Luton Town gear up for first Premier League home game after £10m Kenilworth Road upgrade completed
Luton Town Football Club is preparing to welcome back top-flight football to Kenilworth Road for the first time in 31 years.
The Hatters take on West Ham on Friday night and council bosses are delighted that the spotlight will be back on the Bedfordshire town again.
Promotion will deliver a financial boost to the club but there are also hopes that the club's Premier League status will bring wider benefit social and economic benefits to the area as a whole.
"Luton once was a town where whatever you wore, you either wore a hat or drove a car which was manufactured in Luton," said Aslam Khan, deputy leader of Luton Borough Council.
"The football club gives us that opportunity to be on centre stage once again."
With the town buzzing in anticipation, local businesses, are also hoping to reap the benefits.
The owner of the Coffee Pot cafe, Tanher Ahmed, has been putting extra staff on.
"We've got about seven, eight people working today, myself, my other partners all going to be working today," he told ITV News Anglia on Friday in the run-up to the game.
"The only thing left to say is good luck to Luton, Luton fans. Come on, Luton!"
Work to bring the club's ageing Kenilworth Road stadium up to the required Premier League standards for broadcast specifications started just days after the Hatters were promoted from the Championship in late May.
After £10m of improvements, the capacity of the Bobbers stand has now increased by around a thousand.
In the long term, the club plans to build a new state-of-the-art stadium in the town centre.
The 20-acre site at Power Court, which is currently a car park, will be the location for the proposed 19,500-seat capacity ground which will also be accompanied by new homes, as well as leisure facilities.
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