Hatters Chief Executive Gary Sweet praised the staff at the football club for their continued hard work going into the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
Sweet began speaking about the Power Court project: “We are just entering pre-app stage for the detailed planning application that, depending on our workload over the next three months, will happen over the next three months, so forgive me if it might be four if we’ve got a few other things to do like develop another football stadium.
“That’s the timescale, we expect to get a decision on that by the end of the year, the day we get a decision on that, within a few days and weeks, we’ll be starting work."
Asked about the improvements required for Premier League football at Kenilworth Road should the Hatters achieve promotion, he went on: “The only thing we’ve been told is that there’s a set of criteria that everyone of you can see, it’s Rule K of the Premier League Handbook which we’ve got to comply with, it’s work we’ve got to undertake.
“We have no complaints about that, it’s going to cost roughly ten million pounds, we have no complaints as it’s part of the inclusion of the membership, it’s a deal to be done and we’re happy. If we’re going to do it, let’s do it properly and we will.”
After admitting that work would need to be done at Kenilworth Road, should Luton Town win Saturday’s play-off final, Sweet explained that the work would be done in the proper manner.
“We have determination from the point of view of it will happen, we’ll make it happen, we’ll just make sure that the way it happens will be right. I think if you get all those things, it happens quickly. I’m not surprised, forget players for one minute because they are my heroes and I love them, they’ve been brilliant throughout, not just the current group but the various groups in that time.”
Sweet then paid homage to the staff that have worked hard behind the scenes since the semi-final second leg last week.
“The staff here, the board, my fellow managers, the people that you see around the building are every bit of the fabric and the culture that we’ve got and in the last week it’s shown it.
“We’ve had people work through nights just to get the job done, not one of them has said ‘do I get more money’, not one of them says ‘what’s the benefit for me’, they just get on and do their job for the love of the game, the love of the club, the love of Luton, whatever it is. That’s why we have accelerated to the extent that we have.”
On the play-off final itself, Sweet believes that he will be trying to treat it as a normal game but understands the magnitude of the occasion at Wembley Stadium.
“For me, it’s a normal game. Of course, it’s not, it’s at Wembley, it’s in-front of a packed stadium, it’s going to play out differently. For us, we remain failures until we become winners. It’s only a great achievement if you win it, otherwise it’s a league game and we play another league game in the Championship in August if we don’t win it, it’s normal.”