Harrogate Town will play the first few home games of next season outside of Harrogate if they gain promotion to the English Football League.
This is because to meet EFL regulations the club must replace its existing artificial 3G pitch at the CNG Stadium with grass.
Town play Notts County at Wembley on Sunday with the winner gaining promotion to the League Two in the EFL. The club said they will begin work on replacing the pitch with grass “immediately” should they win the historic tie.
The work is expected to take 10 weeks, which would take them into next season, with the first matches set for September 12. The club have not revealed who they could potentially ground share with.
Town installed the current 3G pitch in 2016 after struggling for years with drainage issues on the previous grass pitch. It forced them to play several home matches 45 miles away at Doncaster Rovers.
Town fan Rob Nixon told The Stray Ferret that he hopes it would be somewhere closer to home.
He said:
“The more local the better. When we shared with Doncaster we only had 50 people attending. Having to do that again would be tough.”
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The club have been busy this summer making preparations in case they are promoted.
Work has almost been completed on a new Family Stand at the CNG so they can meet EFL’s requirement of every stadium being able to hold 5,000 people with 1,000 seats.
Cardboard cut-out versions of Town supporters sat in the stand when the team beat Boreham Wood 1-0 on Saturday to book their place in the final.
Writing in Saturday’s programme, club chairman Irving Weaver said he hopes the new all-seater stand will attract more fans to the club.
