Hearts will spend £400,000 over the summer to improve Tynecastle.
The plans were revealed as part of owner Ann Budge ’s latest club update in which she confirmed stadium works are to take place during the close season.
This was part of the reason Hearts turned down the chance to host this Saturday’s Scottish Cup final between St Johnstone and Hibs as the Scottish FA tried to find a work around that would let fans attend.
Budge confirmed more investment into the stadium infrastructure would take place ahead of Hearts ' return to the Scottish Premiership.
It’s understood this will include the installation of new floodlights, a paint refresh to the stand roof and the annual relaying of the hybrid pitch.
She said: “Although fans have not been allowed in the stadium over the last year, our facilities team has worked throughout to ensure we are in the best possible shape to welcome fans back to Tynecastle, when restrictions are lifted.
“Despite having to manage cash more tightly than ever, we are carrying out a number of sizeable infrastructure projects over the summer closedown period. These include the essential replacement of our floodlights, the long overdue repainting of the trusses in each of our three older stands and a full pitch refurbishment. We have almost £400k worth of essential and preventative work to be carried out before the start of next season.
“On top of this, we are also implementing some new concourse facilities/ improvements to welcome you back. Hopefully, you will approve!”
As for when fans might return to matches, that remains unclear. “Budge added: While we have good reason to believe the situation will improve next season, we must be realistic enough to accept that it will undoubtedly be some time before we get back to anything approaching normality.
“For that reason, it has, of course, been very difficult to give you detailed information on what our season ticket options will be for next year. As stated in my introduction, our focus has been on how we can make next season as easy as possible, financially, for our fans. We are acutely aware that many supporters, as well as our various business partners, may themselves be facing financial challenges.
“We will offer fans options. We will freeze prices. We will honour all promises made to date. We will put a system in place to hold seats for long-standing season ticket holders, where circumstances make it difficult for them to renew.
“We are delighted that it has been confirmed that we will be able to offer streaming and pay-per-view again next season as this will allow us to be even more flexible with our offerings.
“In summary, we have delayed season ticket announcements for as long as we can to give us as much certainty as possible over what we can actually deliver to supporters. Announcements will be made very shortly.”
