Future
In August 2001, when Leeds were among the strongest teams in England, chairman Peter Ridsdale unveiled plans for the club to relocate to a 50,000-seat stadium in Skelton. The following month, the club's 33,250 season ticket holders were asked to vote on the proposed relocation. 87.6% of them voted in favour of relocation, but the plans were abandoned within two years following the onset of the club's financial crisis and decline in fortunes on the field.
The city of Leeds, on behalf of the Leeds City Region, submitted an application to be a Host City for the 2018 World Cup at Wembley on 26 November 2009. The club was represented by Peter Lorimer. This bid was successful on 16 December 2009.
Due to the specific stadium requirements imposed by FIFA, it is likely that the redevelopment of the Kop (North Stand) will become two-tiered to approximately the same height as the current East Stand whilst the West Stand will be completely rebuilt with an envisaged final capacity of 51,240.
The redevelopment of the East Stand for which Leeds already have planning permission will play a significant part in providing the facilities required by FIFA to stage matches in the World Cup.
Despite the English Football Association's unsuccessful bid to host the 2018 World Cup, the first phase of the East Stand redevelopment plan began in May 2011. This includes the adding of an 'executive' tier sandwiched between the lower and upper tier of the East Stand which holds boxes such as the Gary Speed Suite. The East Stand façade was also given a makeover.
Future plans for the redevelopment of the ground also include a hotel and casino.
Read more about this topic: Elland Road
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“complaint of present days
Is not the certain path to future praise.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“I imagine, on the benches of an assembly, the most intrepid of thinkers, a brilliant mind, one of those men who, when they ascend the tribune, feel it beneath them like the tripod of the oracle, suddenly grow in stature and become colossal, surpass by a head the massive appearances that mask reality, and see clearly the future over the high, frowning wall of the present.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“The most remarkable aspect of the transition we are living through is not so much the passage from want to affluence as the passage from labor to leisure.... Leisure contains the future, it is the new horizon.... The prospect then is one of unremitting labor to bequeath to future generations a chance of founding a society of leisure that will overcome the demands and compulsions of productive labor so that time may be devoted to creative activities or simply to pleasure and happiness.”
—Henri Lefebvre (b. 1901)