Luton Town, nine years after being out of the English professional league system, are coming to the Premier League.
The Hatters clinched promotion from the Championship on penalties, seeing off Coventry City 6-5 in the tiebreaker after 120 minutes of play ended in a stalemate.
An inspired run from Elijah Adebayo set Jordan Clark up for an opener midway through the first half for Luton, only for Gustavo Hamer to draw Coventry level in the 66th minute.
Luton had multiple potential winners called back, including one in extra time from Joe Taylor that was overruled by VAR, before going a perfect six for six in the shootout. Coventry’s Fankaty Dabo was the only player from either side to miss, blazing over the bar and sending the orange-clad half of Wembley into jubilation.
It also means the 2023-24 Premier League is going to see some extraordinarily odd fixtures at Kenilworth Road, Luton’s unique home stadium.
Kenilworth Road is very, very small
Luton has been playing at Kenilworth Road since 1905, but that’s not what would make it unlike anything else in the Premier League.
The fact is that the historic venue is literally tucked away among rowhomes in Luton’s Bury Park neighborhood. Kenilworth Road seats just 10,356, which is nearly 10% less than the record holder for smallest Premier League home ground, Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium (which has a capacity of 11,307).
The entrance to the Oak Stand, Kenilworth Road’s away end, is in fact comprised of two converted rowhomes, with residents on Oak Road obliged to move their cars on matchday so visiting fans can line up to enter.
For romantics, what could be better? Giants like Manchester City and Arsenal coming to play Premier League matches at a stadium like this is the stuff of dreams for a certain genre of soccer fan.
On the other hand, the Premier League will insist on around eight figures worth of upgrades to things like broadcasting infrastructure, new floodlights, a larger press box and media conference room, and more. Luton will have a shade under three months to get all of that work done to meet Premier League requirements.
For Luton, there’s a badge of honor in all this.
“Haaland’s not going to walk through that entrance. He is going to walk through the other s— entrance we’ve got. There is no great entrance here. Embrace it,” said Luton CEO Gary Sweet in an interview with The Athletic. “People might take the mickey but it doesn’t bother us. We’ve got thick skins here and, actually, it shows a little bit of fear.”
U.S. men’s national team goalkeeper Ethan Horvath has been first-choice for Luton all year, and though his status is up in the air — he’s playing for the Hatters on loan from Nottingham Forest — he knows the significance of bringing the world’s biggest league to such a tiny home ground.
“It’s going to be massive,” Horvath said. “To get into the Premier League is one thing, but then to have all of that [at Kenilworth Road], what you could do to the stadium, for the fans, for the community — it’s endless.”
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