Leeds United and 49ers set to tap into £77bn market as Elland Road changes confirmed — Leeds United News 28/11/24

Adam Williams

Leeds United have long harboured ambitions to expand Elland Road in order to satisfy the demand of one of world football’s most passionate and loyal fanbases.

Sell-out crowds are the norm in LS11, where Leeds generated annual matchday income of £29.9m at the last count. That was among the highest in the country.

Granted, that statistic is taken from the last published financial year, 2022-23, when Leeds were still a Premier League club.

Infographic showing Leeds United's stadium capacity and how much matchday income they earned at Elland Road in the last financial year.

But even in the Championship, Elland Road is likely to be the most lucrative ground in 2024-25 – and potentially by quite a margin.

But with a flurry of English clubs rolling out plans to either expand their stadiums or potentially even rebuild them from the ground up, the Whites know they can’t stand still.

In September, Leeds announced plans to expand Elland Road, from 37,645 to around 53,000.

In 49ers Enterprises and Red Bull, Leeds have an ownership duo that is well versed in capital expenditure projects and major stadium redevelopments.

Both sports investors have sanctioned rebuilds, with 49ers sanctioning £200m worth of investment in the NFL franchise’s stadium earlier this year.

Red Bull meanwhile have overseen three stadium construction projects in Leipzig, Salzburg and New York.

Diagram of clubs owned or part-owned by Red Bull, including Leeds United, RB Leipzig, Red Bull Salzburg, Omiya Ardija, and New York Red Bulls

Tellingly, the two newest additions to Leeds United’s board of directors, Andrew Schwartzberg and Eugene Schneur, both have backgrounds in property.

That will serve them and the club well over the course of the project to expand Elland Road.

Commercially, the development will be transformative.

Not only will it increase the cash the West Yorkshire club earn through the turnstiles but also attract new partners and create more headroom under FFP.

The phased revamp will be commercially orientated.

That will be a double-edged sword for fans, who will likely see Leeds become more competitive in the transfer market but also leave Elland Road with much lighter wallets week on week.

And fresh developments this week suggest that Leeds will leave no stone unturned when it comes to innovative and monetise both their local and overseas fanbases.

Elland Road set for tech upgrade

For years, football club owners have been grappling with the question of how to extract more cash from their international supporters.

Leeds have dozens of official supporters groups and hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide who, unless they buy merchandise from the club, do not necessarily engage financially.

The way the club’s commercial department sees it, if they can monetise even a fraction of that contingent, they stand a very good chance of supersizing their revenue over time.

That may be one of the reasons that Leeds have given their blessing for Cosm to make changes to Elland Road’s media setup to accommodate so-called ‘shared reality’ experience.

Cosm will install eight purpose built cameras at Elland Road to relay matches to paying fans as if they were there, the EFL has confirmed.

The US-headquartered have previously partnered with the San Francisco 49ers and went viral on social media earlier this year when they screened one Leeds’ arch-rivals Man United’s matches in the US.

The market for immersive augmented or shared reality experience sports is estimated to be worth an astonishing £77bn.

It might seem like a gimmick to bedrock fans, but the big brains in sports investment are convinced that it could be a new frontier in terms of revenue.

How much Leeds United will earn from expanded stadium

Away from the high-tech upgrades, how much will boots-on-the-ground Leeds fans be worth to the club at a redeveloped Elland Road.

Based on a crude pro-rata calculation factoring in their current matchday income and capacity, a 53,000-seater stadium would yield around £41m annually.

However, the true value of upgrading the stadium would likely be far higher.

The inevitable emphasis on hospitality suites and commercial experiences would see Leeds’ income from the project likely soar past the £50m mark.

Based on current data, that would make Leeds the biggest matchday income generators outside the Premier League’s so-called Big Six.