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Elland Road

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Elland Road

Elland Road, or Elland Road Stadium, is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England.

The ground has hosted FA Cup semi-final matches as a neutral venue, and England international fixtures, and was selected as one of eight Euro 96 venues. Elland Road was used as home ground by rugby league clubs Holbeck (pre-1905) and Hunslet (in the 1980s and 90s) and has hosted numerous rugby league cup finals and semi-finals, internationals and other important matches.

Elland Road has four stands – the Don Revie (North) Stand (also known as the kop), the Jack Charlton (East) Stand (which was once known as the Lowfields Road stand), the Norman Hunter South Stand and the John Charles (West) Stand – and an all-seated capacity of 37,645. Elland Road had recorded its record league attendance on 27 December 1932, where a capacity of 56,796 watched Leeds played Arsenal and then the record attendance of 57,892 was set on 15 March 1967 in an FA Cup fifth round replay against Sunderland. 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 22 December 2001. Plans are currently afoot to increase the capacity of Elland Road to 55,000, to be achieved by demolishing the West Stand and rebuilding the area.

The stadium has hosted concerts, including performances by bands such as Queen, U2, Happy Mondays and the Kaiser Chiefs.

The site, at the foot of Beeston Hill beside the A643 road to Elland, was owned by Bentley's Brewery and was called the Old Peacock Ground, after the pub which faced the land, hence the nickname the Peacocks associated with both Leeds City and United. An urban myth claims that the ground was cursed by gypsies whom had been forced off the land to allow for the construction of the stadium. In 1971 after a run of poor form, the Leeds manager Don Revie hired a fortune teller from Blackpool named Gypsy Rose Lee to lift the alleged curse.

The first occupants were Holbeck Rugby Club (rugby league) who moved from Holbeck Recreation Ground after buying the Old Peacock Ground from Bentley's for £1,100. The first competitive football match at the ground was as a neutral venue for the West Yorkshire Cup final on 23 April 1898 between Hunslet and Harrogate, with Hunslet winning 1–0. Holbeck erected a new stand in readiness for the 1898–99 rugby season. The ground eventually became known simply as Elland Road. For the 1902–03 season the Association football team, Leeds Woodville of the Leeds League, shared the ground with Holbeck RLFC in the 1902–03 season, but Holbeck went under in 1904 after losing a play-off against St. Helens and the ground was put on the market. After a meeting at the Griffin Hotel in Boar Lane in August, a new club, Leeds City, was formed and it was agreed that the Elland Road ground would be rented for the upcoming season. The lease was signed on 13 October 1904, for a rent of £75 per year. The club had an option to buy the ground for £5,000 in March 1905, but in November, the price was reduced to £4,500.

After City's first season in the Football League, the club built a 5,000-seater covered stand on the west side at a cost of £1,050. Attendances were rising, culminating in over 22,500 people cramming into the stadium to watch a local derby with Bradford City on 30 December, bringing in £487 of gate receipts. An expansion programme continued, and the club's directors ensured that the initial success was built upon, employing a "ground committee" to oversee developments. In February 1906, 3,961 square yards of land on the Churwell and Gelderd Road side of the ground was bought from the Monk's Bridge Iron Company at a cost of £420. The committee built a 4,000-seater grandstand which the Lord Mayor, Joseph Hepworth, unveiled before a match against Chelsea on 17 November. The project cost £3,000 and over half a mile of steel was used. There was a training track for the players that ran the length of the stand, dressing and official's rooms and a motor garage. Drainage work was carried out on the pitch to prevent it from becoming waterlogged.

City experienced financial hardships jeopardising the club's future but after much uncertainty, an offer of £1,000 and an annual rental of £250 was accepted for the ground. The ground was used during the Great War as a venue for drill and shooting practice until the 1919–20 season commenced. City started that season brightly, but scandal arose involving illegal payments to players during the war years and the club was expelled from the Football League after only eight games. This led some local businessmen to contemplate digging up the clay deposits under the pitch and turning Elland Road into a brickyard. Yorkshire Amateurs became the tenants, and that club played there for a brief spell saving the ground from development.

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