Crystal Palace bought their training ground for £2.3m today.

The 12.3 acre site in Beckenham was sold at an auction in London by Gakero Limited and had a guide price of £2m for the freehold.

The acquisition means the club, stadium and training ground are all now under the ownership of the CPFC 2010 consortium - who were previously paying £200,310pa rent on the training ground.

"You might say it is the final piece in the jigsaw, but perhaps not so dramatic as that," said co-chairman Steve Browett.

"It is good the club is in control of everything and that the club, the stadium and the training ground are all together now.

"It was not too much of a problem being there and paying the rent, but at some stage the landlord could have chucked us out or put the rent up from what was already a high figure.

"So Steve Parish had a meeting with Ian Holloway, Keith Millen, Gary Issott and Ben Garner on Saturday and told them we had this opportunity but they needed to say if it wasn't a good training ground and if they wanted to move further out and have more space.

"But they really think Beckenham is a good and everyone is happy with it.

"Gary and Ben said how important it was that we, as an inner city club, can attract kids from our area.

"If we didn't have Beckenham and moved to a training ground further out somewhere, it would make it difficult for kids from Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth and Bromley to come.

"We are a south London club and it is important we had a training ground close to our stadium."