Luton Town Relocation Plans

[oakroader]

I'm afraid that hostile will be an understatement for visitors to the ground due to the close proximity of the town centre pubs and arndale shopping centre with their many drinking holes giving those who don't go to football the opportunity to get involved in "activities" on an evening or Saturday afternoon...can't see our reputation getting better !!??

 

[oakroader]

Premier League footballer Davies gives his backing to Luton Town's proposed new stadium

Curtis Davies has offered his backing to the plans. Credit: Luton Town/PA


Luton Town's plans for a new stadium have been backed by a Premier League player.

Former Hatters defender and current Hull City star Curtis Davies has written an e-mail to the local council urging them "not to pass up the opportunity to bring a really good feeling to the town".

Luton want to build a 17,500-seater venue at the former Power Court site near the railway station and submitted a planning application last month.

How the stadium would look for the inside. Credit: Luton Town
Curtis Davies' e-mail in full

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is Curtis Davies. I'm a former Luton Town player and a former resident of Luton for three years. I'm giving my support to the plans for Power Court/Newlands Park.

I believe the plans put forward will be very beneficial to the football club and town. The development will bring more jobs to the community and give the town a lift through a new rejuvenated space.

From a football perspective, as a current Premier League footballer that started at Luton I can see the gulf between the top and lower leagues getting even bigger.

If Luton Town were to get a bigger stadium it would hopefully help to close that gap by bringing in bigger income whilst also having an attractive new stadium to attract new players and sponsors.

Also, with the stadium capacity, the club will be ready to step through the leagues.

I'm sure the stadium would be great for concerts too. Whilst having great transport links to London, it would be good for the people of Luton to have a venue to call their own and with access to the M1, people from all over can get to the Power Court site with ease.

Please don't pass up this opportunity. It can bring a really good feeling to the town and the football club.

Yours sincerely,

Curtis Davies

– Curtis Davies, Hull City

• Premier League star backs Luton Town stadium plans

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Always think Davies comes across as a decent guy, seems a genuinely decent bloke as well as a more than capable centre half at the top level (think in his career he has been somewhat underrated, especially latterly). Pleased to see him and a few other former players providing support for these plans.

 

[rudebwoyben]

The version he put on twitter said supper rather than support!

 

[Kenneth E End]

Why has it taken a PL footballer to make the media sit up and notice!?

 

[BelizeHatter]

Easy. They forget there's anything below the Prem let alone look at the bowels of L2

 

[BelizeHatter]

Plus every Tom Dick and Harry has moved to a new Stadium in the last 20 years. Old news unless it's your club. Be interesting to know how many of the 92 have moved in recent years

 

[Amber Nectar]

Always think Davies comes across as a decent guy, seems a genuinely decent bloke as well as a more than capable centre half at the top level (think in his career he has been somewhat underrated, especially latterly). Pleased to see him and a few other former players providing support for these plans.

Is this soon to be England capped Davies?

 

[Judge Dredd]

Curtis was only the second current PL player to write in support of it anyway... although currently Andre Gray's public support might be so helpful

I do love Curtis though, almost certainly the best player I've seen in a Luton shirt and clearly (even before this show of support) still has a strong affection for the club which is great to see.

 

[oakroader]

really judge? I don't know how far back you go but we've been blessed with centre half's....foster,saxby,futcher,price,
donaghy,Nichol,Elliott,...to name just a few ....

 

[Judge Dredd]

Not far back enough for any of them regrettably - my first game was in the 93/94 season, Grimsby away the week before the FA Cup semi. So technically I guess for me it would be a choice between Curtis, Hartson or Upson - the latter two probably edge Curtis out in career achievements, but I don't really remember Hartson at all and I only saw Upson play for about half a game before he was sold so don't really count him.

 

[oakroader]

No body else saw Brian stein and Paul Walsh play for England together again France circa 1984 ??how many other teams can claim that similar honour??

 

[rudebwoyben]

I saw Brian Stein play for us, he had a useful striker's instinct for goal, that's for sure. I think he did play once in the same team as Eddie. Mark may have even been on the opposite side for that match!

 

[barnet_pls]

Yes, think l saw that match? Late 80's - or perhaps 92?

 

[rudebwoyben]

Brian was with us in 92/93. I recall that Eddie only played one match for us that season: in the Autoglass Trophy against Stoke, who Mark was playing for at the time.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Oakey: I'm of your Dinosaur times and Ive seen most of those Centre halves and Curtis for his age at his time with us looked easily at home with them all - and they were all way more experienced when they cut their chops. Donaghy for me was unsung but oh so so good.

 

[Hatter86]

4,500 comments submitted to the council so far and 11 days left to get yours in. Don't leave it to anyone else. Do your bit. Read this.

 

[Bosox]

4,500? Is that an official number?

Goodness that is seriously pathetic given what is at stake. Several hundred of them have been effectively done by the club themselves as well between getting everyone in the squad to send one and getting various former players, celebrity fans and the great and good from the football world to send in their support.

What's the matter with our fans that so many can't be bothered to spend five minutes tapping out a message of support?

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Don't know if that's the number that have been logged or the number that has been received though. I'd guess/hope that is the number that has been logged on their system and that there will be a fairly considerable number still waiting for all the manual redaction of addresses etc that needs to be done.

What's the standard that we are looking at here as well? Is that a decent or poor number for a development of this size?

 

[Hatter86]

Wimbledon got 6,000 for the Plough Lane development. This is the quote from BBCs local live update today.

'Meanwhile, Luton Borough Council said that, as of yesterday, it had received more than 4,500 representations about the stadium plans.'

 

[GodsGift]

Having worked and dealt with local councils and planning applications before, I'd say 4,500 is a heck of a lot.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I gather that Wimbledon had a fair bit more opposition than we seem to be encountering thus far. Although raw numbers are very important in our case because we are asking the council to reverse their local plan, so it is a bit disappointing.

We get 7,000+ home fans every single week. Obviously some of those will be under 16 so not allowed to write, but every other fucker should be able to pick up either a pen, a keyboard or a smart phone for five minutes. Can almost guarantee that it is the moany fuckers who constantly drone negative nonsense for 90 minutes of every game that haven't bothered to do it, and can equally guarantee they will be the first to moan if the application is rejected.

I think we'll still be okay but it is deeply frustrating seeing the apathy/complacency/laziness of some of our fans. The club really couldn't have done more to drum up support.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Plus every Tom Dick and Harry has moved to a new Stadium in the last 20 years. Old news unless it's your club. Be interesting to know how many of the 92 have moved in recent years

Since 2000 I can think of

Arsenal
Hull
Leicester
Man City
Southampton
Swansea
West Ham
Brighton
Cardiff City
Rotherham
Chesterfield
Coventry
MK Mongs
Oxford United
Scunthorpe very soon
Barnet
Colchester
Doncaster
Morecambe
Newport

Then you've got Derby and Reading off the top of my head who moved in the late 90s!

 

[Walkley_Owl]

Middlesbrough
Stoke
Sunderland
Bolton
Huddersfield
Shrewsbury
Burton
Millwall

 

[Kenneth E End]

Not to mention those clubs who have had parts of their stadium redeveloped.

 

[Kenneth E End]

I think we'll still be okay but it is deeply frustrating seeing the apathy/complacency/laziness of some of our fans. The club really couldn't have done more to drum up support.

I agree with you to an extent.

However, this project has 90% support and over 4,500 submissions to the council. If LBC do not allow the project to proceed, the political pressure on them will be humongous. It is a project that will have so many benefits for so many people.

We're comparing this number to AFC Wimbledon - they got around 6,000 submissions, but a hell of a lot more opposition. BoJo and Goldsmith used it as a political football during the Mayoral election. Brighton got a similar number to us, with a probably bigger catchment area. Tottenham got 400 submissions!

 

[genesimmons]

Make that 4501. I have just emailed my support quoting both application references in subject. I used to live in luton and town has been going to rot. Hope this gets approval

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Seems to me, albeit as a non resident, there is pretty much universal support for this. Even the council have been incredibly positive, and we've independent economic advice yesterday showing how positive it will be. 4500 with still more to come (I heard the deadline had been extended) seems a fairly decent figure given some other stadium applications. I see Cambridge are asking for similar for their development and I've not heard anything it about it since reading it in their match programme and I live here!

The fact of the matter is people will be far more likely to put pen to paper to have a moan than to be positive it's just human nature. So I do think we need to be a bit wary of having a go at our own fans about writing letters. By all means encourage people to write in, but let's not start having a dig at people if they don't. It's massively important obviously, so we shouldn't make what should be a positive thing a divisive one amongst our own supporters, well before we even know what the outcome is.

If it gets rejected because of lack of support then i think by all means tell people what you think, but having a go at people, as I've seen almost constantly on places like Outlaws, will only switch people off, not motivate.

 

[egg and chips]

Feedback to the council now made even easier, 2 minutes of your time, this should really swell the numbers.

http://www.2020developments.co.uk/applications/contact-responsive.php

 

[Hatter86]

To be honest the opposition I have seen isnt so much to do with the stadium itself but the fact that the land isnt being used for something else. Which all in all is a bit stupid as, if someone else had wanted to do something else with it, it would have been done at some point in the decade its been derelict.