Luton Town Chairman David Wilkinson has said that outside “forces” as well as the Hatters’ promotion to the Premier League last season led to a rethink on their Power Court stadium plans which has resulted “bigger, better” new designs.
The football club’s development company, 2020 Developments, today formally submitted a detailed application to Luton Council for a new 25,000-capacity stadium at Power Court in the heart of Luton town centre.
The full details of the plans will be publicly revealed in a fortnight once council planning officers have validated the application, but the club has released two new images of the stadium and confirmed that the plans will include a hotel and a music venue.
The increase to a 25,000 capacity stadium was also revealed last month. It is one of the aspects that has been made possible, in part, by Town’s money-spinning stint in the Premier League last season.
When plans were originally unveiled in 2016, the club were in League Two so room for 17,500 fans was proposed with room to expand to 23,000.
Since then, there has been the global Covid pandemic and economic and commercial challenges, which forced a rethink on plans for Power Court and its sister site at Newlands Park, which the club eventually sold in November 2022.
It still meant that the stadium plans were going ahead, with the Newlands Park funds helping to pay for it, but then Luton’s promotion to the Premier League last year afforded Luton the chance to reevaluate the scope their plans.
CEO Gary Sweet today said that architects, engineers and technicians have been “breaking the mould in stadium design”.
And for Chairman Wilkinson that means Luton’s Power Court plans are even more ambitious than originally envisioned.
“As an invested observer into this project it was staggering to see the amount of work that has gone into every detail, with such exceptional craftmanship,” he said.
“We appreciate some may be anxious to see some visible progress – as indeed we all are – but the sheer volume of forced changes brought about by society, politics, economic forces and our very own growth, has ultimately led to a bigger, better, more ambitious, more beautiful and more sustainable end product which we are all excited to present.
“We all need to positively get behind our team now to hope that, while we watch the cranes put the concrete and steel in place, the wonderful new stadium debuts as the home to a Premier League team.”
Michael Moran, Chief Operating Officer of 2020 Developments, has also revealed the extent of the effort to get into today’s position of submitting a detailed application to the council.
He said: “Beginning with the original purchase of this site back in 2016, it has been a long process of concluding all the various associated land deals and legal consents, outline planning applications and then the various infrastructure challenges of moving a major sub-station and diverting the River Lea.
“Together with the recent confirmation of planning approval for our earthworks and site remediation efforts, our project team are now fully engaged on a construction timeline that would complete in 2027.
“In addition to, we hope, a truly unique stadium that will resonate with all football supporters, we are committed to achieving a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating to demonstrate our intent to achieve a sustainable environment in support of the Luton 2040 initiative.”
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