Hatters CEO thrilled with Bobbers Stand 'glitz' but vows more work will be done to revamp Kenilworth Road

Luton chief executive Gary Sweet was thrilled to have added some ‘glitz’ to the new Bobbers Stand after it's grand opening yesterday evening, but vowed there is plenty more work to be done in revamping Kenilworth Road this season.

The Hatters had to virtually rebuild the stand which had housed executive boxes since the mid-1980s after winning promotion to the Premier League on May 27, and in double quick time as well.

Spending around £12-13m so that the ground met top flight requirements, Luton supporters got their first view of the upgrade when the club held a test event as Town beat Gillingham 3-2 in the Carabao Cup second round last night.

With around 1,000 seats now where the boxes used to be, taking the Hatters’ capacity to over 11,000, there is also a new media gantry, plus a number of other improvements and changes to be seen around the 118-year-old stadium.

Speaking to BBC Three Counties Radio about Town’s newlook home and in particular the Bobbers Stand, which means Luton will be cheered on by four sides of the ground now, Sweet said: “It’s the feel, it’s really, really important we kept that.

"It’s like the old Bobbers was but with blue seats, a gantry all the way across the top of it and I think with a little bit of glitz.

"We've got one hospitality lounge and one GA bar and it just looks so much better than we’d ever imagined I’ve got to say.

"The Bobbers really characterises the old girl and one of things we really wanted to do was make sure was the last three or four years of being at Kenilworth Road leaves this memory of the way it looks at the moment.

"One thing I will say is there’s still a lot of work we want to do.

"We’re now compliant, we're media compliant, we’re safety compliant, we’ve got our safety certificate, we’re all happy to go.

"We can play games, but there are still a number of things that we want to do to this place to make it a little bit better.

"So where some people might come in and say ‘well I haven’t noticed any changes,’ well let’s give it a few games.

"There’s still three international windows this side of Christmas and there’ll be a lot of work going on in each of them.”

The whole development has been a race against time, as Luton had to postpone their opening home match of the season against Burnley to ensure they were ready, as they managed to do so with around an hour to go until kick-off against the Gills.

It has led to a number of alterations that Sweet knows will take some getting used to for supporters who have been heading to the stadium for their whole lives, as he continued: “Literally this minute we’re match ready.

"We've moved the last vehicle out of the way, the last seat went in about 45 minutes ago.

"We've had to do it, we're in the Nick Owen Lounge which is a great bar for season ticket holders, and unfortunately, sorry to season ticket holders, it's not here anymore.

"However what we’ve done is have to take care to ensure there are other drinking establishments they can go to before the match and at half time, as that's really important.

"I used to be one of those, but here we’ve got a proper presentation suite in the Nick Owen, which is something we have to do, there’s a lot of things we have to do.

"There’s five interview rooms in the dressing room corridor.

"When you look at the floorplan of Kenilworth Road you think, how on earth are you going to deliver that?

"But we have, there’s five interview rooms, so a whole load of things we've had to do whether it’s financial or not, we’ve had to do it.

"One thing I’d like to say is please bear with us as we’re all learning in this.

"There’s going to be some slight dysfunctionality, people might get a little bit annoyed at the way things might have to change, as people don’t like change generally but there’s a lot of change going on here.

“Within a couple of games, it will all settle down to a behaviour and a habit and you’ll love it again I hope and that’s what we want to aim for.”

Sweet is also hoping that those who do now attend home games, will have a better experience than they previously enjoyed, saying: “We just wanted to provide a little bit of extra comfort and extra facilities where we’ve displaced people from the Nick Owen.

"Not only is there a drinking area outside in the concourse, but we’re able, by taking those gates down on the Kenilworth apron, that we can create an area where there’s two or three eating places, two or three drinking places, to create not quite a fanzone area, but almost that, before the game and during half time.

“So hopefully where people might be a little bit disappointed because there might be a little bit of a blocked view, or because of a camera placement, or because they might have had to actually had to have their season ticket displaced, because there’s more press seats that have had to be given over, then thank you to those people who have been so patient and so accommodating with that.

"They’ve all been so understanding because of the situation but hopefully they’ll get a little bit more of an experience actually from Kenilworth Road anyway, that’s what we hope.”

With the first event out of the way, Sweet will now look at the feedback from those in attendance, particularly in the Bobbers Stand and prepare to improve even more for the visit of West Ham United in the top flight on Friday night.

He added: “The nature of the test event is that you have to invite a certain group of people where you learn from the experience, free of charge.

"The contractors have worked so hard, the staff that have contributed that have worked so hard and then the academy who come to games frequently and know how it all functions

"To get feedback from them was really, really important for us.

"Then on Friday we’ll do the whole thing again with proper match ticket holders where there’s 100 per cent capacity and then we’ll learn more.”