After decades of missed dawns, Elland Road is heading for an exciting new era, but the road to expansion has already taken a twist. After more than a year of planning, consultation, and design work, Leeds United have changed their lead architect, with BDP stepping in to replace KSS Design Group on the high-profile redevelopment project.
KSS were appointed in 2024 to deliver the upgrade, which will increase Elland Road’s capacity from 37,645 to 53,000. The sports specialists guided the scheme through fan and public consultations in the spring and summer of 2025, producing detailed plans that were taken to what is known as RIBA Stage 3. This stage, formally called the Developed Design, is where a project moves beyond initial concepts and feasibility studies into a full set of coordinated designs that can form the basis of a planning submission.
It means structural, architectural, and engineering details are properly worked up, ensuring the project is realistic, costed, and capable of being delivered. After public consultations, KSS submitted a hybrid planning application to Leeds City Council back in July, covering a full rebuild of the West Stand and alterations to the north-west and south-west corners, alongside outline consent for later redevelopment of the North Stand. The plans were well received by the city, the council, and most importantly, the fans.
Then came an unexpected twist. Just a month after the application went in, the club reopened the tender for the later stages of the design work. Bids were sought from several practices, including KSS, AFL, and BDP, and it has now been confirmed that BDP had been appointed as lead architect. KSS responded with clear disappointment, suggesting that BDP’s fee proposal had been materially lower than their own. While the financial side has not been confirmed by the club, it is clear that cost and deliverability were factors, and BDP’s existing involvement at Elland Road and their presence in the city may have played a role too.
BDP are no strangers to the site. Working alongside Deloitte, they have already been leading the wider Elland Road masterplan, which sets out a vision for a new mixed-use neighbourhood of more than 1,500 homes, 25,000 square metres of leisure, sport, and retail, and new public spaces designed to integrate the stadium with its surroundings. This gives BDP a head start in understanding the site, its constraints, and its potential. On top of this, their sports division, BDP Pattern, brings heavyweight experience in major stadium projects, including Everton’s new 52,888-seat Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium, Suoyuwan Stadium in China, the redevelopment of Old Trafford Cricket Ground, and work at Royal Ascot.
The next steps are already in motion with enabling works due to get started early next year. The planning application submitted under KSS’s design remains the foundation of the project, so the overall capacity increase, footprint of the West Stand, and broad phasing are expected to stay the same. What BDP now control are the detailed design stages – the technical and architectural decisions that will define how the stadium looks, feels, and operates. This is where refinements may be seen in the materials used, the layout of concourses and hospitality areas, and the way the stadium ties into the wider regeneration of Elland Road. As the first phase focuses on the West Stand rebuild to deliver the initial uplift in capacity, longer-term changes to the North Stand and surrounding corners could also be influenced by BDP’s hand in the masterplan for the whole site.
For Leeds United, the demand for expansion is unquestionable, with a season ticket waiting list of around 26,000 and a fanbase that has outgrown the current ground. For 49ers Enterprises, the redevelopment is as much about modernising the experience as it is about adding seats, with ambitions to place Elland Road among the best grounds in the Premier League. The appointment of BDP represents both stability and opportunity: stability because the club can move forward with plans already in motion, and opportunity because BDP’s dual role on both the stadium and the masterplan may allow them to refine the design so that the ground not only grows in size but is fully integrated into a vibrant, year-round destination.
The challenge now is to deliver improvements without losing the character, atmosphere, noise and history that make Elland Road unique and a challenging place for opposing teams to come.