Financing deal: reports in the business press today link the funding for Crystal Palace’s new main stand to a possible £1billion sale of shares in the club by three American co-owners
Bankers on Wall Street and in The City have been tasked with finding potential buyers for Crystal Palace Football Club in a possible £1billion-plus sale.
Palace’s American billionaire owners, Josh Harris, David Blitzer and Woody Johnson, are making moves to off-load their combined 79% ownership share in the club, according to reports in the Financial Times.
The news comes on the same day that Palace confirmed that Pierre Sage would be joining the club next month as its new head coach, replacing Oliver Glasner.
The potential sale, according to the FT, is connected with the funding of Palace’s £200million new stand, which has suffered numerous delays to development and which has almost tripled in building costs since first proposed.
Billionaire: former Trump ambassador Woody Johnson paid £550m for his 43% share in Palace in July 2025
The FT reports “people with direct knowledge of the matter” saying that the club is working with bankers at Raine Group to handle the process and “is open to a variety of options, including a full sale”.
According to the FT‘s sources, “other options for securing new capital were also on the table”.
The valuation of the club was around £1.28billion, before Palace’s players added the Charity Shield and UEFA Conference League to the FA Cup in the Selhurst Park trophy cabinet.
It is not yet a year since Johnson, a member of the Johnson and Johnson business dynasty, acquired his 43% stake in Palace, following the messy exit of John Textor, whose interests in other clubs in Europe led to the demotion of 2025 FA Cup-winners Palace from the Europa League to the Conference League last season – though with an ultimately happy outcome.
Johnson, who owns the New York Jets NFL team and was the US ambassador to Britain during the first Trump administration, bought his stake for £550million.
Billionaire: Josh Harris has interests in multiple sports franchises, including the Washinton Commanders NFL team
Josh Harris, the founder of private equity firm Apollo Global Management, also has interests in multiple American sports franchises (Philadelphia 76ers basketball, New Jersey Devils ice hockey and Washington’s American football team). He first bought in to Palace in 2015 and holds an 18% stake in the club.
Palace’s third American billionaire, David Blitzer, chairs private equity firm Blackstone’s tactical opportunities division, and is noted as the first person to own a share of clubs in all five US major sports leagues.
Currently, he shares interests with Harris in ice hockey and American football, as well as the Cleveland Guardians baseball team. Blitzer came on board at Palace in 2015 and, like Harris, holds 18% equity in the club – worth around £234million.
Billionaire: David Blitzer is the first person to have ownership in franchises in five major US sports leagues
Blitzer is also a shareholder in Global Football Holdings, which separately from Palace has partial ownership of football clubs in Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and Denmark.
Through this past decade of change of trophy-winning success, lifelong Palace fan Steve Parish has remained as Palace’s executive chair, a position he has held since saving the club from receivership in 2010.
Parish is said to hold around 10% of Palace shares. The only other significant shareholder at Palace is South African businessman Robert Franco, with around 5% of shares.
The FT reports: “A person familiar with the matter said the sale of a controlling stake could help to secure a superior price.”
And they say: “The potential sale comes as Palace pushes to modernise its creaking Selhurst Park stadium, parts of which date back to the 1920s. The club has been working on a plan to rebuild one stand, which would expand overall capacity by 8,000 to more than 34,000 people. However, the project has dragged on for several years, in part due to surging cost projections.
“One person familiar with the matter said the club was exploring its financing options related to the stadium redevelopment and ahead of a second season of European football. Crystal Palace declined to comment.”
Palace made a pre-tax profit of £8.3million on revenues of £196.6million in 2024-2025.
Harris and Blitzer were part of the $6billion purchase of the Washington Commanders NFL team in 2023, which has since announced plans for a new stadium expected to cost close to $4billion.
Read more: Parish’s position in jeopardy as Textor stages a Palace coup
Read more: Glasner’s farewell letter to Palace fans: ‘Together, we believed’
Read more: Wharton, ‘the Wilpshire Pirlo’, makes World Cup case to Tuchel
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