Luton Town chief executive Gary Sweet has blasted the ‘mayhem’ of having to spend more than £1million to bring their Kenilworth Road stadium into compliance with the Championship for the benefit of television viewers.
The Hatters supremo insisted that having to pay for the extra costs of things like new press areas, goal-line technology and a new television camera gantry, which was used in Friday’s 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough, can put clubs into financial difficulty.
Sweet penned the missive in his match-day programme notes for the televised season opener, saying it goes against everything the club stands for and too often ignores the loyal match-going supporters.
He wrote: ‘As a newcomer entering this new world as a rising star after winning our league below, we have needed to spend over £1m on stadium facilities – to include goal-line technology, new television camera positions, new press areas, new dugouts, not including the numerous commercial and safety enhancements we’ve made – all in order to be compliant to provide armchair viewers a comfortable platform to watch tonight’s game.
‘Such financial competitivity in the Championship is leading to clubs, who may not be gifted with complimentary windfalls as a reward for failure, or immensely wealthy (and usually temporary) benefactors who seem to be on a personal ego trip or on a fantasy journey to find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, experiencing difficulties.
‘In this mayhem, of which we are now a member, it is the traditional, loyal supporter that is far too easily forgotten.
‘Well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, whilst we have no choice but to join this mayhem, competing in this way is not who we are and not who we will ever be.
‘We (2020) are not in this game intent on utilising the beautiful game for our own self-gratification or self-publication.
Neither are we foolish enough to think that football is a platform where easy profit is made.
‘We, perhaps along with our visitors today, remain as one of the last bastions of club custodians who are lifelong fans of our club and who will put our supporters, our community and our town first – an unwavering stance which defines who we are and which has firmly established the culture we will live and die by.
‘Therefore, if we want to avoid becoming another Bolton Wanderers [insert the name of any other club of the many in current turmoil], to compete at this level, we need to operate creatively, intelligently, boldly and bonded together, all singing from the same hymn-sheet! We must establish different methods of creating our unique competitive edge, that do not necessarily rely on brute financial muscle. We firmly believe there is a better, less irrational, less egotistical way to climb this pyramid and one we’ve been practising and refining since we returned to the Football League.
‘Lutopia – The Luton Way – is something we’ve been brewing for some considerable time. A method of sustainability and progression which slowly brews the ingredients of our culture (indeed, cultures as a harmonious plural) in the pot with our ambition and principled position whereby we need to feed into our environment more than we take from it.
‘To accomplish this, our most difficult season in the Championship will be this one and then every season while we remain at Kenilworth Road. Unity and patience will be required from everybody now and beyond, certainly until we make our move to Power Court, which will provide a more financially sustainable and competitive football club than Lutonians have ever witnessed.
‘We will experience teething problems and growing pains, but this is progress.’
