When the Holmesdale stand was built at Selhurst Park it was partly funded by fans buying 5 year season tickets at £600 a pop. My father and I duly obliged. I didn’t miss a game but due to the product on the pitch, my loyalty seriously stretched. So I come at this with a little authority. Since I gave up on top level football and took to non league a sea change occurred at Selhurst Park in the Holmesdale.
The once fairly quiet stand of my days has been replaced by the most vibrant stand in the Premiership. To the bottom left hand side, as you look at the stand, we have seen the creation of the Holmesdale Fanatics. I won’t wax too lyrical, suffice to say they have turned Selhurst into a vibrant stadium and helped rebrand Crystal Palace as the punks of top flight football and made us the ‘coolest’ club in the country to many of the uninitiated. Utterly loathed but envied by the south coast enemy Brighton and Hove Albion who wouldn’t know an atmosphere if it hit them in the eye. Or when the Palace turn up to the Amex.
The couple of hundred of them, encouraged and supported by the owners of the club, built a true almost Wimbledon Crazy Gang, Millwall No one likes us South London tradition of attitude.
But as with all good things it has gone tits up. The Fanatics are like marmite to the extent you love or hate them, but everyone agrees they made a great noise and helped create the vibrant atmosphere Selhurst is now renowned for. Sadly for the Fanatics, being regarded in such acclaim by their peers and football in general was not enough. Ill advised ‘football terrorism’ etc as extra curriculum was badly thought out and executed and won them no admirers. Stick to what you are good at.
To cut a long story short although the club often acceded to their demands recognising their importance, in the close season the club took the view they would not over the issue of demands by the Fanatics over seating. To which the Fanatics merely announced they would disband. And have. Fair play to them someone doing what they say they will do is rare these days.
Let’s get one thing straight, as great as the atmosphere they create is they have not created Fortress Selhurst. Our home record is poor. So let’s dispel the myth they are worth home points, they are not. The held view is they regards themselves as overly important and a higher grade of fan than the other 99% of watching supporters. They are not. They are the same and this is their downfall. They morphed from something exciting to arrogant.
That is not to damn them. They got carried away by their own press. They are an enormous asset to Crystal Palace Football Club but the club are right to knock them down a peg or two. They are not the messiah of the terraces, they are the best section of fans in British football and if that is not enough for them and they feel they deserve special treatment, then there is no place for them at the Palace and the club are right to show them the two fingers.
But like many Palace fans I hope the matter is resolved and the Fanatics return as they are brilliant, but need to just stick to the task in hand of making Selhurst special and annoying the tits of our friends from the south coast
The Rights of Fans. 