Northampton Town chairman Cardoza reveals Sixfields redevelopment plans

The east stand, also known as the Alwyn Hargrave Family Stand, currently seats 1,700 supporters, is the main area for disabled fans and acts as an overflow area when visiting teams bring more fans than the south stand can accommodate.

But under the club’s plans, it will house the club offices (which are currently above the club shop) and a full range of new facilities for corporate hospitality and conferencing.

Cardoza has confirmed there will be news on the redevelopment in the next ‘one to two months’ and that it will include work on the east stand as a bare minimum, paid for by an enabling development made up primarily of housing.

“It’s the land behind the east stand and the other land that is controlled by the Homes & Communities Agency,” said Cardoza.

“It’s about 40 acres in total and we’re trying to put a scheme together for that.

“We would use the money to put back into the stadium.

“At the very least we would turn the east stand into the main stand, and that would include the club offices, boxes, and corporate hospitality to generate money.

“Then if we start to make an income from that we can use it for the rest of the stadium, but that’s a worst-case scenario.

“The best case is that we get the whole thing done, but that’s unlikely.

“We’d like to get a hotel on here as well but we accept we are in a recession and that has made life a bit more difficult and means we won’t make as much money out of it as we would have liked.”

Improving the club’s corporate hospitality is seen as a priority to increase a vital revenue stream and allow the Cobblers to compete with the newer stadia in league two.

Conferencing and matchday facilities at grounds like Burton Albion and Chesterfield are seen as far superior to that at Sixfields, which was built in 1994 as a community sports stadium.

The ground will be close to capacity in the next two matches, though, with Barnet set to sell their 1,350 ticket allocation for Saturday’s game and a bumper turn-out expected for the home semi-final of the play-offs.

“I’m looking forward to the next couple of games here,” said Cardoza.

“The Barnet game is looking like it should be our biggest gate of the season and the play-off game will be huge as well, we’ll be over 7,000 for both.

“It will be special here for those games.

“Although we want to win to go above Burton it’s a day to relax after a tough season and it’s one we can all relax for.”