Swansea council leader optimistic about Liberty Stadium talks

Swansea council's leader is optimistic progress can be made during talks about expanding the Liberty Stadium.

It comes after Swansea City FC's American owners revealed they are in talks with the council over increasing capacity at the ground.

The Swans want to add 12,000 seats but shelved expansion plans in December when talks to buy the ground from the authority stalled.

Since then, the club has been taken over by American investors.

Council leader Rob Stewart said: "We're pleased they reached a deal to buy the club," he said. "We want the club to go from strength to strength.

"The offer is still there and we're still open to the option of them procuring the stadium or going for a commercial deal with them expanding the stadium.

"We would be interested to see what the the American investors prefer."

The 21,000-capacity ground, which Swansea share with Ospreys rugby region, is the second smallest in the Premier League behind Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium.

Swansea have averaged crowds of about 20,500 in their last five Premier League seasons.

The club initially wants to increase capacity to 33,000 but the ultimate vision is to expand the stadium to 40,000 seats.

Last month, Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins said the club "has to make sure the council is on board" with the plans.

But Mr Stewart said the council had not recently commented on the proposals in order to allow the takeover by Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan to be completed.