Josh Harris and David Blitzer, who assembled a majority stake in Crystal Palace for approximately £210 million between 2015 and 2018, have retained advisors to explore a sale at a valuation approaching £800 million, according to people familiar with the process. The partners, who also control the NFL's Washington Commanders and NHL's New Jersey Devils through their Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment platform, are testing appetite among Gulf sovereign wealth funds and U.S. family offices before committing to a formal auction.
The talks arrive nine years after Harris and Blitzer took control from longtime chairman Steve Parish, who retained a 18-21% stake and remains in the building as co-chairman. Palace finished 11th in the 2023-24 Premier League season under manager Oliver Glasner, who replaced Roy Hodgson in February and guided the club to six consecutive wins to close the campaign. The south London side now generates roughly £180-190 million in annual revenue, with Premier League broadcasting distributions accounting for £120 million of that total. The club posted a pre-tax loss of £73.8 million for the year ending June 2023, driven by player acquisition costs and wage growth to £129 million—metrics that would typically concern sellers but are unremarkable in the Premier League's current leverage tolerance.
Harris and Blitzer's willingness to exit reflects two realities. First, Premier League valuations have climbed 40-50% since 2021, propelled by the league's new domestic broadcast deal worth £6.7 billion over four seasons and expanding U.S. media rights now valued at $2.7 billion through 2028. Clubs outside the established Big Six now routinely command £600-900 million, even without marquee infrastructure: Bournemouth sold for £120 million in 2022 at a far lower revenue base, while Everton's troubled sale process still values the Merseyside club above £500 million despite relegation risk. Second, Harris is recalibrating his portfolio after leading a $6.05 billion acquisition of the Commanders in 2023, a deal that required consortium capital and left less bandwidth for secondary holdings. Blitzer, meanwhile, is juggling governance roles across four leagues and recently faced scrutiny for straddling both Palace and his 5% stake in Augsburg in Germany's Bundesliga—a conflict that required structural workarounds.
The sale process, if it advances, will test whether Palace's on-field momentum translates to dealmaking leverage. Glasner has rebuilt the squad around Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise, both of whom attracted bids from Champions League clubs last summer. Eze signed a contract extension in 2023 with no release clause; Olise's deal includes a reported £60 million trigger that Chelsea, Bayern Munich, and Manchester United have all circled. Losing either player would compress valuations by £40-60 million in buyer models, according to two sports finance advisors who have worked on recent Premier League transactions. The club's 26,000-capacity Selhurst Park stadium, untouched since a 1994 rebuild, also lags the 30,000-seat minimum most U.S. institutional buyers now consider table stakes for revenue growth. Palace has planning permission for a 34,000-seat redevelopment designed by KSS architects, but the project carries an estimated £150 million price tag and no confirmed construction timeline.
Potential buyers will include the usual sovereign funds—Abu Dhabi's Tahnoun bin Zayed already controls Manchester City, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund owns Newcastle—but also a newer class of U.S. allocators treating mid-table Premier League clubs as inflation-hedged cash flow assets. Arctos Partners, Sixth Street, and RedBird Capital have all deployed capital into European football in the past 18 months, typically at 8-12x revenue multiples for clubs with stable league positioning. At £800 million, Palace would price near 4.2x revenue, a discount to the 5-6x Tottenham and West Ham command but a premium to the 3-4x Brighton's Tony Bloom has reportedly declined for his club.
Steve Parish's role in any transaction remains ambiguous. His stake and operational title give him blocking rights under the shareholder agreement, and he has publicly stated he will not sell unless the buyer commits to stadium investment and South London ties. That posture tends to soften when the price clears £150 million for a minority position acquired for roughly £4 million in 2010. Harris-Blitzer has not yet named a lead advisor, though Raine Group and Inner Circle Sports have handled most Premier League sales since 2020.
Glasner's squad begins preseason in July with friendlies in the U.S., a market Harris-Blitzer has cultivated through partnerships with NBC and the club's growing American fan base. Palace's summer transfer window will clarify intent: a quiet window suggests sale preparation, while reinvestment in Olise's replacement or a striker signing above £20 million would signal the ownership group is prepared to stay and chase European qualification. The club's kit deal with Macron expires in 2026, and conversations with Nike and Adidas about a replacement contract have quietly started, offering another valuation datapoint for prospective buyers.
The Financial Times first reported the exploratory talks on Tuesday. Harris and Blitzer declined to comment through a spokesperson.
The takeaway
Harris-Blitzer targets 280% return on Palace at £800M, testing whether mid-table Premier League clubs still command sovereign-wealth premiums.
crystal palaceharris blitzerpremier league saleclub valuationownership transitionselhurst park
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