Start of Elland Road redevelopment 'unbelievably exciting' - Lowy
[Getty Images] No sooner had the empty beer bottles and wine glasses been swept up by the catering staff after ushering the corporate ticket holders from the Norman Hunter, Lucas Radebe and Billy Bremner Suites after heartily celebrating Dominic Calvert-Lewin's late winner against Brighton on Sunday, work began on Elland Road's John Charles Stand. There is nothing like an added-time winner to round of a home season, especially against a European-chasing outfit. It served as a reminder that Leeds are already a competitive force in a Premier League in which they are assured of another campaign.
The joyous riot on the final whistle and beyond maybe tempered the sadness of the dawning realisation that one facade of the club's ancestral home will, over the next three and a half seasons, be transformed beyond recognition. The West Stand is the beginning of the uplift of the ground's capacity to eventually more than 50,000 once the Don Revie Kop end is enhanced afterwards. Vital to the project is the provision of either a light rail or tram from Leeds city centre with a stop at Elland Road and then on to the White Rose area.
Club director Peter Lowy, founder of the Lowy Family Group who are developing the 30 acres around the stadium, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin and leader of Leeds City Council James Lewis committing all parties to the vision. Lowy, who was speaking at a UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum event in the city, said: "The key to the investment in Leeds is the redevelopment of the stadium, because if you can't get the stadium to be more than 36,000 seats, you can't raise the money to build a Premier League football team. "So, once you do that, the stadium redevelopment is the anchor for us to be able to do a major redevelopment on a piece of land that hasn't seen anything in 40 years.
It's also one of the most deprived, South Leeds is in the lowest 5% of the economic ladder of the UK. "Through regeneration and development as we did in Stratford (in London with his former company Westfield), you can actually totally and utterly change the economic area around the development that you do. And so we came here and I took on one of the hardest jobs I've ever done.
It's the most fun I've ever had, and to see the stadium [work] start is unbelievably exciting. " Brabin, who is as passionate as Lowy about the project, revealed Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is on board too. "There was a briefing that came out of number 10 saying the Prime Minister supports the tram," Brabin said.