Away from the first team defeat to Liverpool there have been a few talking points throughout the last week between those connected to the Eagles.
After a bit of a wait, the away kit has been restocked in the club shop. The hugely successful launch saw the shirt quickly sell-out and highlighted the eagerness of Palace fans to purchase merchandise associated with the Eagles return to the top flight.
In getting to the top-flight Palace overcame rivals Brighton, and the south-coast’s development squad came to Selhurst this week to face their Eagles contemporaries. Despite falling two behind, Palace were not going to allow the home support to go home empty-handed, and clawed their way back to earn a point in an entertaining 2-2 draw.
As the “Twenty is Pletny” campaign, initially started last season, began to pick up more attention this week with the distribution of money in the Premier League to subsidise away tickets, Palace announced half season ticket prices for the remainder of the season.
Promotion to the Premier League led to increases in full season tickets, and the half-season ones have also been affected by playing in the top league. But with opponents like United, City, Liverpool and Chelsea to visit Selhurst in the second half of the campaign these are likely to be a popular purchase and with the average cost per game of the most expensive ticket being £35, this will be attractive to a number of supporters.
The thing to look out for next on this front will be when the full season ticket prices for next season will be released, and what conditions there are. Considering Palace’s current position in the league, they have to explore the possibility that it will be Championship football next campaign and this must be reflected in the ticket costs/procedures.
It will be keenly looked out for by supporters and is bound to split opinion, but let’s hope that there are no extreme changes and that realistic targets/prices are put forward.
Something else that has split opinion this week is the use of smoke bombs in grounds. There have been vast quantities of opinion plastered across the internet about this so a discussion will not be had here. Arguably, other campaigns should be of just as much if not more focus to football supporters, such as Stand Against Modern Football’s ‘Take a Stand’ and the calls to end legalised touting of football tickets through online companies.
With an international break upon us, perhaps there will be success during the week for those members of the squad who are representing their countries. Until next week …
Daniel Smith - @dmsmith1987