After their win over Queens Park Rangers yesterday, Crystal Palace’s position in the Premier League is effectively secure. The club is being targeted in a takeover bid by top Wall Street investors and a deal could be concluded as early as this week,
The group of investors includes private equity executives from Apollo Global Management and Blackstone. The US consortium is led by Josh Harris, a billionaire who helped found Apollo and David Blitzer, a senior executive at Blackstone.
After their win over Queens Park Rangers yesterday, Crystal Palace’s position in the Premier League is effectively secure. The club is being targeted in a takeover bid by top Wall Street investors and a deal could be concluded as early as this week,
The group of investors includes private equity executives from Apollo Global Management and Blackstone. The US consortium is led by Josh Harris, a billionaire who helped found Apollo and David Blitzer, a senior executive at Blackstone.
Preliminary talks have been going on for some time, but the investors wanted to make sure that new manager Alan Pardew could ensure Premiership survival. The new Premier League television deal is a big draw for them.
A consortium of wealthy fans brought the Eagles out of administration in 2010 and have since run it in a prudent yet successful fashion, securing promotion to the Premier League through the play offs in 2013.
The Selhust Park ground needs substantial investment if it is going to become a modern stadium. Transport links to the ground are not particularly good.
However, turning the club into the South London equivalent of Arsenal or Spurs, although a long-term project may be feasible, South London rivals Charlton Athletic are seeing attendances of home fans fall in response to the Belgian takeover of the club,
Charlton fans secured the return to The Valley after a long ground share at Selhurst Park (then more briefly at Upton Park) through the efforts of the Valley Party which challenged the opposition of local councillors to a return, leading to the club’s most influential opponent losing his seat. The Valley Party celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
In the subsequent years, Charlton fans became used to an unusual degee of fan engagement for a football club. Hence, it has been difficult for them to adjust to the new realities of football as a business in an era of globalisation and Europeanisation, although they also think that owner Roland Duchatelet has been too parsimonious. Many fans look unlikely to renew their season tickets.