The 2023–24 season will mark the first time Luton Town will play in the Premier League as Everton and Liverpool supporters get ready to visit their now-famous Oak Road away fan entrance. This is the stadium’s entrance.
Before the Hatters defeated Coventry City on penalties in the Championship play-off final to confirm their return to the English top flight for the first time since 1992, their away end was garnering a lot of attention as supporters speculated on the possibility of Kenilworth Road becoming a Premier League stadium.
The Oak Road entrance is squeezed into a row of terraced houses. And while Luton are now preparing to demolish and rebuild one stand this summer in a £10m redevelopment, the viral away entrance will remain untouched.
“There aren’t any other access points,” Luton Town chief executive Gary Sweet confirmed last month. “It is as it is. We might have a lick of paint and new signage every so often but let’s embrace this.
It annoys me and makes me giggle when you get the social media content about an away end going through gardens. It’s been like that since World War II or even before. Why is it raised now, just because we might be going into the Premier League?
Erling Haaland’s not going to walk through that entrance, he’s going to walk through the other s**t entrance we’ve got. Embrace it.
“We’ve got thick skins and it just shows you don’t necessarily need lavish surroundings to succeed. You can do it with hard work and guile, with intelligence and sensible financial management and absolute determination and commitment.
“You can do all that without having a beautiful stadium. It is beautiful though. The old girl is beautiful.”
