One of the many aspects affected by relegation as Leeds United drop into the Championship will be the long-planned redevelopment of Elland Road. Promotion to the Premier League had always been billed as the key which unlocked the finance needed for such a project, but with the end of the club’s third consecutive year at the top table here, there is still little firm detail or spades in the ground.
The last public comments made came from chairman Andrea Radrizzani. Last August, the owner told The Athletic expansion had always been tied to top-flight security.
“I always said to Angus Kinnear (chief executive), we’ll look at the expansion of the stadium when we’re in the third year of the Premier League,” he said. “The chance to go back in the Championship is very high in the first and second year, but much lower after.
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“Now we can move on. Angus has initiated some activities to finance the project. It will be over £100m to renovate the West Stand and build it to a 55,000 capacity. We’re going step by step, but, hopefully, we move soon with a financial partner.”
Nine months on, there has been no news forthcoming about any kind of financial partnership specifically set up for the redevelopment of the stadium and now Championship status has been confirmed. Seven league wins all season are unlikely to have ever made the board feel especially comfortable with the club’s league status.
The shifting sands of the club’s ownership may have also understandably played into any plans for the ground. Given how much back and forth went into every major decision of the January transfer window, a nine-figure stadium redevelopment is unlikely to be easily solved, with Radrizzani expected to move on and 49ers Enterprises waiting in the wings to take over.
Radrizzani’s 55,000-capacity estimation was a fraction below the last figures Kinnear had put into the public domain too. The chief executive spoke to The Square Ball podcast in August 2021 about the expansion, though that was, of course, before the second top-flight term under Marcelo Bielsa had even started.
“If we stay up this year, then construction wouldn’t start next year, but the process would,” he said. “That process is planning, full designs and actually the financial commitment you need before you start construction is tens of millions of pounds.
“So the first gate you need to go through is we [stay] up again, and therefore that’s tens of millions of pounds [of Premier League revenue] to take us to the point where you can put a shovel in the ground.”
Kinnear’s comments tally with Radrizzani’s on a third Premier League season being the key, though any private talks on the subject are yet to be made public. Since Kinnear aired those thoughts the club has, of course, now turned over tens of tens of millions of pounds from their league status.
“The West Stand would be the first stand we develop because it’s the oldest and has the most upside potential,” he said. “Those discussions are in place with the council. The deal on the land [behind the West Stand] will be announced very shortly. Plans are continuing to move forward.”
Earlier in the summer of 2021, before this Kinnear interview, the Parklife scheme plans originally earmarked for Fullerton Park were moved to the former Matthew Murray High School Site. This made space for a 55,000-seat expansion at Elland Road, but sacrificed the plan for an inner-city training ground on the former school site.
“If you look at the revenues the bigger clubs are generating, Spurs are generating £5m a game, that’s £100m across the course of the season,” said Kinnear. “We’re just over £20m. So before you get into sponsorship, there’s really a significant gap in ticketing revenue.
“There are very few clubs in the country that could justify a 60,000-seat stadium, but Leeds United is one of them and I know that’s part of Andrea Radrizzani’s vision and part of the 49ers’.”
A justification for 60,000 is different to the plans for 55,000 mentioned by both Kinnear and Radrizzani, but it’s clear to see what ballpark everyone is working to if and when the builders arrive onsite.
Kinnear helpfully mapped out how the phasing of the build would play out too, if and when it does go ahead. You can forget the preservation of four separate stands.
“The idea would be, for atmosphere purposes, to ensure it’s a bowl rather than four separate stands,” he said. “The phasing is open to debate, but you can either do the West and North at the same time, or you can do them separately and you protect the attendance for the season that you’re doing it.
“The way that works is you build over the existing stand, so supporters can still sit in their seats, and then the next season they move upstairs and then you build the tier below it. So ideally you don’t lose significant capacity during the construction process.
“West and North could be done together [or] they can be done sequentially and then it’s about probably joining it up to the East Stand. It’s more of a redevelopment of the East Stand than knocking it down and starting again.
“Then the South Stand is the most challenging because you’ve got Elland Road behind it, so you don’t have the footprint behind to expand. So that would probably limit the expansion on that side.
“That stand would need to be taken down and started again. It just doesn’t have the depth of the other three. There’s still a lot you can do with that stand, yes. You can go back over the road.”
It’s clear the club are aware of what they would want to do with Elland Road and how they would want to do it, but the financing and timing of it remain the great unknowns. With the worst-case scenario here, relegation logically gives them at least pause for thought on the sense in committing tens of millions of pounds when revenue has been smashed to pieces.
The small matter of the takeover is bound to have played its part too, as it did with the transfer decisions of January.
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