| Summary : Elland Road started off life as the home of Leeds Rugby Club in 1878 before becoming the home of Holbeck Rugby Club in 1897. It was not until 1904 that Elland Road saw its first football match with a friendly between Leeds City and Hull City. Following entry to the football league in 1905 the football ground consisted of a stand on the Elland Road side and timber and ash terraces on the remaining three. In the following year the pitch was turned 90 degrees to its present north-south axis resulting in the Main Stand becoming the South Stand. A new West Stand was built and the terrace banking raised. In 1919 Leeds City were expelled from the league due to financial irregularities, but in the following year a new club, Leeds United, were elected to the league. In the early 1920s the Elland Road stand was replaced and between the late 1920s and 1933 a roof was put over the rear of the Lowfields Road terrace. On the 18 September 1956 a fire gutted the West Stand resulting in the building on a new West Stand which opened in August 1957. Following the collapse of a crush barrier at a game in 1967 Elland Road underwent a programme of modernisation. In 1968-70 a new propped cantilever Kop (North) Stand was built and in 1970 it was linked by a corner section to the West Stand, with a similar corner section linking it to the Lowfields Road Stand in 1971. In 1974 a propped cantilever South Stand was erected. The 1980s saw little development with seating added to the West Stand paddock and the Lowfields Road rear section. Following a rise in the teams fortunes, coupled with the need to increase the capacity of Elland Road to the 40,000 mark, the next major phase of development came with the redevelopment of the Lowfields Road Stand. This was demolished in May 1992 to make way for a 17,000 seated East Stand which fully opened in January 1994. In the summer of 1994 the Kop Stand was converted to seating and renamed the Revie Stand. |
More information : [SE 2829 3135] Football Ground [NAT] (1)
Elland Road, home of Leeds United F.C.. Leeds City F.C. were born in 1904, and bought Elland Road from Holbeck Rugby League Club. When league football ceased in 1915, the ground was used for army drilling and shooting practice. City were expelled from the league for not handing over their accounts and soon afterwards, a new professional club called Leeds United was formed, who were voted into the league and kept Elland Road as their ground. By 1939 United were a first division team and Elland Road a completely different ground to the one we know today. In 1953 their first floodlights were switched on. In 1956 the Main Stand was destroyed by fire, a new one being completed by 1957. Major changes to stands and the pitch then followed, in 1968, 1970, 1971, and 1974. Also in 1971, the pitch was completely reconstructed and undersoil heating installed; it was generally held to be the best surface in the North. In 1982 Elland Road staged a rock concert by Queen. When new stands were built, the floodlights had to be made taller - at 250 feet high they are now the tallest pylons in the football league, erected in 1973. In 1983 United became the first club in Yorkshire to install executive boxes. Elland Road is also one of the easiest league venues to reach by road, as the M621 passes within 100 yards of the ground. (2) |