Luton Town’s first home game in the Premier League has been postponed despite work to upgrade their Kenilworth Road stadium being ahead of schedule.
The Burnley clash on August 19 will now have to be rescheduled, which means Town’s Premier League debut at home will now be against West Ham United on Friday September 1, live on Sky Sports.
Earlier in the week chairman David Wilkinson had teased the idea that the Burnley game could be changed despite excellent progress with £12million revamp of the old Bobber’s Stand, and work to make the stadium ready for top flight football and its broadcasting requirements.
While chief executive Gary Sweet has called the decision “regrettable”, the club have reiterated that the construction work is still ahead of schedule.
In a statement, Luton say the decision to postpone the Burnley game is because ‘the club cannot absolutely guarantee supporters that any future unforeseen issues would not cause any delay potentially impacting upon the scheduled opening game at home.’
The Hatters also said: ‘Whilst ongoing work is progressing extremely well and currently ahead of schedule, the Premier League understandably requires guarantees to its fixture schedule within sufficient time to advise supporters and broadcasters of any changes in advance.’
Luton CEO Sweet, said: “The joint decision to delay this fixture is regrettable, especially given the amazing progress that continues to be made on our construction works; our current programme is indeed on time, but there is no additional contingency and therefore can’t give a cast-iron guarantee at this stage that a problem outside of our control, however minor, wouldn’t force a postponement further down the line and inconveniencing supporters of both clubs.
“Although this news will be a disappointment, this will make the matchday experience even greater for fans when they do get to come back.
“We would like to thank the Premier League and Burnley for their help in arriving at this practical decision.”
The postponement means that should the Hatters not be drawn at home in the second round of the Carabao Cup, the first home match of the new campaign will be the visit of West Ham United on Friday 1st September an 8pm kick-off live on Sky Sports.
Sweet explained further: “All works being carried out have been carefully planned to minimise disruption for our neighbours during the construction period and minimise impact on match-days.
“We would particularly like thank our neighbours in the local Bury Park community who are showing so much understanding with the work taking place on their doorsteps. Without their support this whole process would be so much tougher.
“Additionally, we would like to take this opportunity to give our gratitude to our very supportive Council in helping us with community engagement to allow our time and efforts to focus on minimising timescale and disruption. As I have mentioned before, the challenge for our relatively small business has to scale up so quickly is a such gargantuan task in every aspect that is taking every minute of our day and every ounce of our energy but, together with our excellent team of specialist contractors, we know the end result will all be worthwhile.
“Looking positively, as well as the required work to make our stadium compliant, which the Premier League are being so supportive of, we are also making a number of non-mandatory improvements to Kenilworth Road in both home and away areas that will that will improve the matchday experience for everyone, particularly for home and away disabled supporters, broadcasters, journalists and supporters in certain areas of the ground, and this does mean these works should also be complete in time for the new date.”
The new date for the Burnley game is yet to be announced.
I am glad to be a visitant of this arrant web site! , appreciate it for this rare info ! .