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Palace face Selhurst reduction

January 16 2017

Selhurst Park

Selhurst Park

Crystal Palace may have to reduce the capacity of Selhurst Park by up to 3,000 to meet new disability access requirements.

Palace and the Premier League clubs vowed in 2015 to improve facilities for disabled fans by August of this year and failure to comply with the Accessible Stadia Guide could mean heavy fines and even a points deduction.

Work will get underway at Palace's stadium over the summer to meet the stipulation of an extra 100 wheelchair bays.

But it means the antiquated ground's capacity could be reduced to around 23,000, just at a time when the demand for matchday tickets has never been greater.

Palace chief Steve Parish told Holmesdale Radio: "We've got this promise that we've all made to the authorities, to the Level Playing Field, that we will try and get the prerequisite number of wheelchair spaces in the ground. Now that's another 100.

"At the moment, that looks like we could have to take out up to 3,000 seats to make that happen. So that's a big project that we've got for this summer. Obviously we don't want to take out that many seats so we're trying to find another way around it.

"The problem is not just the bays but the access and the ramps. We haven't got any elevators in the stadium, just three elevator shafts in the Holmesdale stand. It's the access and the safe exiting of supporters. So we're committed to doing it. We don't want to lose 3,000 seats if we can avoid it and we're sure we can get it down from that."

Parish and his team are working harder than ever to increase the capacity of the Main Stand by adding a second tier and the club's co-owner hopes to announce plans soon.

"There is progress being made," he said. "We have a head of development that we've taken on and we're looking at all the project and have made some movement. We're not in a position to show anything. The eagle-eyed fans may look out for some planning applications that might go in."

And Parish also revealed plans to build a new state-of-the-art training ground for the Academy are also in the offing.

He added: "I'm selecting architects to work on a site. It's been improved no end where they are and it's pretty decent if you go there. We've sunk some money into it and it's OK.

"There's a site we quite like the look of and obviously planning consent will be difficult. Again, in the next six months or so, eagle-eyed people might see an application go through."

Listen to the full Parish interview on Holmesdale Radio here.

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