31 Aug 10
Last weekend the Saints Academy had an outstanding start to the season, beating Leinster Under-19s and dominating an Under-16s tournament against other Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs.
Chris Wearmouth
Introduction
Northampton Saints want to extend the capacity of Franklin's Gardens by a further 3,500 spectators, taking the total number of supporters who can be accommodated in the stadium to nearly 17,000. The new North Stand that would provide this extra capacity would replace the existing Sturtridge Pavilion.
At the same time as the Saints put in their application ASDA will also be submitting plans for a food store to be built on the site of the current Car Park D, off Edgar Mobbs Way.
Why is this development needed?
The club has been regularly selling out matches and averaging at 98% of capacity for the past few years. As a consequence local people have not had the opportunity to watch the Saints play in the Premiership and in Europe. The extra capacity the new North Stand brings to Franklin's Gardens helps alleviate this. Furthermore, the existing Sturtridge Pavilion is the oldest part of the current stadium. Despite being extended several times over the past 20 years the facilities are not up to the standard of the rest of the stadium.
The Saints is an ambitious club, but in order to keep up with clubs such as Leicester and Gloucester - both who are either in the middle of expanding their stadium or have done so recently - or Saracens and London Irish - who play in significantly larger football stadiums - in potential earning power we must do the same.
Furthermore ERC, the organisers of the Heineken Cup, have reserved the right to specify that quarter final games have to be played in a stadium that can hold a minimum of 15,000. At present Franklin's Gardens does not meet this criteria.
