£1billion Leeds United news to send shockwaves throughout English football as 49ers make their move
Leeds United are a massive club – there’s no denying that. But they’re not massive in terms of the sheer value of the club when compared to their Premier League rivals.
It’s hardly a surprise either because Leeds are still newbies in the Premier League. All but Fulham, Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and Brentford have spent more consecutive seasons in the top flight of English football with the Whites only returning there in the 2019/20 season.
Leeds’ absence from the Premier League was a long and tough one but has it seen the size of the club’s fanbase dwindle in any way? Has it heck.
Leeds’ waiting list for season tickets is almost 22,000 names long [The Athletic]. To illustrate that more vividly, that’s a full Vicarage Road or a full Turf Moor. You could also fit that number of people in Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium almost twice over.
There’s also a renewal rate of around 90 per cent, meaning that the 22,000 will more than likely stay at 22,000 or continue to grow. It’s unlikely to decrease unless the worst of the worst happens this season and we’re relegated back to the Championship.
But potential relegation issues aside, Leeds are growing at a rate that’s too big to handle for Andrea Radrizzani.
The Italian businessman inherited a baby blue whale in a fish tank when he bought Massimo Cellino out of Elland Road in 2017.
Now, he’s got a 150-ton beast on his hands and he doesn’t have the means to be able to support it any longer.
That’s where 49ers Enterprises come in with the investment arm of the well-known San Francisco NFL franchise set to complete a full takeover of the Yorkshire giants in the summer.
It’s good news for Leeds because ultimately, it means they’ll have wealthier owners. Owners who’ll be able to invest more in infrastructure than Radrizzani did as well as being able to pump more funds into the playing squad.
Elland Road is too small for Leeds and let’s be honest here, it’s rather dilapidated in comparison to most of the other stadiums you see in the Premier League.
The Athletic reported on 14 April that the 49ers’ want to see the club’s turnover increased to £400million (in the last set of accounts for 2021/22 it was £189million). The 49ers also want to see the club’s value to reach over £1billion.
That would mean that Leeds would end up being worth five times what they were thought to be worth five years ago when the 49ers first bought into the Yorkshire club.
In Premier League terms, Sportico reports that only the current big-six are valued at over £1billion. Tottenham are the lowest at £2.57billion. West Ham are the next-highest at £535million and Leeds United currently sit sixth with a value of £305million.
It would send shockwaves throughout English – and potentially European – football if the 49ers were to achieve this.
There’s no timescale to their plan but it wouldn’t be something that would happen overnight. It’s also something that would be decreasingly likely to happen if Javi Gracia isn’t able to keep this team in the Premier League.
But the future looks bright with the 49ers, who should have learned everything they need to know about England’s sleeping giants during their time as minority shareholders.
Meanwhile, Radrizzani will most likely be relieved to be washing his hands of a beast he’s no longer able to tame. It’ll be somebody else’s problem. Or somebody else’s treasure chest.
In other Leeds United news, Richard Keys has shared what sources have told him about the PGMOL and an incident that happened at Elland Road.