Brentford have taken concrete steps to a new stadium after buying a piece of land on Lionel Road last week.
The club has been pursuing a new home for years, but failed in previous attempts mostly due to a lack of funding. The last concrete plans were abandoned in 2010 following the economic crisis.
However, with the sale of the club to new owner Matthew Benham funding has become available to reboot the stadium project. Brentford now has the ambition to submit concrete plans to the Hounslow city council within the next year with the aim of moving to a new home before the start of the 2016/17 season.
The new stadium is planned to have a capacity of 15,000 seats, which is 5,000 lower than plans in the past, though the designs allows for an easy expansion to 20,000 seats. No images have been released yet.
According to Brentford chief executive Mark Devlin, fans are supportive of a move to the new site located not far from Brentford’s current stadium Griffin Park. The 7.6 acre site sits on Lionel Road between Kew Bridge station and the M4 motorway, about a mile away from their current home.
Brentford has been playing at the atmospheric Griffin Park since 1904, but the ground does not meet demands of modern times. If plans go through, the stadium is expected to be demolished and replaced by residential housing.