AN APPLICATION has been submitted to the council to allow the capacity of Saints' stadium to be increased to 25,000 for this summer's Little Mix concert.

It was announced last autumn that pop superstars Little Mix will perform a concert at the stadium on Saturday, June 27 this year.

The girl band will sing at the stadium as part of a tour across England, Scotland and Wales.

The tour will see Little Mix perform some of their hits including ‘Woman Like Me’, ‘Touch’, ‘Shout Out to My Ex’, ‘Black Magic’ and ‘Wings’.

Saints' stadium was built in 2011, with the club playing its first season at the venue the following year with a capacity of 17,980.

Stadium manager John Murphy has submitted an application to St Helens Council seeking planning permission to increase the capacity of the stadium to 25,000 for open air concerts.

The application states it "seeks to increase the capacity of the stadium to 25,000 for certain events".

Plans say during open air concerts "spectators will be located on the pitch surface in addition to the stands and terraces, allowing more space and a safer environment when dancing to music".

St Helens Star:

Saints' stadium

The application also includes a request to the council to extend the car parking agreement for town centre car parks to be made available for "any other event" than rugby matches held at the stadium.

The application says: "St Helens RFC are currently looking to vary the planning permission for the stadium in that we wish to host events other than rugby and football, these events could include the likes of boxing events and potentially music events".

Traffic and noise management plans have also been submitted as part of the application.

Speaking about the Little Mix summer 2020 tour coming to St Helens, Saints chief executive Mike Rush, said: “We are delighted that the first ever concert held here at our Stadium will be for such an iconic band as Little Mix.

"Our stadium is the newest purpose built rugby league stadium in the country, but it’s size, locality and uniqueness plus the fact it boasts versatile facilities means we are able to accommodate everything from weddings, parties and concerts like this.

"We are hugely excited to be hosting Little Mix and are confident this will be a huge success for all involved.”

St Helens Star:

Little Mix have firmly established their reputation as one of the most phenomenal groups around.

After massive tours of Europe, Australia, Japan and the US, the group has just completed their mammoth LM5 Arena Tour which took in cities across Europe, the UK and Ireland including an amazing five sold out dates at London’s O2 Arena.

Since 2011, Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall have established themselves as one of British pop’s brightest act.

They have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, collected more than 17 million Spotify listeners, received more than 3 billion YouTube views, and collated 12 billion streams worldwide.