More than 1.5 million foreigners visit the UK each year to watch football matches, leaving €2bn for the battered British economy. But a warning to those who, following Luton Town's promotion to the Premier League, have added Kenilworth Road (The Kenny) to their list of stadiums to go to: this is an ugly city to die for. So much so that in 2004 it topped the list of "the fifty worst places to live in England" in its first edition, in 2023 it has won again and year after year it gets on the podium. An absolute domain, the equivalent of the 17 NBA rings of the Lakers and Celtics, or the three Michelin stars of the Roca brothers.
What has Luton done to be so ugly? It cannot be said that she does not deserve the titles. Rows of very old and neglected Victorian houses, degradation, one of the highest rates of child poverty in the country, tension between far-right English nationalists and Pakistani and Eastern European immigrants, crime, unemployment twice the national average, pubs and closed commercial premises, with wooden boards sealing doors and windows, pieces of "For Sale" and "For Rent" signs, pawnshops everywhere, homeless people in the streets, highways in the middle, a shopping center that looks like from the sixties... Not a cool church or building.
The field of Kenilworth Road, embedded in a poor residential area, does not clash with the rest of the city. With a capacity for only 10,000 spectators, it is more typical of the fourth division than of the Premier, a journey through time, with huge columns that obstruct vision in the main stand (from which you can see the dome of a mosque). The club has until the beginning of the season to adapt it to the requirements of the league, improve the lighting and make room for fifty television cameras. It is a scenario that can intimidate the stars of Arsenal, City or United, with dressing rooms exempt from all kinds of luxuries and the spectators on the pitch.
One of the historical centers of the English automobile industry, Vauxhall, has been manufacturing cars in its suburbs for 120 years, and Luton has the fifth largest airport in the country (with many low cost flights), also in an expansion phase. But the vast majority of the 32 million passengers have the good sense not to set foot in the city center. Perhaps things will change with the promotion to the Premier, and the football team will lead an urban regeneration that contemplates the creation of a cultural center, a promenade along the river (more like a canal), green areas, superblocks like the of Consell de Cent and the renovation of the old textile factories. So the rents will go up, there will be gentrification and some will also complain.
Hope, it is well known, is the last thing to be lost, and Luton, the city, has more morals than Alcoyano. He looks in the mirror at Leicester, who, after his team won the 2015-16 league, in one of the greatest feats in the history of English football, Icelanders and Norwegians began to arrive to watch games, tourism and investment they contributed 200 million euros to the coffers, and 3,000 jobs were created. The other side of the coin is that City have just returned to second place.
The reputation of the city is so bad that many inhabitants are afraid to admit that they live in Luton and prefer to say "near Watford", or Saint Albans, or Harpenden (which are not the repera, but better). And if a street is called Luton Road, real estate agents discount flats just because of the name.
