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<\/p>\nOn the wall of a pet shop in a quiet corner of Leeds, there is something of a shrine dedicated to Leeds United. There are framed photographs of Liam Cooper, Luke Ayling, Pablo Hernandez and Gary Speed celebrating with David Batty after clinching 1992\u2019s First Division title.<\/p>\n
If you get close enough, you will also see a framed letter from the club\u2019s lauded one-time head coach Marcelo Bielsa. It was sent to Arron Lambert, the shop\u2019s owner, in January 2022, a month before the Argentinian was sacked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very grateful you have sent me your letter with the beautiful photos of that space you and all the people value so much,\u201d Bielsa wrote. \u201cThere is nothing I can do better than tell you the club is supporting this cause and that of all those who are interested in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope the united efforts of the people who spend their time and play sports there, added to the efforts of an institution as important as Leeds United, achieve the objective you seek.\u201d<\/p>\n
The space in question is TV Harrison Sports Ground in Oldfield Lane, Wortley, an inner-city area of Leeds. Bielsa was responding to a letter from Lambert that documented their community group\u2019s ongoing fight to save the illustrious football pitch from a housing development.<\/p>\n
More than three years later, that backing from the club, as mentioned by Bielsa, has borne fruit. After a six-year battle, TV Harrison Sports Ground Association (THSGA) and its supporters are confident the pitch has been saved for centuries to come.<\/p>\n
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A game being played on the pitch (TV Harrison Sports Ground Association)<\/p>\n
On the exterior wall of Wortley\u2019s Pet Lodge Superstore, there is another, more iconic, reference to Bielsa. Of the dozens of United murals around the city, few are more recognisable than the blue, white and yellow interpretation of Bielsa as Christ the Redeemer.<\/p>\n
Painted across the triangular roof above Bielsa\u2019s head, it says TV Harrison Sports Ground 1931. That\u2019s the significance of this patch of grass that the city calls \u2018Wortley Wembley\u2019.<\/p>\n
For most of the 20th century, the sports ground was a hotbed for the city\u2019s finest young footballers. Youth cup finals were staged there, and Leeds City Boys, a representative team of the city\u2019s best young footballers, played their matches there.<\/p>\n
Named after Tom Vernon Harrison, a local headteacher who led a fundraising drive to save the pitch from development in 1928, the plot was entrusted to the school sports charity, which became Leeds Schools Sports Association (LSSA), with covenants in its deeds to protect its use for sport.<\/p>\n
However, in the early 2000s, the ground was allowed to deteriorate and ceased to be used. Neglected and overgrown, it was targeted for housing by Leeds City Council after talks with LSSA.<\/p>\n
This threat mobilised THSGA in 2019. This band of community volunteers restored the pitch for public use and won multiple court cases in its fight for the ground\u2019s future. Crucially, in March 2022, they secured TV Harrison as an asset of community value.<\/p>\n
This status gives the community a chance to bid for or buy the ground if it is ever put up for sale. In March, it came to light Leeds United, backed by the community, had agreed a \u00a350,000 ($67,000) deal, in principle, to secure Wortley Wembley\u2019s future on a lease lasting centuries.<\/p>\n
But why is this ground so significant to the people of Wortley and beyond? It\u2019s the history. Paul Reaney (749 Leeds appearances), Paul Madeley (726), David Harvey (447), Batty (373), Alan Smith (228), Brian Deane (201) and Noel Whelan (58) all played at TV Harrison as youngsters.<\/p>\n
Whelan, who has pitched in with the manual labour at the ground over the years, described it to The Athletic as the little sister to Elland Road\u2019s big brother in the Leeds United family. It was where he and so many other Leeds youths were scouted to play for United.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like the Wembley for grassroots football and for Leeds City Boys,\u201d the 50-year-old said. \u201cEven when we went into the changing room, there were pictures of David Batty, Brian Deane, all the players who were recognised to come through that system were on the walls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was an inspiration to us. It felt special, like you were involved in something big. Even at a younger age, you knew how important it was to represent your city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the home of football. If you played there, you\u2019d obviously done something right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lambert and so many other members of THSGA have fought this battle because of what the field means to them as proud Leeds natives.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not as Leeds United as Elland Road, but if you had to pick a second spot, this is it. This is the feeding ground, there\u2019s a direct link to playing for Leeds from representing your city on there.<\/p>\n
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Whelan working on the pitch (TV Harrison Sports Ground Association)<\/p>\n
\u201cBetween two world wars, people threw their money into it, to protect it in the first place and then gift it to the kids of Leeds. There\u2019s no way they could ever get rid of it. You\u2019ve got to look after your heritage. I\u2019m so proud to be from Leeds. If that had ever got built on, it would have been sacrilege.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deane, six years older than Whelan, holds TV Harrison in equally high regard. \u201cThat was a real hub of the community, that was a really iconic place for the city of Leeds and somewhere to be proud of,\u201d he told The Athletic. \u201cWe\u2019re getting lost in all of the big, flashy things nowadays, but that was where characters were born with a real sense of achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the elite of the elite. Things have changed. People have different priorities, but we can\u2019t just keep dismissing everything that has gone before us and throw it away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be used as a place to inspire the youngsters of today. It\u2019s important to have a place to say, \u2018That\u2019s where David Batty and Noel Whelan started playing football\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
This positive conclusion on the horizon has not come easily. It has taken years of fighting by this band of local people, a key politician and, latterly, Leeds United.<\/p>\n
Michael Meadowcroft, chair of THSGA, sets out five key moments in the success of this campaign. The first was the restoration of the pitch in 2019, which demonstrated again how it could be used by the community and enabled organisations, including Sport England and Football Foundation, to get behind the association\u2019s cause.<\/p>\n
There were four High Court battles with the council around various facets of this campaign. THSGA won all four, further cementing its members\u2019 belief they were in the right to keep pushing as they did. The asset of community value status in 2022 was also highlighted by Meadowcroft as a watershed moment.<\/p>\n
Beyond the protection that status afforded TV Harrison, the formal change in council policy, which saw its application for planning permission on the land withdrawn, officially removed the threat. Mark Sewards, MP for Leeds South West and Morley, was central to this.<\/p>\n
Sewards was a city councillor when he got involved in 2022. He tells The Athletic it took several years of careful negotiation with the various parties involved, but he led the change on council policy and convinced LSSA that leasing the land was the best outcome for the organisation.<\/p>\n
Sewards acknowledged the importance of new council housing, but agreed with THSGA that this particular land was wholly inappropriate for such a development. As for LSSA, he advised that the expensive legal battle with the tireless THGSA would only continue and parting with TV Harrison was its best option.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeeds City Council are very keen to get this done,\u201d said Sewards. \u201cThey\u2019re as keen as I am now to get this done. I don\u2019t see any problems with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meadowcroft\u2019s fifth, and final, key moment was the arrival on the scene of United\u2019s chief executive, Angus Kinnear.<\/p>\n
If it wasn\u2019t already clear, the aforementioned letter to Bielsa from Lambert was the lighting of the blue touchpaper on United\u2019s involvement. You can add Bielsa\u2019s part in the saviour of a priceless and historic parcel of Leeds United land to his list of achievements in West Yorkshire.<\/p>\n
Kinnear was aware of a dispute at TV Harrison, but it was not until Bielsa called him, having read Lambert\u2019s letter, and asked about it that the wheels began turning. Bielsa was, understandably, not an expert in local government wranglings, but Kinnear left him in no doubt what part this pitch had played in the club\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
It was late 2021 when Meadowcroft, Lambert and the association first met Kinnear at Elland Road. United\u2019s commitment to this project has consistently impressed THSGA. While it may have taken longer than anyone wanted, there is confidence on all sides that the deal will be done.<\/p>\n
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Smith (middle) and Batty (right) both played on the pitch in their youth (Jamie McDonald\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
United will not legally own the ground, but their \u00a350,000 fee will secure it in a lease lasting centuries. That security as custodian can allow the club to be ambitious in its visions for the land.<\/p>\n
Once the deal is concluded, United will initially upgrade the pitch, build new fencing, clear the site of debris and raise the overall standard. However, there is the hope for grander plans in the pipeline.<\/p>\n