Fans keen to hear if stadium is in line to be expanded

sell-out first home game against Newcastle United.

Club and stadium bosses have now stated that expansion is possible – though costly – but is unlikely to happen in the short term.

Sean Jarvis, commercial director at Huddersfield Town, has received a large number of inquiries from fans about boosting capacity at the stadium, which currently stands at 24,338.

He told the Examiner: “In the immediate future there are no plans to extend the stadium.

“A lot of our fans are asking that question. At present there is nothing in place.”

However, he hasn’t ruled it out entirely. It would probably only be seriously considered if Town remain in the Premier League and home games are sold out “week in, week out, year in, year out”, he added.

“It would be very expensive to extend the stadium,” he said. “We looked at extending the Fantastic Media Lower during the close season.

“The quote we received from (stadium company) KSDL was £300,000 just to add 200 seats. For just those few seats it was very expensive.”

Mr Jarvis said the club’s current focus was to remain in the Premier League and to monitor ticket sales as the season continues.

He said the club hadn’t looked into how the stadium might be extended which he described as a “possibility” in the long-term “if there is demand for it’.’

Gareth Davies, managing director of Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd (KSDL), said extending the stadium is “not in anyone’s thinking short-term” although it might be something to be discussed “next summer at the earliest.”

He stressed that feasibility work on extending the stadium hadn’t been carried out so it wasn’t possible to say what could be achieved.

If large-scale expansion was to be considered, Mr Davies suggested that it could involve adding extra tiers to the two single-tier stands, the Britannia Rescue and the Chadwick Lawrence South Stand.

He said that “filling in the corners” at the stadium – which has been suggested by some Town fans – “is not the obvious solution” because it would be “very complicated” and wouldn’t provide many extra seats.

Mr Davies said it was fair to say that it wasn’t currently known whether large-scale stadium extensions were possible until specialists had been consulted

On Twitter Mr Jarvis has told fans that “filling in the corners” would be too expensive for the increase in seats it would bring. He tweeted: “Let’s focus on staying in the Prem and getting regular sell-outs first.”

Some fans said boosting capacity could backfire.

One said: “When crowds dwindle, which they will at some point, the stadium would look even worse.”