Bradford City hope to have the first section of their £7.4 million new main stand open just four weeks into next season.

The Bantams are adding around 6,500 seats to the Valley Parade capacity with the existing Sunwin Stand roof being dismantled 24 hours after the final game of this season.

Work will also start on the block containing the new club shop, cafe and offices on April 10. These must be completed before the existing offices can be demolished.

The development is a huge step forward for City with chairman Geoffrey Richmond saying the new stand will be fully open early next year.

The Bantams chief said: "The roof will come off the day after the Liverpool home game. Work will start then to build the second tier of the Sunwin Stand.

"We will have the quadrant stand between the existing Kop and the new development fully operational four weeks into the season.

"The building work will then continue and between October and Christmas the roof will gradually be going on the new stand.

"The one change we have made is for the club offices to be now incorporated on the second floor of the club shop and cafe development on Thorncliffe Road.

"The offices were going to be in the quadrant stand but that will feature the 500-seater banqueting suite.

"The £7.4 million cost covers the new tier, quadrant stand, new ticket office and the club shop/cafe development."

City are still sifting through applications for next year's season tickets which arrived before the March 18 deadline set for the first price rise.

Richmond said: "We had processed around 6,000 by that stage but the figure has risen to 6,500. At this time last year we had 6,030."

City's first team squad are tomorrow travelling away to a secret location in the North-East to prepare for the Premiership clash at Newcastle this Saturday.

Fans wishing to watch Saturday's match screening at Valley Parade can book their tickets now from the ticket office. They are priced £8.

City's reserves face Blackburn at Ewood Park tonight, kick off 7pm.

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