Elland Road



Elland Road is an all-seater football stadium situated in the Beeston area of the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Leeds United A.F.C. and is the largest stadium in Yorkshire. The stadium is the 12th largest football stadium in England, and the second largest outside the Premier League.

Elland Road has been Leeds' permanent residence since the club's foundation in 1919 and it was previously occupied by their predecessors, Leeds City. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson once said that Elland Road was 'the most intimidating venue in Europe'. The ground has frequently hosted FA Cup semi-final matches as a neutral venue, as well as a number of England international fixtures, and it was also selected as one of the eight Euro 96 venues.

Elland Road currently comprises four main stands – the Revie Stand, the East Stand, the South Stand and the John Charles Stand – which, together with the corners, bring the total capacity to 40,242. The record attendance of 57,892 was set on March 15, 1967 in an FA Cup 5th round replay against Sunderland. However, this was before the stadium became an all-seater venue as stipulated by the Taylor Report and the modern record is 40,287 for a Premiership match against Newcastle United on December 22, 2001.

The nearest train station is Cottingley railway station, although fans travelling on matchdays will be more likely to arrive at Leeds railway station, which is approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the stadium. This is around a 35-minute walk, but there are many taxis and buses that run from just outside the station to the ground. There are many parking spaces within the vicinity, so visitors to the ground travelling by car can park in any of the ground's nearby car parks or make use of the limited facilities in the surrounding streets. On match days at Elland Road there are many special bus services which run direct to and from the stadium, usually departing from The Dark Arches underneath Leeds railway station, in addition to the usual local bus services which run near to the stadium. Leeds City Council have also raised some initial plans on the Wakefield Line for a railway station to serve Elland Road stadium, but there are no time frames for such a scheme, especially since capacity issues on the Wakefield Line and funding for a new station would need addressing.