{"id":486370,"date":"2025-10-09T18:59:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T18:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/486370\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T18:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T18:59:17","slug":"why-leeds-united-have-ditched-elland-road-stadium-expansion-designers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/486370\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Leeds United have ditched Elland Road stadium expansion designers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leeds United have swapped architecture firms as they forge ahead with the long anticipated expansion of Elland Road.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spirits are high in this corner of West Yorkshire, with Leeds United<\/a> having started the Premier League<\/a> season relatively strongly going into the international break.<\/p>\n

The same can\u2019t be said at 49ers Enterprises\u2019<\/a> other football venture, Rangers, where Russell Martin has overseen a cataclysmic start to 2025-26. He has become the first manager ever to be sacked by 49ers.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/ Click to subscribe to the podcast \"\"\/ <\/a><\/p>\n

The American private equity-adjacent investment firm led by Paraag Marathe<\/a> bought Rangers alongside Andrew Cavenagh for the same reasons that first drew them to Elland Road way back in 2018.<\/p>\n

\"LeedsPhoto by Lachlan Cunningham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 49ers see the opportunity for huge scale at both clubs. With Leeds, as TBR Football<\/strong> exclusively revealed earlier this year, they are targeting a \u00a31bn valuation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, both clubs are what football finance<\/a> experts might call fixer-uppers.<\/p>\n

Even in the Championship, Leeds\u2019 commercial income was the envy of most teams in Europe, but the 49ers thought a more sophisticated strategy could grow that revenue stream far, far more.<\/p>\n

\"ChartLeeds United revenue chart<\/p>\n

Credit: Adam Williams\/TBR Football\/GRV Media<\/p>\n

See also: matchday income. In their most recent set of accounts, Leeds showcased gate receipts of \u00a331m. In the Premier League, that will increase significantly.<\/p>\n

But the club has been unable to satisfy demand to anywhere near the extent that they would like, hence why they are plunging \u00a3150m-plus into the expansion of Elland Road<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Working with local stadium designers could be positive for Leeds<\/p>\n

Leeds are set to increase capacity at Elland Road from just under 38,000 to beyond 53,000.<\/p>\n

They have a fully-costed plan to get them there, and the 49ers have unveiled renderings of what the stadium expansion \u2013 which focuses primarily on the West and North Stands \u2013 will look like once complete.<\/p>\n

But in news that was received with some surprise last week, the club have awarded the contract to deliver the Elland Road 2.0 to BDP, despite KSS Design Group having created the blueprints for the project.<\/p>\n

Significantly, the fact that BDP are a local firm with an office just a few miles from the stadium has been cited as a factor in Leeds\u2019 decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are benefits to partnering with a local firm,\u201d says Liverpool University football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to TBR Football<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey might be building on an existing relationship. You get an extra element of trust with a local firm, who will probably be able to understand the identity of Leeds United and their individual needs. <\/p>\n

\u201cLook at it this way\u2026 Three years ago, no one would have believed you if you said that a local firm like Hill Dickinson would have the naming rights for Everton\u2019s new stadium, they would have laughed at you. But that tells you that there are synergies for both parties when you\u2019re working with a local firm. <\/p>\n

\"LeedsPhoto by Michael Regan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cLeeds United might be able to offer the firm the chance to entertain guests in a box at Elland Road. They will have a vested interest in the stadium and engage with it after it\u2019s built. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a pricing point of view, using somebody local means you might not have some of the third-party costs that you might otherwise have had to bear.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Leeds\u2019 matchday income compares to Premier League rivals<\/p>\n

As mentioned, Leeds earned \u00a331m through the turnstiles in the last published financial year, 2023-24.<\/p>\n

However, that will have risen in 2024-25. And despite having fewer matches at Elland Road in a Premier League season, the club will almost certainly set a new matchday income record this term.<\/p>\n

But the 49ers are conscious of how big the gap is between the likes of themselves and the so-called Big Six, who each now aim for \u00a3100m or more in ticketing income every season.<\/p>\n

\"UpdatedMatchday income and stadium capacities chart<\/p>\n

Credit: Adam Williams\/TBR Football\/GRV Media<\/p>\n

In Leeds\u2019 peer group, Newcastle and West Ham earned \u00a350m and \u00a345m respectively in 2023-24, while Everton were on \u00a319m, though that will likely more than double at their new stadium.<\/p>\n

And given that most clubs, including Leeds under the 49ers, want their clubs to be broadly self-sufficient, every extra penny earned on a matchday is another penny to be reinvested in the club. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds United have swapped architecture firms as they forge ahead with the long anticipated expansion of Elland Road.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[62189,748,393,162,4308,4884,1860,2922,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-486370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-49ers-enterprises","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-english-premier-league","12":"tag-football-finance","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-leeds","15":"tag-leeds-united","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115345750549936243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}