Coventry City vs Luton Town
EFL Championship Playoffs
Saturday
27th May 2023
Wembley Stadium
Saturday it’s time again for the most expensive race of the year. Luton Town play Coventry City at Wembley for promotion to the Premier League. Estimates of how much it brings to the winning club vary, but the amount is around two hundred million euros.
Kenilworth Road: Classic, old-fashioned English stadium
Coventry has a modern stadium and will have little work on promotion. It is different at Luton Town. Kenilworth Road is a classic, old-fashioned English stadium where there is little comfort for the approximately ten thousand spectators who can sit there. Social media has been talking about the entrance for the visiting supporters for weeks.
Those people enter The Hatters’ accommodation through gates that are literally under a row of working-class houses, a stark contrast to the luxurious Premier League, where billions are involved. The stadium has not had much maintenance either, as the club has plans to move and sees no reason to change major things.
They will have to with promotion: the Premier League has certain requirements. A space must be found for press conferences, because the current room is actually mainly used as a pub. Space must also be made for the international battalion of television crews, and work is underway on the light poles. Director Gary Sweet responds to The Athletic with self-mockery.
“That entrance has been there since the Second World War”
“Don’t worry, Erling Haaland doesn’t have to enter through that one entrance. He will use the other “shit entrance” we have. We don’t have a fancy entrance here, embrace it. So will people. People make fun of us, but we don’t care. We have thick skins, and it actually shows that they are afraid of us,” said Sweet. “That entrance has been there since the Second World War, perhaps even longer. I think the stadium is an asset to the Premier League. It’s real, it’s football as it is.”
If Luton wins on Saturday, it will have to work like crazy: to get the stadium sufficiently repaired for the Premier League, about ten million euros are needed. The big advantage for the debt-free club: money will no longer be a concern. In fact, with a win over Coventry, Luton can pay off this new stadium, estimated at 115 million euros, in one go.
