Crystal Palace Chairman Steve Parish has issued an extensive and wide-ranging update for supporters as the Premier League nears its return.
In the Palace TV interview, Parish addresses the Main Stand redevelopment, saying the club are going “hell for leather” in finalising it, and comments on Eagle Football’s acquisition of Ligue 1 side Olympique Lyonnais.
He also discusses the Academy’s ongoing improvements and praises the club’s Academy Founder Members.
“We’re doing a lot of work in the background on planning the stadium, planning out the internal areas. The work we’re doing is really into planning out the detail: where the dressing rooms are, is there a tunnel club, where’s the general admission, what does the Boardroom look like? For example I think we’ll have a much more open environment there with much more access to fans.
“There’s an enormous amount of detail going into the work to try to get the construction quote and raising money at the same time. It’s a very exciting period for the club. A lot of pressure, a lot of things to do in a relatively short space of time.
“The finer points of the Sainsbury’s deal are being battened down and it’s all going on. We are hell for leather as much as we can.”
“Firstly obviously congratulations to John [Textor, co-owner] for achieving what he wanted to achieve, which was to buy Lyon. That’s not an easy deal to do; Lyon was a public company, so very, very tricky to put that deal together. John has rationally consolidated all of his football holdings into one company.
“Most of those clubs he controls, so there’s a difference between the Palace situation and those clubs in that Eagle Football Holdings, his holding company, will own a percentage of Palace. And along with that there are new shareholders effectively as part of Palace because he has new shareholders as part of Eagle [Football Holdings]. But the governance of Palace stays exactly the same.
“So John is still the general partner in name, a partner with Josh [Harris], David [Blitzer] and I. The decision-making is exactly the same. We’ve looked at every possible eventuality we could imagine to try to make sure it’s at worst neutral for the club, and at best we get all of the benefits of having a link to these clubs and get some knowledge.
“We have a lot to do in our club and welcome new people involved with Eagle Football, welcome the investment, and are really pleased with John. But it doesn’t really change anything for us. We’re very focused on Palace: it doesn’t change the governance, doesn’t change the control structure, doesn’t change what I do day to day, doesn’t change what Dougie [Freedman] does day to day.
“It’s an exciting time for the club and an exciting time for John. He’s going to have his hands full: obviously they’re a massive club, a very storied club, a fantastic history, a Champions League club traditionally and I know John will be doing everything he can to try to get them back there.
“All told, I’m very pleased for John. We’ve made sure we’ve worked out something that works for everybody and made sure Crystal Palace has an upside from it and isn’t affected in any way detrimentally.”
“We’re going at a pace that is more focused on getting a brilliant end result than necessarily rushing. We’re not really going to be ready for this season, we’re probably looking at June time for it to open.
“That will be a fantastic facility from a medical rehab point of view for the first-team players, recovery with the pools, and for the Academy a massive gym, the same facilities: a gym upstairs, a little running track inside, places to play games.
“[It will be] a really, really lovely facility: Grade A. We’ll take it to the top level. I’m very excited for that to open some time next year.”
“Everybody that’s been on the tour [of the Academy] has thoroughly deserved to be there because they forewent their refund on their Season Ticket or made a contribution voluntarily and they genuinely helped us finish the facility. There are things in there we wouldn’t have been able to do unless they made that contribution.
“I think we’ve got a walkway between the indoor pitch and the main building that will be quite nicely done and their names will be represented there. But it’s great to get them round. I’ve had so many really positive emails from people who’ve been on the tour.
“It’s really good that people have put that money in and can see a visual manifestation of the money they gave back to the club. We’re really thankful for it, and it really connects the fans to that facility and the club. It’s just what this club is all about really: knowing the fans helped build it is fantastic.”