The new owners of Premier League football club Swansea City have confirmed that talks are ongoing with the local council over the expansion of its Liberty Stadium home ground.
US businessmen Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan completed their takeover of the Welsh outfit last month and have wasted no time in pressing ahead with plans to expand the ground, which currently has a capacity of around 21,000.
Of the 20 Premier League grounds, only Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium has a smaller capacity than the Liberty Stadium. The new owners are said to be keen on increasing the ground’s capacity to an initial 33,000, with a 40,000 capacity earmarked as the long-term aim.
“That is one of the things that is top of our list,” Levien told BBC Wales Sport. “I think there is a real laser focus on having a great fan experience. If we’re going to improve the fan experience we want to do it for more fans so getting more people in this building (is important).
“It also helps us in terms of our competitiveness. We think that gives us a competitive advantage when other clubs come here and it’s somewhat of a hostile environment. So for all those reasons, that is really one of the things that’s at the top of our list: studying that and trying to make a determination about the best way to go forward.”
The club has in the past explored the possibility of adding 12,000 extra seats to the stadium, which is currently the property of Swansea Council. The attendance for Swansea’s 2-0 home defeat against Hull City on Saturday was 20,024.
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