Power Court: What are the new Luton stadium plans?

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Luton Town have made it to the Premier League! Following their penalty shootout victory over Coventry City in the 2023 Championship playoff final, football fans all around the world started taking an interest in the uniqueness of Luton's current ground, Kenilworth Road. But as you may know already, Luton have plans to move to Power Court in the coming years. With the team's recent success and promotion to the Premier League, let's check in on the latest updates on the new Luton stadium development.

Why Do Luton Town Need a New Stadium?

The Hatters have played at their Kenilworth Road Ground since 1905, but local restrictions have meant that the Club would find it very difficult to redevelop Kenilworth Road and have decided instead to move the Club to a new location.

Even before their successful Championship campaign this season and earning promotion to Premier League, Luton Town was aware that Kenilworth Road wouldn't be able to pass the scrutiny of PL rulebook regarding teams' grounds and that changes were needed if they want to play at the highest level, which was always the team's ambition.

So, with Kenilworth Road unfit for the Premier League in the long term and the club unable to overcome that issue by developing the ground further, Luton Town decided to make plans for a new stadium instead.

What Are the Plans for Luton's New Stadium?

In 2019, Luton Borough Council granted planning permission for a 23,000-seat stadium at Power Court. The location is popular with supporters as it remains within Luton and is around one mile away from Kenilworth Road (not far from the railway station). The new stadium has an interesting design as shown below (courtesy of the Luton Town website, where more information and images can be found).

The scheme has also received a major financial boost with the decision by Luton Borough Council to approve plans for a Hotel and Retail Park to be built near Junction 10 of the M1. Called Newlands Park, the development will help pay for the new Luton Town Stadium.

When will Luton move to their new ground?

The club have announced that a construction time for the stadium will be around 24 to 30 months, starting at the end of the year. So, the fans won't be able to see major developments until 2025 at the earliest, but more likely the new Luton stadium won't be ready until 2026.

The images also show the stadium in the first phase of development, with a capacity of 19,500, which also includes around a third of the capacity as safe-standing. The second phase of development would add another 4,000 seats, “standing seats”, according to demand.

Luton Town said the next stage in the development was to talk to Luton Council and some of the key stakeholders like the Environment Agency and Historic England, to go through the design process with them in more detail.