I have been looking forward to this week, and the release of the preliminary new Kop design plans, for some time.

By now, I will assume, you have seen the images and the 3d rendered flypast video of the new Kop provided to the club by our architects, AFL, and seen the plans we have in store for our much-loved floodlights.

I enjoyed the brief flurry of concern amongst fans at the news that changes were coming to the floodlights, only to be replaced by excitement that they were getting “even massiver”.

I don’t know how sustainable a model “just make everything bigger” is, but we will see.

As I am writing this shortly before the release of the Kop plans, I am somewhat in the dark as to how they will have been received, but if they excite you as much they excited all of us then I suspect you have watched the video 4-500 times by now.

Rob and Ryan were shown the designs right before our play-off semi-final against Grimsby and I think that the promise of what was to come, irrespective of promotion, went some way to softening the blow of the afternoon’s disappointment.

It occurs to me that some folk reading this may not have seen what I’m talking about.

If you haven’t watched the video then go and do so now. You can find it on the club website and our Twitter feed. Exciting stuff, right?

As previously revealed, there will be 5,000 spaces for standing during club games and sitting during international games, as well as a further 500 hospitality seats.

There are several accessible platforms across the stand as well, improving the provision of seats for supporters with restricted mobility.

The Kop will become a main centre of operations for the club, with a new club shop, ticketing office and office space for the club’s administrative staff all contained within, along with a large concourse space that can be turned into an exhibition space on non-matchdays.

As alluded to earlier, our expectation is that with the improvements that this scheme of works will bring, we will be able to once again welcome international football back to the Racecourse, as well as a variety of other events from rugby, to concerts and other gigs.

The club will be conducting a statutory consultation period from July 1 with as many organisations with interest in the development as possible. Once that process has been undertaken, then the planning application will go into the council.

All-in-all, it will help to revolutionise the operation of the club and I can’t wait to see it in position.

We wait with bated breath to see the outcome of the council’s Levelling-Up Fund bid.

The applications that we are putting in now ensures that we are on track for a smooth process should the bid be successful, so that we could start the construction as soon as the LUF bid is, hopefully, successful.