The chance of Luton fans returning to Kenilworth Road hinges on the success of the EFL’s ‘return of fans’ test fixtures this weekend, says Hatters chief executive Gary Sweet, who has revealed why the club had to pull out on a confusing afternoon, yesterday.
A lack of preparation time was the reason stated by the club yesterday. They had told the league, but the governing body still announced the Hatters were to be one of ten Football League fixtures that could welcome back up to 1,000 supporters for Saturday’s fixtures.
The confusion sparked mixed reaction online, so Sweet and Town’s General Operations Manager, Paul Watson, appeared a special bonus episode of the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust podcast to explain the complications behind why the club were unable to take part.
And the Hatters chief revealed that, even though participation at the weekend would have cost Luton Town money, they “were quite looking forward to being a bit of a trailblazer for football”.
He added of the decision not to participate in the pilot programme this weekend: “This wasn’t a commercial decision, this was a responsible decision.”
Morecambe and Hull City have since pulled out of hosting test events, meaning that there are now only seven of the original ten test fixtures going ahead, as football makes the first tentative steps towards crowds returning for the first time since the Coronavirus shutout in March.
Sweet will now be looking to the remaining test fixtures on Saturday with interest, the success of which may dictate whether Hatters fans could return to Kenilworth Road, with the October 3 Championship clash against Wycombe Wanderers pencilled in.
“When these games get played, I think there’s now seven, they’ve got to be really successful,” he said, adding: “We can’t have any issues because otherwise we won’t be able to think about Wycombe.
“If you get mini spikes in infection rates in those regions shortly after, or if those games don’t go smoothly and safely, in terms of their operation, we’ve got an issue here. Everyone’s got an issue, football’s got an issue.”
Watson explained that the task of getting Town fans back in Kenilworth Road is more difficult than a club with a newer stadium, on account of “dealing with almost four separate stadiums, with four stands”.
He also revealed that their detailed planning with various agencies and organisations, such as the police, effectively considers everything from when fans leave their house, the journey to the stadium and their experience once inside.
Sweet added: “We’ve got a stadium that’s over 115 years old. If we were in Power Court, we’d probably still be going ahead with it (the test event) because it would be so much easier.”
He added: “Car parking is one of the examples. One or two people have asked me, ‘how is it that other clubs can get this on and we can’t?’
“Well, if you’re Middlesbrough and you’ve got 1,000 car parking spaces just outside the front door, you can have 1,000 people drive up and just walk in. We can’t do that.”
You can listen to the full interview on the Luton Town Supporters’ Trust podcast, in which the radio row with BBC and iFollow issues are also discussed.
Hatters manager Nathan Jones also spoke about missing out on the chance to have fans in Kenilworth Road for the Derby match, saying: “It would be nice, be a little taster and be nice for our fans and for us to get a little bit of vocality in, but it’s just unavoidable.
“The timescales were conducive for us to adhere to all the EFL regulations, that was something the EFL delayed slightly, I think, which meant the club couldn’t fulfil everything and if you can’t fulfil everything then the sensible option is not to do it.
“It’s sad, but it’s just one of those things and I’m hoping we get to do it sooner rather than later as we do miss our fans.
“Test events are going on, so providing those events happen, there are a lot of campaigns about at the minute, but one really should be for just sensibility in Britain and England, in terms of people adhering to the Covid restrictions, as it’s just probably peoples not doing that that is leading to the delays and the slowness and reentering of certain lockdowns.
“So, hopefully, we can all do that and we can all get back to a level of normality sooner rather than later.”
