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Selhurst Park (Crystal Palace stadium)
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Information
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Name: Selhurst
Park
Club:
Crystal Palace FC
Inauguration: August 1924
First match: Crystal Palace-Sheffield Wednesday
Capacity: 26,300 seats
Record Attendance: 51,482; Crystal Palace-Burnley,
11 May 1979
Address: Selhurst Park, London, SE25 6PU |
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Stadium Pictures
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History
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Selhurst Park is a football stadium
in south London, and is the current home ground of Crystal
Palace F.C.
In 1922 the site, a former brickfield, was bought from the
Brighton Railway Company for £2,570. The stadium (designed by
Archibald Leitch) was constructed by a Mr Humphreys 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 1-0 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 (in the 1980s).
In 1953, the stadium's first floodlights were installed (some
remain on the Main Stand roof) but were replaced nine years
later by floodlights mounted on four pylons in each corner. Real
Madrid marked the occasion by playing the first game under the
new set of bulbs - a real footballing coup at the time.
The ground remained undeveloped until 1969 when Palace were
promoted to Division One 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. The Whitehorse Lane end had a new look with
new terracing and brick-built refreshments and toilets along the
top.
Due to the Safety of Grounds Act, the Holmesdale Road terrace (or
the Kop as it was known) had to be split into three sections for
safety reasons and this meant the poor facilities fell in the
away part. So new facilities were built at the back of the other
two parts. At that time, the Main Stand enclosure was replaced
by seating.
In 1983, Palace sold the back of the Whitehorse Lane terrace and
large carpark behind to supermarket retailer Sainsbury's for
£2m, to help their financial problems and the size of the stand
was halved.
Charlton Athletic moved in as temporary tenants in 1986 and
became the first league clubs in Britain to agree such a
ground-sharing scheme. A year later, the lower half of the
Arthur Wait Stand was converted into all-seater. The Whitehorse
Lane end then got two rows of executive boxes and later a roof
and it was made all-seated.
Charlton moved back to The Valley via West Ham's Upton Park, 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 of the main stand was
replaced, the previous one having started to leak.
When Mark Goldberg bought Crystal Palace, he bought just the
club and Ron Noades still owns Selhurst Park today. Chairman
Simon Jordan took out a 10-year lease on the ground and Noades
receives rent from Palace. Wimbledon F.C. moved out (to Milton
Keynes) in 2003, the bulk of their fans having decamped to AFC
Wimbledon when the old club were given permission to move in
2002. |
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Records
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The record attendance was achieved
in 1979, when 51,801 people saw Palace beat Burnley 2-0 to
clinch the Second Division Championship.
The ground holds the record for the old Division Four (now
League Two) attendance for Palace v Millwall in 1961 when 37,774
turned out.
They hold the record for the club game watched by the most
people - Sung Shi Hi and Fan Shihi's debut, most of the audience
being Chinese. |
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