Elland Road development essential for Leeds United to catch-up but they must tread carefully — Yorkshire Post 25/9/24
By Stuart Rayner
Elland Road's West Stand is symbolic of Leeds United – left
behind, a shadow of past glories.
It was built in 1957, before the innovative Don Revie
transformed the Peacocks into the Whites, and one of England's great football
clubs. Now Leeds rely more on their history and fanbase than what happens on a
patch of grass there long before them to cling to that status.
Upgrading Elland Road with new west and north stands is only
part of restoring former glories, but one that cannot be put off much longer.
Leeds are lucky to have the space for a feasible elite
football stadium, meaning they can progress without abandoning their history.
But it needs sensitivity and shrewdness.
That they have a 26,000 waiting list for season tickets in a
37,000 stadium is enough reason to announce ambitions – detailed plans are
still to come – to expand their 127-year-old ground's capacity to 53,000.
Notable by its absence was a timeline, or a breakdown of how
many extra seats will go to real fans. It was something chief executive Angus
Kinnear was cagey about when talking to The Square Ball podcast.
But after years of prevarication something must be done or
Leeds risk slipping further behind.
In 1992 they were English champions, gearing up to host Euro
96 at the country’s fourth biggest club stadium, just ahead of nearby venue
Hillsborough. This plan will take them from 13th to around eighth.
Capacities are far from the be-all and end-all – that
11,379-seater Bournemouth have picked off Leeds players in recent seasons shows
that.
Being in the Premier League is what it is all about. Its
television money – even in parachute payments – is a bigger deal than bums on
stadium seats, with Deloitte estimating matchday revenue will only make up 15
per cent of what top-flight clubs bring in this season.
But when clubs are looking for edges, gate receipts still
matter.
Manchester City are expanding to over 60,000. Across town,
United are mulling a new home, like Chelsea. Everton are building one,
Tottenham Hotspur’s is only five years-old. Crystal Palace plan to add 8,300
seats to Selhurst Park, Fulham's swanky 8,000 capacity Riverside Stand is
finally due to be completed this year and Liverpool expanded the Anfield Road
End last season.
Leeds' previous regime – of which the current owners were
near-equal partners – also had expansion plans but were unwilling to start
until three years of top-flight cash was banked. At the end of year three, the
Whites were relegated.
When former Sheffield United owner Kevin McCabe spoke to The
Yorkshire Post recently he lamented Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad Al Saud's
failure to follow through on his plans to expand Bramall Lane's capacity to
44,000. Given the prince cannot compete financially at the top level as it is,
would the outlay have been a good idea?
The noises are that until Leeds are back in the big league,
only preparatory work will happen, although £10m of that is promised. But the
three-year wait has been dropped.
When last in the Premier League UEFA ranked Leeds Europe’s
16th most popular club but they are not punching that weight, 28th for matchday
revenue.
But upwardly-mobile Leeds is not London, where Palace
chairman Steve Parish is expecting the new-look Selhurst with its extra 3,000
premium seats to bring in £20m to £30m more per season.
And Elland Road is a living stadium, not just a place of
business.
As well as being careful not to price out fans, Leeds have
to be wary of not muffling them. That a firm has looked at the acoustics of the
new stands is an important tick. It is not just money where Leeds need to look
for advantages, but making the most of their bear-pit atmosphere.
Yorkshire as a whole needs a top-end football ground again.
That England's biggest county is not hosting the 2028
European Championships is a huge pity. That it has nowhere worthy of being part
of the conversation is a disgrace.
It cannot be pinned on anti-Yorkshire bias, but on-field
decline.
Hillsborough will tick into a quarter of a century without
the Premier League money it needs to be modernised. The horrific events of 1989
played its part too, but its decline is mainly a footballing issue.
That the only time rugby league's Super League Grand Final
came this side of the Pennines was when it was behind closed doors at Hull City
in 2020 is not a great look either and with the possibility of Old Trafford
becoming a building site and the likelihood of Manchester United anyway
reaching a capacity which would outgrow the showpiece, there could be an event
to fight for.
The Broad Acres has some high-end smaller venues – Doncaster
Rovers will host England's Under-20s next month, Hull have welcomed the
Under-21s. Rotherham United have hosted junior teams and the last Women's Euros
(as did Sheffield United).
But we have been left behind. It falls to Leeds to make up
the gap but they still must tread carefully.