Premier League side Stoke City "announced expansion plans" after agreeing to a deal to rename its home ground the bet365 Stadium, according to Andy Charles of SKY SPORTS. The Britannia Stadium, the club's home since '97, "will be renamed at the end of the current campaign," while the locally-based online gambling company has also agreed to extend its shirt sponsorship by a further three years. Stoke has "also confirmed plans to redevelop the stadium, filling in one of the corners to add 1,800 extra seats and take the capacity above the 30,000 mark" -- that work is scheduled to be completed in time for the start of the '17-18 season. Club CEO Tony Scholes said, "The Premier League is constantly evolving and to ensure that Stoke City remain as competitive as possible it's important we explore as many ways as possible of generating revenue" (SKY SPORTS, 4/21). In London, Alex Bywater reported the renaming of the Britannia Stadium means Stoke joins fellow Premier League sides Arsenal, Man City, Bournemouth and Leicester in seeing its "ground named after one of the club's main sponsors." Developments on the expansion "will see one of the gound's corners -- between the DPD and Marston's Pedigree Stands -- filled in." Scholes: "We also felt the time was right to redevelop the corner of the ground between the DPD and Marston's Pedigree Stands. Planning permission has been in place for some time but it was important we carried out the work when we felt the club was ready for an increase in seat capacity." The club hopes the extra revenue secured from its latest deal with bet365, which has its HQ in Stoke-on-Trent and provides the city's largest private sector employer with a workforce approaching 3,000, "can help boost" the club further up the division (DAILY MAIL, 4/21).
