Keith Wyness drops worrying verdict on Crystal Palace’s stadium plans
Crystal Palace’s expansion of Selhurst Park will not be enough for the club to keep pace with the rest of the Premier League.
That is according to ex-Everton, Aston Villa, and Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes Crystal Palace have a “big issue” with their stadium plans.
Crystal Palace have been granted planning permission to build a new Main Stand at Selhurst Park to increase the stadium’s capacity.
Selhurst Park will expand to house more than 34,000 spectators, with its current capacity currently just over 25,000.
Crystal Palace have “big issue” with stadium plans
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes Crystal Palace will still be “falling behind the bigger clubs” financially.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast, Wyness thinks a capacity of 34,000 “is not a big number” in the Premier League.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “It’s a big number, but it still only brings them up to about 34,000-35,000, which is not a big number.
“And that’s the big issue that you’ve got. I mean, just to put this in context, when I was at Everton and we were still in Goodison, and Arsenal built the Emirates, if we took a full Goodison, say on a local derby against Liverpool, Arsenal were still making three quarters of a million pounds more per game than we were and that’s the maximum. That was us maximising the revenue and that didn’t happen every week.
“So at 35,000 seats, you’re still going to be falling behind the bigger clubs continually. Even though you can charge London prices to a great degree at Palace, and they’re definitely going to be improving, you know, VIP and hospitality, etc. Still, I think the costs to build in London and servicing that debt are something that everybody’s got to remember as well.”
Crystal Palace facing further problems
Manager Oliver Glasner has criticised the Crystal Palace board for its lack of spending in the transfer market, amid his uncertain future at the club.
Crystal Palace could lose multiple key players in the next two transfer windows, with defender Marc Guehi the most likely to depart.
The futures of Adam Wharton, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Daichi Kamada are also uncertain, with the latter’s contract expiring at the end of the season.