Reading football Club's stadium to undergo £5m revamp
Owner Rob Couhig says summer package will include a new pitch and stadium lights
Reading football club's Select Car Leasing stadium is to undergo a £5m package of improvements this summer.
The club's owners say nearly a year into their stewardship they're ready to splash the cash on making the stadium an attractive venue.
Amongst their plans are a brand new pitch, new stadium lights capable of sound synchronisation, refurbished bathrooms, safer standing spaces and a new fan village.
Owner Rob Couhig talked us through the main changes.
Pitch
"We're going to redo the field (pitch) in the sense we'll dig down two or three feet we'll redo the entire base we'll make it pristine and available to play, it'll be the best surface in EFL next year (season)."
Lights
"We're going to change out the lighting system and put in better lights more syncopated lights which will be able to go with music and go with the times but they'll also be cheaper in that they'll less energy consuming."
Advertising boards
"We're going to change out our LED boards around the side of the pitch they'll be bright they'll be crisp, one of the problems with the LED boards we have now they never go off even though they turn the lights off they continue to run so it costs us 10-20 thousand dollars (sic) a month to run."
Mr Couhig said the running costs of the stadium are around £2.5m a year and he said he wants to see it used for more events including live concerts. He said:
"We're going to change out our management of the stadium and get it out of house and bring in a full-time venue director so that we don't just have 25-30 games but we're using the stadium a 100 days a year or more."
The owner says the changes are planned regardless of whether Reading miss out on promotion this season.