Paraag Marathe has told Leeds United fans exactly when Elland Road’s expansion will get approved — View — Leeds All Over 10/6/24
Kris Smith
Leeds United chairman Paraag Marathe has shared that there
are already plans in place to improve the facilities and general match-going
experience at Elland Road over the off-season.
Leeds fans have the summer to digest the setback of not
getting promoted back to the Premier League, but for the 49ers and Paraag
Marathe, the work has already begun.
The new boss is 12 months into running the club since
completing the takeover, and there’s a lot for him to improve at the club from
infrastructure to cosmetic touch-ups here and there.
After the dust settled on the playoff final heartbreak for
Leeds, chairman Marathe is already looking to keep the club improving across
the board, on and off the pitch.
Included in that is attending to the queries of the fans
with regards to the Elland Road matchday experience, which hasn’t had enough
care and attention for some years.
Speaking to the press, Marathe said this on improvements to
be made soon at LS11 (via the YEP):
“We have already earmarked a certain amount of investment to
make some improvements at Elland Road, things that I know supporters have been
asking for. And while it might be, you know, not the whole new shiny toy, we
are doing different things like improving the bathrooms and improving different
concourses and lounges and things like that.”
What did Marathe say about Elland Road expansion?
The big picture is of course wondering when the club will
finally get the expansion that has been in discussion for years, but still
seems to be some way off.
Failing to gain promotion is a setback for getting ‘shovels
in the ground’, as Marathe says, but the paperwork aspect of pushing through
expansion approval is underway and should be done by next season:
“We’ve already earmarked investment that we’re going to use
for that. And then the bigger greater development. We’re still very much on the
timeline and on the path to doing that. It’s been reported that nothing is
going to happen until we get to the Premier League. That’s a little bit of a
miss at least for this season.
“What I mean is, all of the make-ready work that we have to
do for shovels in the ground, it really didn’t matter this season if we’re in
the championship or the Premier League, there’s still work to be done that
we’re doing anyway.
“And I don’t want to say work, I mean a significant
investment, as well to line up the rights that you need to do to work with the
city council to get all the approvals, to do all of the drawings, all of those
things before you put a shovel in the ground that whether we were in the
Premier League or the Championship we will be doing anyway.
“And so that money is earmarked, committed. And we are
continuing down that path. If you’re asking me this question a year from now,
it might be a little bit more complicated because at that point I’d be ready
with a shovel. But everything right now is greenlit as it would have been in
either case.”
Marathe’s use of the word ‘shovel’ obviously means when
Leeds would actually be primed to kickstart tangible work on expanding the
stadium – the West Stand in particular – and he gives it a year time frame for
that being ready to get going.
By next pre-season, Leeds could be (hopefully) in the
Premier League and pressing on to finally expand the stadium, something Marathe
is clearly eager to get ratified by the council and other parties.
