Crystal Palace have taken a major step forward in the redevelopment of their Selhurst Park stadium after signing an agreement to fund community improvements.
The deal, referred to in planning regulations as a Section 106, was the most significant remaining obstacle to beginning construction of a new 13,500-capacity Main Stand. Although it had been agreed for some time, Palace had not signed it — something that was necessary for any work on the stadium to commence.
Friday marks six years since the Premier League club were first granted planning permission in principle to rebuild that stand and make other improvements to their home ground. But there have been stumbling blocks along the way, with a revised planning application being approved in October last year by Croydon Council.
Now they are free to begin work, with the expectation being that it will happen over this summer. Palace say they remain on track with that timeframe, which has been previously stated by their chairman, Steve Parish.
A spokesperson for Croydon Council, who must also sign the Section 106, told The Athletic: “All technical matters have now been resolved and a Section 106 agreement is expected to be finalised soon.”
So how did we get here and just how significant is this latest development?
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What is a Section 106 agreement and why is it so important?
Section 106 of the UK’s Town And Country Planning Act 1990 (S106) is legislation that relates to the funding of community improvements levied on developers for any major development.
It is used to mitigate any negative impact of the project and in Palace’s case commits them to providing between £700,000 and £1million of community improvements. The specifics are set out in the agreement.
Without it going through, planning permission was only ever granted in principle, as it was always subject to the S106 being agreed and signed.
This was agreed a long time ago — why has it only now been signed?
Yes, it was originally agreed in 2018, but it has since been modified several times, with the residents of neighbouring Wooderson Close, where several homes will be demolished as part of the new stand project, having made requests for minor but significant amendments.
As so much time has passed, further negotiations have taken place with the local borough council.
That was particularly true after Palace had to resubmit a planning application last year due to changes in The London Plan (which determines how the UK’s capital as a whole will develop over the next 20 to 25 years). In October, both the club and council confirmed the S106 had been “substantially agreed”.
The circled houses in Wooderson Close are due to be demolished (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
But the reason it has taken so long is likely because once the S106 is signed, planning permission lapses after three years. That would require a new application to go in. That would not be guaranteed to receive approval and would also be time-consuming and costly.
Given Palace have only recently reached agreement with the local council over the Wooderson Close homes and purchased a parcel of land from the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain for several million pounds, there was no advantage to signing a commitment that time-barred them when not everything was in place for work to begin.
What about the cost of the project, how much is it?
When the redevelopment was first proposed, the expectation was for it to cost between £75million and £100m. But with the Covid-19 pandemic and inflation rampant over recent years, costs have ballooned to at least £150m.
There was never a pot of money in place to fund the project set aside by the club’s owners, despite suggestions that Parish, David Blitzer and Josh Harris were to do so when the two Americans became general partners in 2015. But funding has been secured, with further investment now in place as well.
An artist’s impression of how the new Main Stand would look, from 2018 (Crystal Palace FC)
“The final piece in the club’s strategic plan is to invest in Selhurst Park, principally the Main Stand to allow us to… build a sustainable Premier League club. With additional investor funding secured, the Main Stand project is moving forward,” Parish wrote in the club’s latest set of accounts.
Additional funding worth £45m was secured via a capital call from existing shareholders in January.
Does signing the Section 106 mean the project is definitely happening?
This is the closest we have been and the club say the plans are on track. There is no apparent reason now that it will not happen.
But Palace fans can be forgiven for feeling weary. They have been here before.
Under then chairman Ron Noades, planning permission was granted in 1996 to demolish the Main Stand and replace it with a two-tier structure including bars, lounges, executive boxes and a creche, but it was never pursued. After the CPFC 2010 takeover, a full rebuild of Selhurst Park was also considered.
In 2011, plans were unveiled to return to the club’s original home in Crystal Palace Park, a 12-minute drive to the north. Although those plans never progressed, they were not entirely shelved. As recently as 2020, they were briefly revisited before being dismissed in favour of the Selhurst project.
Crystal Palace athletics stadium has long been suggested as a possible new home (The Athletic)
Scepticism is apparent among the fanbase, with a sense that despite the club’s stated ambition to begin work at the end of this season, the absence of tangible progress suggested otherwise.
Those involved with decision-making at Croydon Council, too, may have felt exasperated by how far the plan has moved until now. Some have even privately expressed their own scepticism about the project. The council’s political make-up has changed since 2018, which may itself have slowed things down, while there is now an elected mayor, Jason Perry, who took up office in 2022. Perry is a Palace season ticket holder, but the future of Selhurst Park is in the club’s hands.
As understandable as the doubts are, this is a project that has already seen over £1million invested into preparatory work, with holes drilled into the stadium car park to assess the ground conditions to prepare for the foundations of the new stand; Palace have spent a significant amount of time and effort following initial prompts from the council and submitted their revised planning application last year.
It is in the interests of the council, the club and the wider area of south London for this to go ahead.
Palace would not have engaged with those council prompts and submitted that revised planning application if there was no intention to proceed with the project. Signing the S106 is a major step forward.
What about if Palace are relegated?
The likelihood of that being an issue this season was effectively ended by the 1-0 away win against title-chasing Liverpool on Sunday, which left Palace 14th in the 20-team Premier League with 33 points after 32 of their 38 matches — eight points clear of Luton Town, in the highest of the three relegation spots, with a game in hand on them.
Even if Palace do get relegated this year or, for some reason, work does not begin in the summer and they go down to the EFL next season without it having begun, there is no reason to believe anything will change. The need to rebuild the Main Stand is still there and Palace would hope to bounce back quickly to the Premier League, where they would benefit from the new stand’s improved corporate facilities.
Funding has been secured, so there would be no need to find further investment, which may be more challenging with Palace in the Championship.
When is the stand likely to open?
The work is expected to take between 27 and 30 months; although given ramp-up test events would have to take place first to identify any issues and Palace’s likely preference for a grand unveiling rather than opening it midway through a season, that may extend to three years (the original intention was for the stand to open with the start of a new season in August 2021, just over three years after construction began at the end of the 2017-18 campaign).
If that timescale still applies, we would be looking at the start of the 2027-28 season.
Both Palace and Croydon Council were approached for comment for this story.
(Top photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
