Ron Noades

Wimbledon Noades then took over Wimbledon, who were elected to the Football League in 1977. They won promotion from the Fourth Division in only their second season as a Football League club, although they were relegated after just one season. He then entered tentative talks with the Milton Keynes Development Corporation with a view to relocating the club to the new town some 70 miles away in Buckinghamshire, but nothing came of this. Ironically, Wimbledon would ultimately be relocated to Milton Keynes more than 20 years later.

Noades remained chairman of Wimbledon until 1981, when the club won a second promotion to the Third Division. Just before departing, he appointed Dave Bassett as manager – a move which would bring the club great success.

Crystal Palace As Crystal Palace chairman, he led them through their brightest period, which included promotion to the old First Division (1989), an FA Cup final (1990), a third-placed finish in the First Division (1991), and winning the Full Members Cup (also in 1991). He took the club over just after their relegation from the First Division in 1981, and after three difficult seasons where they narrowly avoided dropping into the Third Division, the turning point came in May 1984 when he appointed the former Manchester United and England winger Steve Coppell as manager following his retirement from playing through injury.

In 1985–86, Palace fell just short of promotion to the First Division, but they had just added striker Ian Wright from non-league Greenwich Borough to their ranks, and then signed striker Mark Bright from Leicester City to create what was one of the most prolific strikeforces in the club's history. Promotion finally occurred in 1989, and a year later Palace took Manchester United to a replay in the final of the FA Cup before a narrow defeat. They finished third in the league a year later.

In 1991, Noades provoked controversy with his comments on the racial make-up of his team: "The black players at this club lend the side a lot of skill and flair, but you also need white players in there to balance things up and give the team some brains and some common sense." The fall-out led to several black players leaving the club, including key players Ian Wright, Mark Bright and Andy Gray.

Palace were relegated from the Premier League in 1993 at the end of its first season, but were promoted a year later, only to go down again after just one season, during which they were semi-finalists in both domestic cups. Promotion was achieved for the third time in less than a decade in 1997, but again Palace were relegated after just one season.

In 1998, Noades sold his interest in Palace to recruitment tycoon Mark Goldberg for £22,000,000

Ownership of Selhurst Park

Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan made public his intentions to either purchase and re-develop Selhurst Park, or move to a new stadium. However, Noades announced in April 2006 that Jordan had not made any offers for the stadium, and that he had no intention of selling the stadium, either. Nonetheless, in October 2006, Jordan announced he had purchased the freehold of the stadium site four days previously for £12m, using an investment mechanism that kept his identity secret. It later turned out that this was incorrect and the freehold was owned by companies under the control of Paul Kemsley. Jordan announced in April 2008 that he had secured the football club a 25-year lease for Selhurst Park Stadium together with the option to purchase the freehold within that period.

Unbeknownst to Jordan, Ron Noades and Paul Kemsley knew each other and Noades was fully aware of what Jordan was doing prior to agreeing to the sale. Noades in fact wrote to Jordan prior to accepting the offer through Kemsley's investment group and offered him the Stadium for the same price. Jordan never replied and so Kemsley was allowed to purchase Selhurst Park.

Business interests Noades owned several golf courses in south-east England. Known as the Altonwood Group, it includes Surrey National Golf Club (formerly Happy Valley), Westerham Golf Club, The Addington Golf Club, Woldingham Golf Club (formerly Dukes Dene) and Godstone Golf Club (on a site formerly used as Crystal Palace's training ground).

Death Noades, who was a non-smoker, died from lung cancer on 24 December 2013 in Purley, London. He was 76.