“You don’t like football,” is the message from Luton Town chief executive Gary Sweet to anyone that decries the potential of Kenilworth Road to host Premier League football.
The Hatters stand on the precipice of the top flight for the first time since 1992, when they helped set up the division but never got to play in it as they were relegated to the second tier the season before.
On Saturday, Town will take on Coventry City in the Championship play-off final at Wembley for the chance to mix it next term with the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United.
It’s already common knowledge that if Luton make it to the promised land, they will have to shell out £10million on improvements to their 118-year-old stadium.
The executive boxes that once replaced the old Bobbers stand will be transformed to comply with Premier League rules on hosting media, though some fan seating will also be included to add a small bump in capacity.
As Luton powered their way to Wembley, the internet has been awash with memes of the club’s famous away fan entrance to the Oak Road end which takes supporters virtually through the neighbouring terraced houses’ back gardens and into the stand.
Some supporters have even suggested a ground share with a neighbouring club would be a better option. But with the nearest stadia being that of bitter rivals Watford or the hated franchise of MK Dons, who tried to steal the Hatters from their home before breaking the hearts of Wimbledon fans, that was non-starter.
Sweet has even revealed that to do so would cost the club more than the £10million they’ll need to spend on updating their own home, saying: “If we gave any other club 1p it would be more expensive for us than £10m.”
The message is that, should the Hatters win the so-called richest game in world football on Saturday, then Kenilworth Road will be ready for the start of next season.
Sweet said: “I think Kenilworth Road will be an asset to the Premier League. Forget us, I think this is proper real-life real football, this is history and tradition happening right here.
“This isn’t a sterile bowl of a stadium atmosphere where nothing goes on. This is lively, this is emotion, white knuckles, tears and joy and everything right here. This is a cauldron so if you can’t embrace it, whoever you are, you don’t like football.”
And if Luton achieve their dream at the weekend, it will mean Sweet and his 2020 board of directors will have to develop two football grounds, with the promise of new stadium Power Court.
A detailed planning for that is expected in three to four months, with a decision by the end of the year and spades in the ground a few weeks later.
Luton will have their work cut out, but it’s a challenge they relish and asked if the improvements to Kenilworth Road will be possible over the summer, Sweet said: “We believe so. If anyone can do it we can. We’ve got 14 weeks of course we can do it! It is a tough tough task. We’ve been from non-league to Premier League, we hope, in nine seasons so 14 weeks is plenty of time!”
Planning permission to make the changes was pushed through last year, so the improvements are not an unexpected consequence of reaching the Premier League. Quite the opposite, it’s prudent management, which suggests Town have everything in hand.
Sweet said: “We’ve had to do a bit of work this year. Over the last two years, we’ve had to spent £500,000 to get to this stage, which would probably only cost other clubs £20,000.”
He added: “The only thing we have been told is there is a set of criteria that everyone can see. Rule K of the Premier League handbook which everyone has to comply to so we have to do it.
“We have not been told what to do but we need to comply to it and that is what we are doing.
“We have no complaints about that. It will cost £10m-ish. That is part of the inclusion to the Premier League membership. If we are going to do it let’s do it properly.”
On the changes that will take place to the old Bobbers Stand if promotion is secure, Sweet said: “There will be quite a few seats in the new stand. We have the chance to increase capacity a little but it will be a media centre for you guys and for cameras and for VAR.
“We will also have to put in studios and a canteen and other sub-studios and toilet facilities for the media and things. The Premier League have hundreds of contracts with broadcasters around the world.
“They rightly want to deliver production of quality so one of the things we need to do is upgrade the floodlights because to get any good HD image you need good lighting on the pitch.
“In all of this what we are trying to do is test what we can use for the new stadium. Luminaires for the floodlights, for example, can they come with us? We hate waste so we hate doing things for three years.
“We’re here and then they go to waste so anything we can use which can be reused for another product, so a temporary stand for example which we can use once we leave here is good. Seating we can reuse or sell is another example.”
On a potential capacity increase to the Hatters’ home, Sweet said: “I don’t know exactly yet. It isn’t going to be much. There will be seats but there will be seat kills. We have to put space for 50 cameras so it will be a few hundred seats. If you wander out later say, ‘where am I going to put 50 cameras here?’”
And for all the continued attempted online mockery of Luton’s home ground and that Oak Road entrace, Sweet said: “There are literally no other access points. If you can find me one I’ll be happy to put a door in. It is as it is.
“We might give it a lick of paint and new signage every so often but let’s embrace this. It annoys me but makes me giggle at the same time when you get all the social media content about entering in a garden but it has been the same since World War II so why is it brought up now?
“(Manchester City’s Erling) Haaland isn’t going to wak through that entrance he’ll go through the other shit entrance we’ve got. There is no great entrance here. It is what it is guys, embrace it!
“People might take the Mickey about all of this but it doesn’t bother us. We have thick skins here and actually it shows a bit of fear doesn’t it? The story is there in itself in that this is what we can achieve with what we’ve got.
“It is a reminder that you don’t need lavish surroundings to succeed. You can do it by hard work and intelligence and guile and sensible financial management and everyone pulling in the same direction without having a beautiful stadium. It is beautiful by the way. The old girl is beautiful.”
2 Trackbacks / Pingbacks
Comments are closed.