Phil Hay has been speaking on the latest edition of The Athletic’s The Phil Hay Show about all things relating to Leeds United.
One of the topics that he spent some time on was the potential expansion of Elland Road.
The Whites have been considering adding an extension onto Elland Road to take the capacity of their ground above 50,000, and Hay thinks that after the latest financial figures, they will be looking to do that soon.
He said: “I think it might not be too long before we see the button getting pushed on that because that is the obvious area where you can grow commercially and financially.
“That’s the area where if you bump the capacity up to 55,000, the differences are very, very significant, [and] because they’ve been packing out since Bielsa came, the uptake of tickets has been massive from the point in which he came through the door.
“There is no scope to increase on that, [there are] no extra seats, [there are] no extra corporate facilities, it is what it is to use a terrible phrase.
“They’re almost maximising the money they can make from the stadium, but if the stadium is twice as big again, or almost twice as big again, then the numbers and the graph starts to spike quite dramatically.”
Do you want Elland Road to be expanded?
Yes, it has to be
No, I like it the way it is
TIF Thoughts on the Whites extending Elland Road…
The plans for an extension to Leeds’ famous home ground have been in the pipeline for a while, and we think that with Marcelo Bielsa at the helm and with the Whites in the Premier League, we see no reason why they couldn’t expand the stadium and continue to bring in big crowds.
Leeds’ latest financial results showed a huge loss of over £60m, and it seems as if that alarming figure could spark the Whites to begin building an extension on Elland Road.
So, though the financial figures are quite shocking, they could lead to a positive outcome with the expansion of Elland Road finally happening.
In other news: ‘It’s going to cost another £35m’ – Kieran Maguire drops ‘interesting’ Leeds financial claim