One particular non league club have stirred up plenty of talk this month after choosing to move into a historical 24,000 seater stadium.
Croydon Football Club, who play in the Southern Counties East League Division One, are playing their ‘home’ matches at a ground that has huge amounts of history.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, their home ground, Croydon Sports Arena, remains closed with the surface unplayable.
They are pleased to announce a temporary switch of home ground to Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. It has a capacity of 15,500, but can be and has been in the past expanded to 24,000 with temporary seating.
The stadium is on the same site that hosted 20 FA Cup finals between the years of 1895 and 1914. It also hosted 5 international matches and was home to Crystal Palace in the early 1900’s.
- 3 April 1897 – England 1–2 Scotland
- 30 March 1901 – England 2–2 Scotland
- 1 April 1905 – England 1–0 Scotland
- 3 April 1909 – England 2–0 Scotland
- 4 March 1911 – England Amateurs 4–0 Belgium
21 teams competed in the twenty FA Cup Finals staged at Crystal Palace, with ten different winners. Four more teams won the FA Cup during this time, after replays at other grounds. Newcastle United appeared in the most finals at the ground, five, but never lifted the cup there, whilst Aston Villa won all four of their games there.
| Year | Attendance | Winner | Runner-up | |||||
| 1895 | 42,560 | Aston Villa | 1 | – | 0 | West Brom | ||
| 1896 | 48,036 | Sheffield Wed | 2 | – | 1 | Wolves | ||
| 1897 | 65,891 | Aston Villa | 3 | – | 2 | Everton | ||
| 1898 | 62,017 | Nott’m Forest | 3 | – | 1 | Derby | ||
| 1899 | 73,833 | Sheffield United | 4 | – | 1 | Derby | ||
| 1900 | 68,945 | Bury | 4 | – | 0 | Southampton | ||
| 1901 | 110,802 | Tottenham | 2 | – | 2 | Sheffield Utd | – | 3–1 in replay at Burnden Park, Bolton |
| 1902 | 76,914 | Sheffield Utd | 1 | – | 1 | Southampton | ||
| Replay | 33,050 | Sheffield Utd | 2 | – | 0 | Southampton | ||
| 1903 | 64,000 | Bury | 6 | – | 0 | Derby | – | Largest ever cup final victory |
| 1904 | 61,734 | Man City | 1 | – | 0 | Bolton | ||
| 1905 | 101,117 | Aston Villa | 2 | – | 0 | Newcastle | ||
| 1906 | 75,609 | Everton | 1 | – | 0 | Newcastle | ||
| 1907 | 84,584 | Sheffield Wed | 2 | – | 1 | Everton | ||
| 1908 | 74,967 | Wolves | 3 | – | 1 | Newcastle United | ||
| 1909 | 67,651 | Man Utd | 1 | – | 0 | Bristol City | ||
| 1910 | 76,980 | Newcastle | 1 | – | 1 | Barnsley | – | 2–0 in replay at Goodison Park, Liverpool |
| 1911 | 69,098 | Bradford | 0 | – | 0 | Newcastle | – | 1–0 in replay at Old Trafford, Manchester |
| 1912 | 54,434 | Barnsley | 0 | – | 0 | West Brom | – | 1–0 in replay at Bramall Lane, Sheffield |
| 1913 | 120,028 | Aston Villa | 1 | – | 0 | Sunderland | ||
| 1914 | 72,778 | Burnley | 1 | – | 0 | Liverpool |
It was opened in 1964 in Crystal Palace Park, close to the site of the former Crystal Palace Exhibition building which had been destroyed by fire in 1936.
The current stadium built in 1965 has hosted international athletics events and me open air concerts where world famous artists have performed including Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen, Sex Pistols and Depeche Mode.
Their first home game will be on Saturday the 7th of November with a 1.45pm kick off against Sutton Athletic.
Entrance is via Jubilee Stand (East Stand) Gate F, Crystal Palace Park, SE19 2BB. All home Saturday Kick Offs will be at 1.45pm. A full map of the ground can be found here.
Admission is payable on the gate in cash only. They do not currently have a cashless system.
Admission Prices
Adults (17-65) – £7
Concessions (66+) – £3.50
Children (Under 16’s) – Free!
Season Tickets
Adult (17-65) – £88
Concession (66+) – £45
Season tickets are for home SCEFL League games only
Apply for a season ticket – CLICK HERE
Please fill out their SEASON TICKET APPLICATION FORM and club management will process and confirm your request.
All applications are made agreeing to their season ticket terms and conditions.
Fans reacted after reading that the non league club Croydon FC are to move into the historic 24,000 seater stadium…
We wish!
— Croydon FC (@Croydon_FC) October 6, 2020
And you can buy a season ticket for the 2020-21 season, details are here – https://t.co/DIrBVGLUDK
— Croydon FC (@Croydon_FC) October 7, 2020
It’ll be good to see you again
— Croydon FC (@Croydon_FC) October 7, 2020
Tremendous!
Literally just randomly discovered you guys! Great story and exciting times
This is why I LOVE football twitter
— Super_Leeds_MOT??????????☠️?? (@SuperLeedsUtd5) October 8, 2020
Massive relief mate no doubt to get a ground sorted with not getting back in the arena and pressure behind the scenes I would imagine too. Sticking to the athletics track routes as well ?? Catch up soon and all the best gilesy.
— Ryan Watts (@Wattsy_89) October 6, 2020
Remember when we spoke about it and because of the number of councils involved it made it hard to do anything, but fair play to Croydon they have cut through that red tape & could it mean it could be used for football permanently in the future?
— Jed_Die (@Jed_Die) October 7, 2020
Welcome to Crystal Palace. @wanderersafc are great neighbours! Hopefully between @angelawilkins1 and us we can get the tramline extended to you ?
— Stephen Mann (@stephenjmann) October 6, 2020
Great news. A fantastic move. Good luck for the 20/21 season. ⚽️??
— Bob White (@Bacoletplayer) October 6, 2020
Fantastic news ??
— JCPFC (@jackstacpfc) October 6, 2020
Wow that’s mad. Great home to have ?
— Rich Williams (@MrRich_Wills) October 6, 2020
Great news, need a visit here
— neil harvey (@neilbfc1985) October 6, 2020
From one soul less athletics stadium to another. Still, certainly a big step up. Social distancing will be no problem
— Mark Frake (@MarkFrake1) October 6, 2020
See you soon then ?
— Adam Thurston (@athurston_1996) October 6, 2020
This Is A Must Do ?
— Alex Craig (@Alex__Craig) October 6, 2020
I’ll be there this season as it’s only up the road from me, congrats on securing the stadia….
— _Alex_ (@TAKTIKT0E) October 7, 2020
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