Changes are coming to Elland Road, but one journalist believes that the significant developments 49ers Enterprises has in store for Leeds United largely depend on their promotion and maintaining their status in the Premier League.
Elland Road has been Leeds’ home since 1919 and was acquired by Greenfield Investment Pte Ltd in 2004. At that time, the club was under the same parent company as the stadium.
In March 2024, ownership of Elland Road Limited was transferred to Leeds United Football Club Limited, granting the club full control of the stadium for the first time since 2004.
Now that the club owns its stadium again, last month, Leeds announced plans for changes at Elland Road, including increased stadium capacity, as part of its upgrade efforts.
Journalist weighs in on Elland Road upgrades
The Yorkshire Evening Post’s Graham Smyth believes that the stadium upgrades will come once promotion is secured. However, even if the goal isn’t achieved this season, the club could still get the ball rolling and wait to make significant developments once they secure their status in the top flight.
“I think people will see it as positive news,” Smyth told the YEP’s Inside Elland Road podcast recently. “Not a lot of people are saying ‘this is stupendous’ and they’re not doing cartwheels and backflips. But it is more flesh on the bone and I think it’s more of a commitment on record from the 49ers to say ‘we are doing this’.
“You don’t commit to spending £10m getting to the planning approval stage and then say ‘you know what, actually we don’t fancy building the stadium’. They just don’t strike me as those kinds of people. They are very very serious about stadium redevelopment. I can also understand fans saying spades in the ground please, timeframes and that’s not there yet.
“It’s difficult for them to put a timeframe on something when it largely is Premier League dependent. I don’t see them increasing the capacity to 53,000 until Leeds are a Premier League club. I just don’t see it. You can do all the work in the background and get it ready. So they don’t have to do the work straight away but they can get everything ready to go so it’s literally Premier League football – go, start digging.”
