Selhurst Park

A ‘proper’ football stadium in the Premier League, Selhurst Park was probably the stadium that I was most excited about visiting during Burnley’s brief interlude in the Premier League. Such was my depression at the match though, it took me a fortnight to write this up.

The stadium is located above Croydon in South London - a proper journey for supporters travelling from the North, as the only sensible way to get there by road is to drive around the M25 to the Southernmost point, and then crawl slowly North through Croydon.

Visitors are seated in the Arthur Wait Stand on Park Road, in the corner with the Whitehorse Lane Stand. The Whitehorse Lane Stand is possibly the weirdest stand I’ve seen, having a few rows of seating, with the executive accomodation stacked above in what can only really be described as portakabins. I love it. Behind the opposite goals is the Holmesdale Road Stand, a delightful double tier stand with curved roof that looks much more historic than its 1994 construction. The Main Stand sits opposite the Arthur Wait Stand, with the Fanzone and Sainsbury’s beyond.

The ground feels smaller than the Turf, but in reality holds around 3,000 more - the Arthur Wait Stand in particular is deceptively deep, and holding just short of 10,000 seats is the largest stand in the ground. Total capacity is around 25,500.

Around the stadium

The stadium is surrounded by terraced housing on two sides, and the proximity to Sainsburys on the third side is completely surreal. Its well worth a walk around - keep an eye out for the graffiti murals, that of recently departed Wilfried Zaha is superb.

Match program

The match program looks really good, with collectable cutouts of their players, at £4 pretty much par for the course for programs this season (23/4).

Food and Drink

I was really impressed with the food and drink offer in the stadium,at least there was an attempt to do something different. The cheeseburger in brioche bun was pretty nice for something that had been sat in the warmer forever, and even the bovril did not come in the same bovril mug that it does at every other stadium. £5.80 for the burger and £2.60 for the bovril did not feel too bad for the Premier League, especially amongst the London clubs. Clearly though Crystal Palace struggle to compete with Accrington Stanley’s £1.50 bovril, and £2.50 pie.

I did try to go back at half time to try one of the Goddards Pies, but it was a rammie behind the stand, where it gets pretty congested. At £4.85 those are cheaper than most of the London clubs, but above Burnley and Liverpool in the North (Stanley win hands down here too).

Seating

Large areas of the seating provided for visiting supports in the Arthur Wait stand suffer from restricted views. The pillars supporting the roof structure are positioned maybe 10 rows back from the front, so if you can get seats in front of those, your view won’t be restricted. The views at the rear of the stand are especially bad, with the roof structure limiting views of the far side of the pitch.