Crystal Palace's owners put a £900m price on the club to fund Selhurst Park

Johnson paid a reported £190m for 43 per cent of Palace a little over a year ago ^[2]. That implies about £442m for the whole club ^[18], so the owners' £900m valuation ^[1] is just over twice the price of a year ago ^[19]. At £900m, Johnson's own stake would be worth about £387m on paper, against the £190m he paid ^[20].

Palace's results changed in that year. Johnson bought out John Textor in July 2025 after Uefa raised concerns about Textor also holding a majority stake in Lyon, and the episode demoted Palace from the Europa League to the Conference League ^[14]. Palace won that competition and are in the Europa League this season for the first time in their history ^[12]. They are also the 2025 FA Cup winners ^[15].

A buyer's first question will be why a club that changed hands at about £442m ^[18] should now cost twice as much. One answer is timing: the 2025 deal was struck with a seller whose Lyon stake Uefa had questioned ^[14]. The owners' own case leans on prices set elsewhere, including record franchise values in the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball this year ^[5] and the Liverpool deal ^[6]. I think those deals show appetite for scarce sports assets more than they price Palace. A slice of Liverpool and a stake in a club at a 25,000-capacity ground ^[8] are different purchases. Raine ran the sale processes for Chelsea and Manchester United ^[7], and here it will be selling against Johnson's own number.

Palace have made no secret that the Selhurst Park expansion needs investment to finish ^[4]. The plan, announced in 2017, adds a glass-fronted main stand and lifts capacity to 34,000 ^[8], an extra 9,000 seats, or 36 per cent ^[21]. "We're looking at different ways of funding, but that will be in place," Parish told The Athletic ^[10]. "We're working with people on that, talking to the banks. It's more managing the construction, processing inflation and trying to reduce some costs," he said ^[16].

Parish also gave the reason the project slipped. "But the reason that everybody hasn't got a shiny new stadium is that the money will always go to the team. We spent on the team, which is the more recent reason that it isn't fully going on," he said ^[11]. The owners have ranked the squad above the ground. City AM's report does not give the stadium's current cost or the size of any stake on offer. Palace have also agreed to buy a neighbouring 27-acre HSBC site that could let them expand their Beckenham training complex and academy ^[13].

This quarter's decision is the price at which the owners accept outside money. Next quarter's consequence falls on Selhurst Park. New equity would let Palace keep the squad first in line and still build. Without it, the work depends on the bank talks Parish described ^[16].