The club has also announced plans for a further expansion of the stadium – originally built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games – to take its capacity to 61,000.
Current capacity of the stadium is just under 48,000. Contractor Laing O’Rourke began work in March 2014 to add 6,000 seats above the South Stand. (Laing built the stadium in the first place.) A video of this procedure is shown below.
The second phase of the expansion involves adding three further rows of seats pitch-side to get in another 1200 seats or so. Both of these projects are scheduled to be completed by next summer in time for the start of the 2015/16 season. Approximately 160 people will be employed through the project at its peak, the club said.
Planning permission has also been granted for a third phase that could see a further 6,000 seats added.
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