"A hurricane of noise" - Leeds United chairman Paraag Marathe issues important Elland Road update | OneFootball

Marathe has been speaking about the planned expansion of Elland Road

Leeds United chairman Paraag Marathe has issued his latest words surrounding the planned expansion of Elland Road.

Speaking at the Financial Times' Business of Football Summit in London on Wednesday, the 47-year-old outlined the most important factors which surround such developments, as the club continues to hold the ambition of extending capacity from its current 37,645 figure to approximately 53,000 seats.

The 49ers Enterprises president also stated that plenty of work has been in the pipeline behind-the-scenes with announcements set to follow in due course, in what is a very exciting time for all connected to the Whites.

On the pitch, Daniel Farke's men are in the midst of a 16-game unbeaten run in the Championship, winning seven of their last eight outings, none more important than the most recent victories over Sunderland and Sheffield United, with Monday's comeback victory at Bramall Lane seeing Leeds hit the 75-point mark whilst opening up a seven-point gap on third-place Burnley with 12 games remaining.

And, with United's two-year exile from the Premier League looking increasingly likely to end, despite reports stating that CEO Angus Kinnear is set to end his eight-year association and move to Everton at the conclusion of the campaign, those in the LS11 boardroom still have plenty of lofty plans to elevate the club's already prestigious status.

After the 49ers bought Leeds for a reported £170m sum from Andrea Radrizzani in the summer of 2023, it was confirmed in March of last year that, for the first time in 20 years, Elland Road was fully owned by the club, having been sold during the club's well-known financial crisis in 2004.

It was then announced in September that plans to increase capacity by approximately 16,000 seats were in motion, which would make the club's 105-year home the seventh-biggest in English football, as well as aiming to minimise current capacity during developments and bring the stadium in line with UEFA's 'Category 4' status.

Such plans also included an increase in 'general admission' seating, and Marathe spoke at further length during Wednesday's summit regarding these matters.

"Our goal is to expand Elland Road. There will probably be a couple of phases that ultimately take us to 53,000. The first phase will likely be 47,000 then up to 53,000," Marathe said - relayed by Ben Jacobs.

"Of paramount importance is to keep the cauldron and electricity of the stadium the same as it is today. Elland Road is a stadium managers and players of other clubs don't like playing at. It's been called a cauldron and a hurricane of noise."

"It is really important for us to get more of our supporters into the stadium, and make it even more difficult for other clubs to come and play in, but we want to preserve some of the magic of what Elland Road is," Marathe continued.

"We have done a lot of the pre-development work, in picking architects and working with the local council. There are probably some announcements to come and I am really excited about that."

The American also stated via The Athletic where most of the developments are set to be made in terms of hospitality and general admission seating.

“We’ll expand the hospitality and also the GA (general admission), it will be a little bit of everything,” Marathe added.

“Mostly in the West Stand but then we’ll look at the South and North, too. But we want to do it without compromising seats over the next couple of years, so it’s going to be a bit tricky but that’s our goal and we’re ploughing forward on all fronts.”

As Marathe alluded to, since his takeover, United have taken full advantage of the vociferous and hostile atmosphere which is generated by one of the country's most passionate fanbases on home turf.

Last season, Leeds took over half (53) of their 90-point haul in West Yorkshire - a record which was only bettered by Ipswich Town, who pipped Farke's side to automatic promotion.

However, the second tier leaders' form at Elland Road has gone up a gear in their opening 17 home games this season, winning 14 of those and only suffering one defeat, which came to Burnley on September 14th, accumulating 44 points in the process.

It's clear that the fans' loyalty has been rewarded with an array of dominant performances, as Leeds also average the second-highest attendance in the division behind Sunderland with a total of 36,217, meaning only 1,428 seats are left empty on matchday.