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Your support makes all the difference.Steve Parish has promised Crystal Palace fans that relegation from the Premier League will not stop his £100m redevelopment plans for Selhurst Park.
While the Eagles have improved in the last two months under Roy Hodgson they remain in the relegation zone, climbing off the bottom spot at the weekend for the first time since the former England manager took over.
After unveiling his vision for the future of the 93-year-old stadium in Thornton Heath at a slick, glitzy ceremony at Selhurst Park, Parish confirmed that redevelopment will happen whether Palace stay up or not.
“You've got to have your long-term plans,” he said. “You can't stop doing everything on Monday morning because you're in the relegation zone, or start doing things because you're not in the relegation zone. We've got a plan for every eventuality.
“For the long-term future of this football, it's essential we improve this facility here. It's essential for people's belief system, essential for income, essential for a multitude of things. We need to do it. There might be some things that are easier to do in the Championship, with the number of spectators coming in not being as high, but the financing would be more difficult.
“Whatever happens, there'll need to be external financing: from us as shareholders, from pre-selling debentures or season tickets. There will be a range of different ways to get the money. As a club, we've got to get past relegation being the be-all and end-all.
“This is a long-term plan for the club. People think we've stalled, thinking what are we here to do? Avoid relegation every year? Are we treading water? That's our reality at the moment, and we can't run away from the mistakes that have got us into this position, but that's on the pitch stuff. This is the long-term future at the football club. It's got to happen.”
The plans include a Manchester City-style Tunnel Club, a larger pitch, hospitality for up to 2,500 fans, a new club museum and improved disabled facilities. The currently open corners of the ground will also be filled in.
But the club warned that this is only the early stages of a process Parish expects to take two years. Planning permission is yet to be handed in, with Palace hoping to do that at the end of January of next year, and there will also need to be consultation with local residents and Croydon Council.
And Parish, who had to shelve a plan to relocate the club back to its spiritual home at the Crystal Palace Park some years ago for those exact reasons, remains confident he will get his wish this time.
“Nothing is 'smooth'," he added. "There are issues around it in terms of gaining planning permission. But the council know what we're doing, Sainsbury's we've talked to – we need a tiny slither of land – and I can't imagine for a minute that Sainsbury's want to be the people who hold up the development of a new icon for South London. Local residents, we've got to take them into account, and we have to be sensitive to disruption."
“Croydon Council have been outstanding so far. We've put them under pressure, time-wise, and they've responded brilliantly. Having them behind it would be massive. It's an iconic structure for south London. We've had discussions with them: I'm sure they're not going to want to drop this. I'm sure they're going to want to be sensible. We'll try and do it as quickly as possible.
“But we've deliberately chosen something with the minimal potential roadblocks. We're looking at this as low hanging fruit: what's the least you can do to get the most impact? That iconic structure; it will massively change the football club.”
By the time planning permission is submitted at the end of January 2018 Palace will likely have spent plenty more on new players and will have a pretty good idea of whether they will be building this new Main Stand for a Championship or Premier League club. But for Parish this is more about legacy.
“We're already spending more on the transfer budget than we generate,” he said. “That is ring-fenced. If you look at the 14 clubs below the top six, pretty much everyone is spending – apart from the promoted clubs, where you almost can't spent it all. You've pretty much got to spend everything on the playing side or you run an even bigger risk of relegation.
“Everyone is going forwards every year so, if you get a slightly better team, so does everyone else. You can see that in the division. Also the way to win Premier League games: it's getting harder and harder to win a Premier League game, because everyone knows what it takes.
“It's impossible not to spend all or your turnover nearly on the playing side if you want to compete. Sometimes you're smarter and get a good player for less, but other times you have to pay. It's the nature of the beast, really.”
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