Four current Premier League stadiums are not big enough to even fit the entirety of Leeds United’s season ticket waiting list in their seats. That’s the scale of the popularity problem the Whites have and its only solution is still several years away.
Modernising the stadium along with a capacity increase to around 53,000 is the headline, making Elland Road the seventh biggest stadium in the country. Maintaining and enhancing the notorious atmosphere at LS11 is critical, chairman Paraag Marathe knows, while phasing the construction will hopefully minimise disruption to spectators in the interim period.
One of the major talking points on the season ticket waiting list is fans being entirely unaware of where they stand in the queue. Kinnear says it is not a formal policy to keep those waiting in the dark, but it is generally avoided for the ticket office’s benefit. “It might be because they've taken one in a different part of the ground which wasn't available to them. What the message is, broadly, at the moment, if we keep playing the way we're playing, then your place on the season ticket waiting list is pretty much irrelevant until the new stand arrives.”
With a waiting list the size of United’s, Kinnear feels pricing could have shot up far quicker with a different ownership group. However, he praised 49ers Enterprises for its relationship with supporters and the fairness it had shown with the current pricing.