics
.
In 1953, the stadium's first floodlights were installed consisting of numerous poles around the 3 sides of terracing and four roof mounted installations on the Main Stand, but were replaced nine years later by floodlights mounted on four pylons in each corner and six installations on the Main Stand roof. Real Madrid
marked the occasion by playing the first game under the new set of bulbs – a real footballing coup at the time for third division Palace, as it was Real's first ever match in London.
The ground remained undeveloped until 1969 when Palace were promoted to Division One
(then the 1st tier of English football) for the first time. The Arthur Wait Stand was built, and is named after the club's long-serving chairman, who was a builder by trade and was often seen working on the site himself. Arthur Wait was notable for overseeing Palace's rise from the 4th to the 1st Division in the 1960s. The Whitehorse Lane end had a new look with a "second tier" of terracing and brick-built refreshments and toilets along the top.
Due to the Safety of Grounds Act, the Holmesdale Road terrace the preferred stand for the Crystal Palace supporters (or the Kop as it was known) had to be split into three sections for safety reasons. The remaining poorer facilities were mainly where the opposition supporters were situated. New facilities were subsequently built at the back of the Holmesdale Stand. In the Summer of 1981, the Main Stand terraced enclosure was reprofiled and replaced by seating.
In 1981, Palace sold the back of the Whitehorse Lane terrace and land behind to supermarket retailer Sainsbury's for £2m, to help their financial problems and the size of the terrace at this end was effectively halved when this end reopened.
Charlton Athletic
moved in as temporary tenants in 1985, and became with Palace the first league clubs in England to agree such a ground-sharing scheme. The following year, chairman Ron Noades
purchased the stadium from the club as a means of raising revenue. In the Summer of 1990, the lower half of the Arthur Wait Stand was converted into all-seater with the assistance of Football Trust Grant Aid, due to the Taylor Report following the Hillsborough Disaster
. Two rows of executive boxes (48 in total) were constructed above the Whitehorse Lane terrace on the roof of Sainsbury's supermarket in 1991 and it was roofed and made all-seater in the summer of 1993.
Charlton moved back to The Valley via West Ham
's Boleyn Ground
, and Wimbledon F.C.
replaced them as tenants in 1991. The Holmesdale terrace was demolished in 1994 and replaced a year later with a two-tiered 8,500 capacity stand. The roof cladding of the main stand was also replaced, the previous one having started to leak. Some 15 years on, this remains the most recent major work to be carried out at Selhurst Park.
When Mark Goldberg
bought Crystal Palace, he bought just the club and former Palace chairman Ron Noades
retained Selhurst Park, having purchased it from the club in 1986. Chairman Simon Jordan
took out a ten year lease on the ground upon his purchase of the club in 2000 and Noades received rent from Palace. Wimbledon
relocated
to Milton Keynes
in 2003, a section of their fans already having decamped to the newly established AFC Wimbledon
in protest when the old club were given permission by the FA to move in 2002.
Palace chairman Jordan stated he had completed a purchase of the freehold of Selhurst Park from Altonwood Limited (Ron Noades' company) for £12m in October 2006. However ownership was in fact held by Selhurst Park Limited, owned by a joint venture between HBOS
and the Rock property empire owned by Paul Kemsley
, a former director of Tottenham Hotspur. In April 2008 a 25 year lease was granted to Crystal Palace at an annual rent of £1.2m. When the Rock group went into administration in June 2009, the management of the freehold was taken on by PwC
acting on behalf of Lloyds Bank
which now own HBOS. PwC expected to sell it within two years. Simon Jordan never owned the freehold or had any interest in it and his reasons for claiming he had bought it are unknown. The property company exited administration when purchased by the CPFC 2010 consortium in June 2010, leading to the stadium and Football Club being united in a company for the first time since 1998.
Following from this, January 2011 saw CPFC 2010 announce plans to redevelop the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre
, the club's original home, in five years' time.
2–0 to clinch the Football League Second Division
championship. The ground also holds the record for Division Four
(now League Two
in the English football pyramid
) attendance, when Crystal Palace played local rivals Millwall F.C.
in 1961 after 37,774 people turned out.
The ground also holds the English football record for staging the game seen by the greatest amount of people. This was for the club debut of the first Chinese footballers to play in English football, Sun Jihai
and Fan Zhiyi
in 1998. Most of that audience was recorded to be watching on television in China.
Selhurst park also holds the record of having the lowest attendance for a single Premier League game - 3,039 during v. , 26 January 1993.
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
located in the London suburb of South Norwood
South Norwood
South Norwood is an urban town and in south London, England, in the London Borough of Croydon. It is a suburban development 7.8 miles south-east of Charing Cross. South Norwood is an electoral with a resident population in 2001 of just over 14,000...
in the Borough of Croydon
London Borough of Croydon
The London Borough of Croydon is a London borough in South London, England and is part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the largest London borough by population. It is the southernmost borough of London. At its centre is the historic town of Croydon from which the borough takes its name...
. It is the current home ground of Crystal Palace Football Club
Crystal Palace F.C.
Crystal Palace Football Club are an English Football league club based in South Norwood, London. The team plays its home matches at Selhurst Park, where they have been based since 1924. The club currently competes in the second tier of English Football, The Championship.Crystal Palace was formed in...
. Its present capacity is 26,309.
History
In 1922 the site, a former brickfield, was bought from the Brighton Railway Company for £2,570. The stadium (designed by Scottish stadium architect Archibald LeitchArchibald Leitch
Archibald "Offside Archie" Leitch was a Scottish architect, most famous for his work designing football stadia throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.-Early work:...
) was constructed by Humphreys of Kensington (a firm regularly used by Leitch) for around £30,000, and was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
on 30 August 1924. There was then only one stand (the present Main Stand), but this was unfinished due to industrial action; Crystal Palace played Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are currently competing in the Football League One in the 2011-12 season, in England. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and the fourth oldest in the...
and lost 0–1 in front of 25,000 fans.
Two years later, in 1926, England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
played Wales
Wales national football team
The Wales national football team represents Wales in international football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales , the governing body for football in Wales, and the third oldest national football association in the world. The team have only qualified for a major international...
in an international at the stadium. England amateur matches and various other finals were also staged there, as were other sports including boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, bicycle polo (in the late 1940s) and cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
and music concerts (in the 1980s). In addition to this, it hosted two games for the 1948 Summer Olympics
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin...
.
In 1953, the stadium's first floodlights were installed consisting of numerous poles around the 3 sides of terracing and four roof mounted installations on the Main Stand, but were replaced nine years later by floodlights mounted on four pylons in each corner and six installations on the Main Stand roof. Real Madrid
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...
marked the occasion by playing the first game under the new set of bulbs – a real footballing coup at the time for third division Palace, as it was Real's first ever match in London.
The ground remained undeveloped until 1969 when Palace were promoted to Division One
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....
(then the 1st tier of English football) for the first time. The Arthur Wait Stand was built, and is named after the club's long-serving chairman, who was a builder by trade and was often seen working on the site himself. Arthur Wait was notable for overseeing Palace's rise from the 4th to the 1st Division in the 1960s. The Whitehorse Lane end had a new look with a "second tier" of terracing and brick-built refreshments and toilets along the top.
Due to the Safety of Grounds Act, the Holmesdale Road terrace the preferred stand for the Crystal Palace supporters (or the Kop as it was known) had to be split into three sections for safety reasons. The remaining poorer facilities were mainly where the opposition supporters were situated. New facilities were subsequently built at the back of the Holmesdale Stand. In the Summer of 1981, the Main Stand terraced enclosure was reprofiled and replaced by seating.
In 1981, Palace sold the back of the Whitehorse Lane terrace and land behind to supermarket retailer Sainsbury's for £2m, to help their financial problems and the size of the terrace at this end was effectively halved when this end reopened.
Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic F.C.
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...
moved in as temporary tenants in 1985, and became with Palace the first league clubs in England to agree such a ground-sharing scheme. The following year, chairman Ron Noades
Ron Noades
Ron Noades is an English businessman who has a strong connection with investments in football clubs. In his time, he has been chairman of Southall, Wimbledon, Crystal Palace and Brentford between 1981 and 1998.-Crystal Palace:...
purchased the stadium from the club as a means of raising revenue. In the Summer of 1990, the lower half of the Arthur Wait Stand was converted into all-seater with the assistance of Football Trust Grant Aid, due to the Taylor Report following the Hillsborough Disaster
Hillsborough disaster
The Hillsborough disaster was a human crush that occurred on 15 April 1989 at Hillsborough, a football stadium, the home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. in Sheffield, England, resulting in the deaths of 96 people, and 766 being injured, all fans of Liverpool F.C....
. Two rows of executive boxes (48 in total) were constructed above the Whitehorse Lane terrace on the roof of Sainsbury's supermarket in 1991 and it was roofed and made all-seater in the summer of 1993.
West Ham United F.C.
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Upton Park, Newham, East London. They play in The Football League Championship. The club was founded in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC and reformed in 1900 as West Ham United. In 1904 the club relocated to their current...
's Boleyn Ground
Boleyn Ground
The Boleyn Ground, more commonly referred to as Upton Park due to its location in Upton Park, London is the football stadium of West Ham United.-History:...
, and Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional association football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Central Football Club, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football before being elected to the Football...
replaced them as tenants in 1991. The Holmesdale terrace was demolished in 1994 and replaced a year later with a two-tiered 8,500 capacity stand. The roof cladding of the main stand was also replaced, the previous one having started to leak. Some 15 years on, this remains the most recent major work to be carried out at Selhurst Park.
When Mark Goldberg
Mark Goldberg
Mark Goldberg is an English football club chairman and manager, who is currently in his third spell with Bromley F.C.-Business:Goldberg originally made his fortune in the IT recruitment industry, becoming a multi millionaire...
bought Crystal Palace, he bought just the club and former Palace chairman Ron Noades
Ron Noades
Ron Noades is an English businessman who has a strong connection with investments in football clubs. In his time, he has been chairman of Southall, Wimbledon, Crystal Palace and Brentford between 1981 and 1998.-Crystal Palace:...
retained Selhurst Park, having purchased it from the club in 1986. Chairman Simon Jordan
Simon Jordan
Simon Jordan is an English businessman who made his fortune in the mobile phone industry. In 2000 he purchased Crystal Palace Football Club and remained chairman of the club until they entered administration in early 2010....
took out a ten year lease on the ground upon his purchase of the club in 2000 and Noades received rent from Palace. Wimbledon
Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional association football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Central Football Club, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football before being elected to the Football...
relocated
Relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football prior to a "fairytale" rise through the divisions following election to The Football League...
to Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
in 2003, a section of their fans already having decamped to the newly established AFC Wimbledon
AFC Wimbledon
AFC Wimbledon is a professional English football club that traces its origins to Wimbledon in the London Borough of Merton. Based at Kingsmeadow, Kingston upon Thames, the club are members of Football League Two, the fourth tier of English football....
in protest when the old club were given permission by the FA to move in 2002.
Palace chairman Jordan stated he had completed a purchase of the freehold of Selhurst Park from Altonwood Limited (Ron Noades' company) for £12m in October 2006. However ownership was in fact held by Selhurst Park Limited, owned by a joint venture between HBOS
HBOS
HBOS plc is a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group having been taken over in January 2009...
and the Rock property empire owned by Paul Kemsley
Paul Kemsley
Paul Zeital Kemsley , is an English businessman. He is best known as a property developer, and to sports fans as a former Vice-Chairman of Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur, and as Chairman of the revived New York Cosmos.-Biography:He was educated at Atholl School in Rayners Lane,...
, a former director of Tottenham Hotspur. In April 2008 a 25 year lease was granted to Crystal Palace at an annual rent of £1.2m. When the Rock group went into administration in June 2009, the management of the freehold was taken on by PwC
PwC
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....
acting on behalf of Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank Plc was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1765 until its merger into Lloyds TSB in 1995; it remains a registered company but is currently dormant. It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies...
which now own HBOS. PwC expected to sell it within two years. Simon Jordan never owned the freehold or had any interest in it and his reasons for claiming he had bought it are unknown. The property company exited administration when purchased by the CPFC 2010 consortium in June 2010, leading to the stadium and Football Club being united in a company for the first time since 1998.
Following from this, January 2011 saw CPFC 2010 announce plans to redevelop the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre
Crystal Palace National Sports Centre
The National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace in south London, England is a large sports centre and athletics stadium. It was opened in 1964 in Crystal Palace Park, close to the site of the former Crystal Palace, in the former parkland and also usurping part of the former grand prix circuit.It was...
, the club's original home, in five years' time.
Average
| Season | Average Attendance | League | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010–11 | 15,351 | Football League Championship Football League Championship The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League... |
|
| 2009–10 | 14,770 | Football League Championship Football League Championship The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League... |
|
| 2008–09 | 15,220 | Football League Championship Football League Championship The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League... |
|
| 2007–08 | 16,031 | Football League Championship Football League Championship The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League... |
|
| 2006–07 | 17,541 | Football League Championship Football League Championship The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League... |
|
| 2005–06 | 19,457 | Football League Championship Football League Championship The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League... |
|
| 2004–05 | 24,108 | Premier League | |
| 2003–04 | 17,344 | Football League First Division Football League First Division The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship.... |
|
| 2002–03 | 16,866 | Football League First Division Football League First Division The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship.... |
Records
The record attendance in Selhurst Park was achieved in 1979, when 51,801 people saw Crystal Palace defeat Burnley F.C.Burnley F.C.
Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...
2–0 to clinch the Football League Second Division
Football League Second Division
From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...
championship. The ground also holds the record for Division Four
Football League Fourth Division
The Fourth Division of The Football League was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season...
(now League Two
Football League Two
Football League Two is the third-highest division of The Football League and fourth-highest division overall in the English football league system....
in the English football pyramid
English football league system
The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for association football clubs in England, with six teams from Wales also competing...
) attendance, when Crystal Palace played local rivals Millwall F.C.
Millwall F.C.
Millwall Football Club is an English professional football club based in South Bermondsey, south east London, that plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name despite having last played in the...
in 1961 after 37,774 people turned out.
The ground also holds the English football record for staging the game seen by the greatest amount of people. This was for the club debut of the first Chinese footballers to play in English football, Sun Jihai
Sun Jihai
Jihai Sun is a Chinese association football player. He is currently playing for Chinese side Inter Xi'an and for the China national football team as a defender or a midfielder....
and Fan Zhiyi
Fan Zhiyi
Fan Zhiyi is a former professional football player from the People's Republic of China. A folk hero and football icon in his native country he was considered a trailblazer when he moved to English club Crystal Palace to become the first Chinese person to do so. Internationally he would go on to...
in 1998. Most of that audience was recorded to be watching on television in China.
Selhurst park also holds the record of having the lowest attendance for a single Premier League game - 3,039 during v. , 26 January 1993.
External links
- Stadium information at Crystal Palace FC official website
- Stadium picture
