Leeds United Elland Road expansion: Phil Hay on 'major firm', 'agreement', plan change, 49ers' view — YEP 29/11/23
All the latest reports that have come out on Leeds United's plans to redevelop Elland Road
By Jamie Kemble
Leeds United host Swansea City this evening in the
Championship as the Whites aim to close the gap on the automatic promotion
play-off places. There has been a good vibe around Elland Road in recent months
since the 49ers' takeover and the surge up the table.
For some time, Elland Road has been a big talking point when
it comes to the club's plans to expand and redevelop. There has been a new
update in the saga so here are all the latest reports around the topic from the
last couple of years.
Phil Hay of The Athletic has reported that Leeds have met a
major architectural firm. Redevelopment of Elland Road would naturally lead to
potentially higher revenues and strengthen the club commercially. Hay wrote:
"When 49ers Enterprises lined up its takeover in the summer, it was
suggested that the fund might be in a position to unveil more concrete plans
before the end of this year. Leeds are known to have spoken with at least one
major architectural firm about redeveloping their ground.
"A larger, more modern home is seen as the most crucial
way of giving United greater commercial strength; the key to pushing up the
worth of a club that, at one stage, had a valuation of close to £500million
($630m) in the Premier League."
The plans that changed
It was agreed in 2021 that Leeds would build a new training
ground, as well as expanding Elland Road. But those plans were later withdrawn,
with Leeds instead opting to expand the stadium to 55,000 seats, up from the
current capacity of 37,608. It was said at the time that further investment
from the 49ers would be needed. Angus Kinnear said at the time: “If we stay up
this year, then construction wouldn’t start next year, but the process would.”
‘Agreement’
New Leeds owners 49ers Enterprises are expected to assume
ownership of Elland Road from previous owner Andrea Radrizzani, according to
The Athletic.
“As yet, there are no updates on Companies House about a
change of ownership, but the 49ers’ buy-out of Radrizzani included an agreement
for the group to acquire 100 per cent of Elland Road and sources with knowledge
of the deal — speaking anonymously to protect confidentiality agreements — have
told The Athletic that the handover is due to be registered at Companies House
in the near future.”
49ers’ previous promise
Paraag Marathe is keen to preserve the personality and
history of the Elland Road culture. In an interview with the BBC, Marathe said:
“I’ll be honest with you, the main thing is to protect the magic and
electricity that is in Elland Road. The answer then is [it] probably means that
it’s more of a stadium expansion than a new stadium because I don’t want to
take away from that.
“Players from the other 19 [Premier League] clubs, if they
are going to list the three worst places that they want to play on the road for
an away match, Elland Road is probably one, two or three for them. I don’t want
to take that away.”
Leeds looking at ‘tens of millions’ to expand
The proposed Elland Road redevelopment could cost Leeds
United ‘tens of millions’ of pounds. That’s according to football finance
expert Daniel Plumley, who spoke with MOT Leeds News about the club’s stadium
expansion plans.
“Look at the amount of money it is taking Everton to do a
full new stadium, obviously the Spurs one was the most expensive in history.
So, you’re talking hundreds of millions to do a full stadium, then you work off
from there, so if it’s full stand reconstruction, you come down from those
numbers but it is still significant amounts of money, certainly in the tens of
millions for sure.”
