Luton Town’s Remarkable Rise to the Premier League
As the announcement trilled out over Kenilworth Road, the jumble of rusted metal and peeling paint that Luton Town F.C. calls home, the tone started to shift. At the start of the sentence, it was little more than the traditional polite welcome to the stadium for that evening’s visiting team, Manchester City. By the end, though, the voice of the announcer seemed overcome by what sounded a little like awe. Luton, the fans in the stands and the players on the field were reminded, was about to face “the champions of the F.A. Cup, the champions of England and the champions of Europe.” Luton seems to be having a hard time believing the company it now keeps.
From Relegation to Redemption: Luton’s Journey
Fifteen years ago, Luton Town had been relegated to the fifth tier of English soccer, a world away from the power and the prestige of the Premier League. There was, for a time, a genuine risk that the club, founded in 1885, might fold altogether. For years afterward, money remained tight, ambitions modest. Now, Luton Town’s horizons are much grander. Last summer, it won an unexpected promotion to the world’s richest, most popular sports league. Three decades after it last played in England’s top division, it could again call Manchester City, Manchester United and the rest its peers.
Changing Perceptions: Luton’s Transformation
Playing in the Premier League for a single season is worth around $150 million. More important, the status that came with it gave the town — a place that has long suffered a chronic reputation problem — a global platform on which to change not just how it is perceived by others, but how it thinks of itself. Luton, though, always saw something different.
Overcoming Adversity: Luton’s Resilience
For almost a year, millions of people have thought about Luton at least once a week. Not as a backwater or as a crucible of intolerance, but as a soccer team: bold and courageous and hopeful and refreshing. There are plenty of people, across England, nursing a fading hope that Luton Town avoids relegation and sticks around for another year. That may not make a difference to the ultimate outcome of the season — the Premier League is not a sentimental place — but it has made a difference in Luton.
In the soccer team, the town has been able to see itself as it would like to be seen. “Whatever happens,” Ms. Broadbent said as she contemplated the specter that Luton’s feel-good story may not have a happy ending, “we have done ourselves proud.”
