Sweet: ‘We’ve got to try and change the face of Luton a little bit. It is a great town’

If the Hatters reach the Premier League today, chief executive Gary Sweet says the club will use “every ounce” of what reaching that achievement will mean to help “change the face of Luton”.

Town face Coventry in the Championship play-off final this evening for a shot at reaching the top flight for the first time since 1992.

Luton were founding members of the Premier League but got relegated from the old First Division months before the inaugural season. 

Since then the Hatters have faced incredible adversity, three administrations, almost going out of business, a 30-point penalty and five years in the non-league wilderness. 

But since 2014, when John Still guided the club back to the Football League, it has been an almost unprecedented period of success to get to this point and their place in the so-called richest game in world football. 

That’s because a place in the Premier League could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds to the club and the town of Luton. 

The club this week released new images of their new Power Court stadium, which is expected to be built by 2026. And since gaining planning consent in 2019, the Hatters’ new home has been the centrepiece of an ongoing regeneration plan for Luton over the next 17 years, to transform the town. 

Sweet has been instrumental in that, as he was in saving the club from oblivion in 2008, with his 2020 board of directors. Asked what reaching the Premier League would mean for the club, he instead turned his attention to the wider picture, saying: “I think what I’d like to start with is what it means for the town actually. 

“All the shareholders of Luton Town Football Club, we are, maybe not now, but we are from Luton and Bedfordshire. 

“We came into this project 15 years ago in order to try and make a difference to Luton and the locality. That is one of the key objectives we had. 

“Our involvement in the community, our involvement in the inclusion of supporters in some decision-making, our partnerships with stakeholders such as the council, the airport and the university, those key partners in town who drive the economic growth and the spirit of the town and also to try and shape the culture a little bit, which I think we are doing. 

“I think we are beginning to make a difference but also from the charitable point of view of what we’re doing with our Community Trust and the engagements from that point of view so that is our starting point. What the club does is make that more impactful and easier to deliver so for us this means everything. 

“It is a huge challenge, a huge task, a huge accomplishment. We absolutely recognise the size of it. We’re more than happy to embrace it. 

“We will use every single ounce of what that can deliver for us to enhance those engagements we’ve got and to try and change the face of Luton a little bit. 

“It is a great town. It has a beating heart and soul. People don’t recognise that from the outside.”

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire told ITV that the Hatters could “expect the level of revenue at the club to increase by 700 per cent to 800 per cent [to around £136 to 153million) should they be successful and be promoted.”

Sweet said: “There are two economic impacts. There is one which is directly upon the club and I think everybody knows what this game means to Luton Town Football Club. 

“It is called the richest club game in the world and it has that impact. Of course, we stand at a disadvantage to many on that because we have a few million to spend on this old girl here (Kenilworth Road will need £10million of upgrades) and we’ve got a new stadium moving to.

“To the town there are no specific studies but it is dozens of millions, over £100m. I think Brighton have produced a study with the annual impact and being in the Premier League and a new stadium has been worth £500m to the local community so with Premier League and a new ground why should we be any different?”