Kenilworth Road - Future

Future

Luton Town have been looking for a new ground since 1955, when club chairman Percy Mitchell spoke of building a stadium "to hold 35,000 in comfort ... get a lot of support which goes to London at the moment". However, due to unstable finances and an inability to find a site, no ground was built. The club proposed a move to Milton Keynes in 1982 – according to The Luton News, to play as "MK Hatters" in a "super-stadium" – but this was prevented by vehement protests in Luton, where supporters against such a move marched through the town to display their feelings. Despite consistent fan opposition to the idea, relocation up the M1 motorway to the new town was raised several more times over the next two decades; for example, The Football League refused Luton permission to move to Milton Keynes in 2000, saying that a member club was not allowed to leave its home town. Wimbledon F.C. was granted permission to relocate there in 2002, did so a year later and became Milton Keynes Dons in 2004.

Luton have only managed to get as far as a planning application for a new ground once, when chairman David Kohler's Kohlerdome was proposed in 1995. The Kohlerdome was envisioned by Kohler as a 20,000 all-seater indoor arena with a retractable roof and pitch, hosting 85 capacity events each year. Kohler's plans, though ambitious, were perhaps not very realistic – the plans were turned down by the Secretary of State in 1998, with the reason given that the ground was not feasible unless the M1 motorway was widened. Kohler put the club on the market on the plan's rejection, and after a period under Cliff Bassett, the club came under the control of Mike Watson-Challis in 2000. Watson-Challis bought 55 acres (220,000 m2) of land by Junction 10 of the M1 in 2001, intending to move the club there, but once again, nothing came of the scheme. Most recently, in 2007, Jayten Stadium Limited were hoping to relocate the club to a new purpose built stadium at Junction 12, near Harlington and Toddington. This plan was very unpopular with both Luton Town supporters and the local authorities, but a planning application was still submitted by former chairman Bassett on the club's behalf. The application was withdrawn by the club almost immediately after the takeover by Nick Owen's Luton Town Football Club 2020 consortium in 2008.

As of 2012, the club is undertaking an independent feasibility study to determine a viable location to move to. Sites mooted include a ground built as part of a new housing development to the west of Luton and a site by the proposed Junction 11A of the M1, which is the preferred site of the local authorities. The team has not ruled out staying at a redeveloped Kenilworth Road; without specifying their long-term intentions, the club entered talks to buy the stadium back from the council in October 2012.