Saints plan stadium development

Northampton Saints have been at Franklin's Gardens since the 1880s.

Northampton Saints have confirmed their plans to expand Franklin's Gardens into a 17,000 capacity stadium.

The club will sell their lease on the Edgar Mobbs car park to ASDA, to fund the £6 million development.

Saints chairman Keith Barwell said: "ERC [European Rugby Cup] say knockout matches must be played in a stadium with a capacity of 15,000.

"We don't want to be in the situation where we face the prospect of taking big games away from Northampton."

Barwell continued: "We saw on Saturday the direction club rugby is heading.

"The 45,000 crowd at Wembley followed hot on the heels of the London double-header, which had a crowd in excess of 67,000, and the Premiership Grand Final, which has sold out two years running."

The new ASDA store will serve Upton and St James and also create up to 400 new jobs.

"It appears that there is growing public understanding that the proposed new food store would not harm the town centre," said Barwell.

Northampton Saints and ASDA will now continue their pre-application discussions with Northampton Borough Council and the West Northants Development Corporation.