Luton boss Rob Edwards has praised the club for the “amazing achievement” of revamping their Kenilworth Road Stadium ahead of its Premier League debut against West Ham United.
Construction work began the day after the Hatters won promotion to the top-flight via the Championship play-offs in May and an intensive 13-week project completed only a matter of hours before Tuesday’s 3-2 Carabao Cup win over Gillingham.
That was Luton fans’ first experience of the new Bobbers Stand, which was home to the infamous executive boxes since 1986.
With new seating and new media facilities and floodlights to fulfil Premier League requirements, there has been a raft of changes all of the stadium to improve supporters’ match day experience, with chief executive Gary Sweet saying there will be more improvements made throughout the season.
Speaking “of the transformation, Edwards said: “(It’s an) amazing achievement by everyone involved, Gary and the board, everyone from planners and people who have done the work, it’s amazing what they’ve achieved in such a short space of time.
“It was great to be there on Tuesday night for a cup game, but this (Luton’s home Premier League debut) is going to be really special, a really special occasion, and I want everyone to once they’ve got in early and seen the new stand, to focus on the game and singing and making a lot of noise.”
From new entrances, gantries, concession stands and even a lick of paint for the away dressing room, Kenilworth Road’s days may be numbered – with new stadium Power Court expected to be ready by 2026 – but the ‘old girl’ is going out in style.
Speaking to BBC Three Counties Radio, CEO Sweet said of the revamp: “There’s going to be some slight dysfunctionality. People might get a little annoyed at the way things might have to change. People don’t like change generally, but there’s a lot of change going on here.
“Within a couple of games it will all settle down to a behaviour and a habit and you’ll love it again, I hope.
“Particularly the Bobber’s, I think this really characterises this old girl. One of things we really wanted to do was to make sure that the last three or so years of being at Kenilworth Road just leaves this memory of the way it looks at the moment.
“The one thing I will say is that there’s still a lot of work we want to do. We’re now compliant. We’re media compliant, safety compliant and we’ve got a safety certificate.
“We’re all happy to go but there are still a number of things that we want to do to this place to make it a little bit better.
“So, where some people might come in and say, ‘well, I haven’t noticed any changes’, let’s give it a few games. There are still three international windows this side of Christmas and there’ll be work going on in each of them.”
