Luton Town have added an additional 800 seats to Kenilworth Road after the club completed their safe standing section in the Oak Road Stand.
The development means that the Hatters have more than doubled the capacity for home fans in that section of the ground and will likely add to the intimidating atmosphere already present at the stadium.
Luton Town complete installation of safe standing section at Kenilworth Road
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Why has the safe standing section been built?
Despite the club planning on departing Kenilworth Road in the near future – the Hatters are expected to depart the stadium by 2026 – club officials believe there is still a clear financial gain to be made from the introduction of a safe standing section.
A statement from the club read: “Because of the increase in capacity, pay-back would be well under two seasons with the additional benefit of allowing more supporters into the stadium.
“This increase has been made possible by a number of strategies, including increasing the number of usable rows, decreasing the segregation zone, having all standing seats as allocated positions and losing one gangway.”
However, the club have also explained that this construction will allow them to build a perfect safe standing section at their new ground, which they are expecting to be a significant proportion of the stadium.
An increase of 800 seats in terms of capacity also means that Kenilworth Road is no longer the smallest ground in the Premier League – that award now goes to Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium with a capacity of 11,329.
When do safe standing tickets go live at Luton?
Remarkably, the club have provided tickets for the safe standing section for their upcoming clash against Aston Villa on March 2, via a general sale.
As a result, Luton bosses are expecting that this match will achieve the highest attendance ever recorded at the ground since they took over the facility in 2008.