This Town Had a Reputation Problem. Premier League Soccer Changed Things.

As the announcement trilled out over Kenilworth Road, the jumble of rusted steel and peeling paint that Luton Town F.C. calls residence, the tone began to shift. At the beginning of the sentence, it was little greater than the standard well mannered welcome to the stadium for that night’s visiting staff, Manchester City.

By the tip, although, the voice of the announcer appeared overcome by what sounded slightly like awe. Luton, the followers within the stands and the gamers on the sector had been reminded, was about to face “the champions of the F.A. Cup, the champions of England and the champions of Europe.” Luton appears to be having a tough time believing the corporate it now retains.

There is a motive for that. Fifteen years in the past, Luton Town had been relegated to the fifth tier of English soccer, a world away from the ability and the status of the Premier League. There was, for a time, a real threat that the membership, based in 1885, a number of years earlier than the invention of the zipper, would possibly fold altogether. For years afterward, cash remained tight, ambitions modest.

Now, Luton Town’s horizons are a lot grander. Last summer season, it gained an sudden promotion to the world’s richest, hottest sports activities league. Three many years after it final performed in England’s prime division, it might once more name Manchester City, Manchester United and the remainder its friends.

That meant an instantaneous transformation within the membership’s monetary outlook: Playing within the Premier League for a single season is price round $150 million. More essential, the standing that got here with it gave the city — a spot that has lengthy suffered a continual fame downside — a world platform on which to vary not simply how it’s perceived by others, however the way it thinks of itself.

There are, broadly talking, three ways in which Luton permeates the British consciousness. One is as a transportation hub; some 16.2 million passengers filter by way of London Luton Airport yearly. Few, although, linger. The clue for his or her final vacation spot is within the title.

The second is, maybe, greatest summarized by the outcomes of a 2004 ballot for The Idler journal. Some 1,800 of its readers awarded Luton the doubtful honor of being Britain’s pre-eminent “crap” city. As one reader put it, Luton was primarily a “brick-and-iron temple to global pollution.” Last yr, one other survey ranked it as the worst place to stay in Britain.

Third — and most damaging — is the city’s affiliation with extremism. In 2005, three suicide bombers answerable for a set of coordinated assaults in London stopped off in Luton to gather a fourth confederate earlier than boarding a prepare to the capital. One of the city’s mosques has hosted speeches by the unconventional Islamist preachers Mostafa Kamel Mostafa and Omar Bakri Mohammed.

In 2009, a handful of protesters from the extremist group Al Muhajiroun staged an illustration in Luton in opposition to British troopers coming back from Afghanistan. That prompted counterprotests within the city from an array of far-right teams. A far-right agitator, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — higher identified by his stage title, Tommy Robinson — was born in Luton.

For a time, the city was unwittingly and unwillingly projected because the heartland of the nationalist group he based, the English Defence League. The largest march within the group’s quick historical past was held there in 2011. Another contentious determine, the provocateur Andrew Tate, who has been accused of human trafficking and intercourse crimes, spent a few of his childhood in town’s Marsh Farm property.

When — if — the remainder of England considered Luton, it was in that context: division, rancor, blight. Luton, although, at all times noticed one thing completely different.

“The place that you see on the news: I don’t recognize it,” Tanher Ahmed, 42, stated from behind the counter of Hatters Fish and Chips, a few minutes’ stroll from Kenilworth Road. “There’s harmony here,” he added. “There’s a sense of community.”

Bury Park, the realm that instantly surrounds the stadium, would possibly really feel distinct from the middle — with streets filled with sari shops, roti joints and perfumed confectioners moderately than the litter of chain pubs and bookmakers that dot most British excessive streets — however Luton sees that as a energy.

“Luton has always been a mix of people,” stated Maryan Broadbent, a board member of Luton Town’s foremost fan group. When the city was a middle for millinery, after which for the automobile producer Vauxhall, there have been influxes of staff not solely from India and Pakistan but in addition from Ireland and, later, Eastern Europe.

“It’s always been a changing place,” Ms. Broadbent stated. The city’s Muslim group has lengthy fought each the handful of extremists who made up Al-Muhajiroun and the concept they had been in some way consultant.

But the presence of its soccer staff within the Premier League was, for residents, an opportunity to supply an alternate definition of Luton.

Mr. Ahmed selected to win hearts and minds on a case-by-case foundation. He opened his store after he noticed a spot out there. “There was no chippie in the area,” he defined. Fans must stroll the bustling streets of Bury Park to get to the stadium, so he knew there can be demand. “I wanted to give a good impression of the town,” he added.

It has additionally helped that the membership has not merely existed within the Premier League — an inconceivable visitor on the feast — but in addition offered one of many season’s most compelling story strains.

Luton has a shoestring staff — considered one of its mainstays, Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, is now the one participant to have represented the identical membership within the prime 5 divisions of English soccer — and it’s led by Rob Edwards, a younger, charismatic (and, not fully irrelevantly, very good-looking) coach.

It has a crumbling, hostile stadium, a creaking throwback to an age earlier than the perimeters of elite sports activities had been smoothed down and buffed to a excessive sheen. And it has proven that it could compete with far richer, much more pedigreed rivals. With a handful of video games remaining, Luton nonetheless harbors a slim hope of avoiding relegation and securing a second season among the many elite.

There have been moments the place the staff has been overmatched, the romance of its story misplaced amid chilly, exhausting capitalist actuality — in opposition to Manchester City, for instance, Luton misplaced, 6-2. But the staff’s pluck has gained it loads of buddies.

Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool supervisor, described Mr. Edwards’s work together with his staff as “insane” — in a optimistic manner. Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal coach, insisted that Luton Town “deserves more credit than any other team in this league.”

For Luton, the city, that optimistic affiliation is a uncommon and treasured factor. It has, lately, nurtured a thriving arts scene. And when the writer Sarfraz Manzoor, who grew up in Luton, was appointed chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire final yr, he stated he would use his submit to make folks consider Luton as “cool.”

But having a staff within the Premier League is not going to change any of the extra deep-rooted issues Luton faces. Unemployment is increased than the nationwide common, for instance, and there are as many as 15,000 youngsters on the town dwelling in poverty.

The membership’s success could but generate a fabric profit. A portion of the $150 million or so that it’s going to earn for taking part in a season within the Premier League has been put aside to assist construct a brand new stadium. That enviornment can be nearer to town heart and will “transform the piece that lets Luton down,” based on Ms. Broadbent. But the intangible profit isn’t any much less beneficial.

For nearly a yr, hundreds of thousands of individuals have thought of Luton not less than as soon as every week. Not as a backwater or as a crucible of intolerance, however as a soccer staff: daring and brave and hopeful and refreshing.

There are loads of folks, throughout England, nursing a fading hope that Luton Town avoids relegation and sticks round for an additional yr. That could not make a distinction to the final word end result of the season — the Premier League will not be a sentimental place — nevertheless it has made a distinction in Luton.

In the soccer staff, the city has been capable of see itself because it wish to be seen. “Whatever happens,” Ms. Broadbent stated as she contemplated the specter that Luton’s feel-good story could not have a cheerful ending, “we have done ourselves proud.”