Leeds United Elland Road expansion latest: 56,500-capacity plans approved, 'huge step forward', 49ers vow
The latest on Leeds United’s planned expansion of Elland Road.
Leeds United will be playing Premier League football next season and alongside a busy summer of recruitment, those in charge can now turn focus on to the development of Elland Road.
Plans to increase the iconic stadium’s capacity from 37,645 to 53,000 were confirmed earlier this season, with Leeds keen to bring Elland Road in line with Europe’s elite as a UEFA Category 4 ground. And owners 49ers Enterprises backed that with a £10million commitment to get their project to the point of planning approval, as reported by the YEP at the time.
Since then, the focus of all involved at Leeds has been on promotion and that was finally confirmed on Monday, with Daniel Farke’s side thumping Stoke City 6-0 before watching Sheffield United lose at Burnley. That result confirmed Elland Road will host Premier League football next season and steps forward have already been revealed regarding its expansion, with all the latest information below.
Elland Road expansion meeting
Leeds have seen three key proposals surrounding their planned Elland Road expansion approved, following a meeting of Leeds City Council's executive board on Wednesday - less than 48 hours after promotion was secured. Members of the board unanimously approved legal agreements to sell council land around the stadium to Leeds United, a necessary transition for expansion work to go ahead.
The board also voted in favour of entering a Memorandum of Understanding with the Lowy Family Group to consider the wider regeneration of council-owned land around the stadium, while the council’s vision for future regeneration around Elland Road will also be refreshed. Public consultation will soon start surrounding Leeds’ planning application, another necessary step in the process.
‘Huge step forward’ for Leeds United plans
Speaking in the aftermath of Wednesday’s meeting, Leeds City Council leader James Lewis labelled the approval a ‘huge and positive’ step forward for the plans. He told the YEP: "Today's approval by the council’s executive board marks a huge and positive step forward for the stadium redevelopment, our relationship with the club and the regeneration of the Elland Road area as a whole.
“The regeneration of the Elland Road area also represents one of the city’s most exciting development opportunities for a generation, which would revitalise a huge area of Leeds and potentially bring hundreds of millions of pounds into our local economy. Leeds United are a Premier League side in a Premier League city and today is a key moment in moving towards a better, brighter future for the club, the fans and sport in Leeds.”
Elland Road atmosphere remains key for 49ers
Leeds chairman Paraag Marathe has recently explained how a phased construction project to expand Elland Road might look, with ‘a lot of pre-development work’ already done. The 49ers Enterprises chief spoke recently at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit, vowing to prioritise retaining the already infamous atmosphere.
“Our goal is to expand Elland Road. There will probably be a couple of phases that ultimately take us to 53,000,” Marathe said in February. “The first phase will likely be 47,000 then up to 53,000. Of paramount importance is to keep the cauldron and electricity of the stadium the same as it is today. Elland Road is a stadium managers and players of other clubs don’t like playing at. It’s been called a cauldron and a hurricane of noise.
“It is really important for us to get more of our supporters into the stadium, and make it even more difficult for other clubs to come and play in, but we want to preserve some of the magic of what Elland Road is. We have done a lot of the pre-development work, in picking architects and working with the local council. There are probably some announcements to come and I am really excited about that.”
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