A stroll down the Holmesdale Road past Selhurst Park is not the most suggestive writes Donogh Hurley.
Sure there are fancy new Premier League gates, and some newly assembled barriers around watering holes such as the Clifton, but that would appear to be where the trappings of wealth stop. The cabin structures, the deteriorating state of the Arthur Wait, and the unwavering budget supermarket in the vicinity do not necessarily point to a club that in financial terms can be considered one of Europe’s elite.
But this is all a mirage, a mere smokescreen to submerge the millions that are reportedly buried underneath the hallowed turf. While rumours about the pitch at Selhurst being relaid to bury Crystal Palace’s recently plundered kitty remain unconfirmed, the recent revelation that Palace find themselves propelled to stratospheric levels of income from television money is startling when compared to the revenue accrued from television by clubs in Europe’s collection of leagues.
Modern football’s commercial drive, and the financial windfall enjoyed by club’s fortunate enough to benefit from it received an even more incredulous boost with news of the Sky/BT deal to pump over £5 billion into the game over the next number of years. For a league already spiralling out of control when it comes to ticket prices, wages and transfer fees, the new era of 70% more wealth will no doubt will bring untold riches, as well as untold dangers to those who slip away from its grip.
The TEB team have in the past discussed the issue of ticket prices, and the increasing isolation football fans feel by being priced out of seeing the game they love. There is a litany of comment, features and opinion circulating about these topics this last week, much of it stating the obvious.
Of course, these pieces of commentary are littered with a morose sense of inevitability that nothing will change. We will no doubt witness a few cosmetic tweaks and PR spiel about frozen ticket prices and so on.
The HF in particular have led nationwide calls for balance, and their recently secured meeting with Premier League bigwigs is a positive step, but Richard Scudamore’s public defence of the Premier League and the right to do as they please with their money was the first step in a familiar old narrative. “The Premier League are not a charity”, the great leader proclaimed, as his pockets burst at the seams while workers below the living wage piled suitcases of cash into the Premier League truck outside.
But while Scudamore is right in his assertion that the Premier League are not a charity, he seems blindly oblivious to the fact that with power comes responsibility, and the crippling gulf that this new injection of wonga will create between the Premier League and the rest of the English ladder will soon become untenable.
The Premier League has a huge responsibility to not just look after their own, but to look after those that feed into it. And while there are financial systems in place to provide much needed support to those battling reality below it, you would hope that the new deal will lead to better packages for Football League clubs.
There is no doubt the debate will rumble on for the next number of years, while the Premier League morphs into Europe’s first legitimate super league. But while we brace ourselves for arguments, it is refreshing that the news comes ahead of the FA Cup clash at Selhurst against Liverpool.
The ‘magic of the cup’ is quickly rolled out when cup games come around, and it is usually when referencing history, nostalgia, giant killings, Hereford (RIP), Wrexham, Chesterfield, Pardew. The involvement of every team from the top to the very bottom. But in the week that has past, we are thankful that Palace fans are experiencing the real magic this weekend.
At £25 for a ticket for an FA Cup 5th round tie against Liverpool, on a Saturday evening in a packed Selhurst is magic. The rare affordability for a top level football match, that would usually be £40 in a haggard but charming stadium in South London is magic. That is in spite of the obstructed view!
Maybe we are holding out for false hope, but perhaps this timely act of sense by a Premier League club (see Southampton in round four also) will lead to common sense pricing qualities over the next couple of years. That has the real magic – here is hoping it catches on.
