Brighton and Hove Albion are an “example” for a Luton side looking to establish themselves in the Premier League, but chief executive Gary Sweet says the Hatters will do things their own way.
After the fixtures were released today, Town will travel to the Amex Stadium for their first-ever Premier League clash.
The Seagulls have also come from the lower leagues and will next season be playing football in Europe for the first time after establishing them in the Premier League.
The two clubs have close ties after former manager Nathan Jones left the south-coast to join Town. Sweet too has previously spoken of Brighton in the sense of an economic study into the benefits that top-flight football and a new stadium has been “worth £500million to the local community”.
Brentford too have moved into a new home and are now an established Premier League outfit.
Luton are expecting to start work on their new Power Court stadium at the turn of the year, with the 19,500-capacity ground expected to be ready by 2026.
For now, Premier League football will have to be played at Town’s 118-year-old Kenilworth Road stadium, and because it is undergoing £10million worth of upgrades to comply with Premier League rules, it was expected that Luton would not host the curtain-raiser on their campaign, with Burnley the first visitors after their trip to the seaside.
But after being pitted against Brighton for their first foray in the top flight of English football for 31 years, Sweet said of Albion: “(They’re) a fantastic model. Just the way they run the business, but also the stadium development that they’ve done and they way that they’ve transformed the city has been terrific.
“It is an example to us. Clearly, we’ll need to do things differently. We want to do things differently here, but we’ve got to look at examples like Brighton and Brentford and what they’ve delivered.”
Talking of the fixtures release to Sky Sports, Sweet said: “It was relatively kind, I think. It could’ve been much worse. I was at the (AGM) Conference down in Hampshire with other Premier League clubs. Clubs were telling me about their nightmare first three or four fixtures when they start a campaign for the first time, so we’re really delighted with that.”
He added: “It’s great to go to Brighton. It will give the fans a great day out in the sunshine, hopefully. They’ll enjoy it, but it’s a friendly club, Brighton. We were with them during this week, so I’m really looking forward to that opener.”
