Leeds United are flying in the Championship and look set for a return to the Premier League following a two-year absence.
They’ve racked up an impressive 75 points in 34 games and with 12 games to go they’ll be aiming to break 100 points, and potentially set a Championship record, which is currently 106, set by Reading in 2006.
Talks of an expansion to Elland Road have rumbled on for years, but the possibility now looks closer to reality following comments from the club chairman.
‘Announcements to come’ on expanding capacity of Elland Road
Elland Road, which ranked at No.16 in FourFourTwo’s list of the best football stadiums in Britain, has been the home of Leeds for their entire history, with a current capacity of 37,792, making it the 19th biggest stadium in the country
The record attendance is set at 57,892 and happened 15 March 1967 in a FA Cup fifth round replay against Sunderland.
Paraag Marathe, chairman of Leeds, revealed at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit that there are plans to increase the capacity of Elland Road up to 53,000
Via Ben Jacobs, Marathe said: “Our goal is to expand Elland Road. There will probably be a couple of phases that ultimately take us to 53,000.
“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.”
It would take the stadium into the top 15 biggest in the country, something the club certainly commands.
Elland Road desperately needs it. In order to recreate the feel of 1970s Leeds United for The Damned United, they filmed… at modern-day Leeds United.
Expanding the capacity rather than building a new stadium is certainly the right choice, in FourFourTwo’s opinion. Stadium’s are important piece of club culture, with fans attaching memories to places, and while new stadiums look fantastic, nothing can quite capture the atmosphere of a stadium that is decades old.
