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Leicester City announced plans to extend their King Power Stadium home, but things have quietened down since.
In December 2023, Leicester announced that plans had been approved by the local council to increase the stadium’s capacity to 40,000 seats by adding a new upper tier to the east stand.
New facilities were also going to be added, including a hotel, business centre, a 6,000 seater multi-purpose arena, and fan store.
Two relegations and one Championship title have happened since then and almost two years on, not information has been released.
EFL Analysis’ chief finance expert Adam Williams has been digging deeper into why there has been hardly any communication and when work is expected to start.
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Leicester City must comply with deadline to start stadium expansion
As we have previously reported on, King Power’s financial situation is not too good at the moment and cost-cutting exercises across the board have been in place to avoid falling foul of the rules.
The Leicester owners may have different priorities, but the extension work must start sooner rather than later.
“The latest on the stadium expansion and redevelopment as far as I’m aware is that it’s not going to start until at least 2026. The club has got planning permission for Leicester City Council, which is valid until December 2027, so work would need to start before then unless they reapply for planning permission thereafter,” explained Williams.
“It’s clearly a plan that has legs and is part of their wider masterplan to one day make a return on their investment, but the owners’ situation has changed since the process got underway. Their priority at the moment will be providing capital to cover day-to-day costs – wages and so on – as opposed to big capital expenditure projects like this.”
Finance expert would be surprised if Leicester don’t delay stadium work
December 2027 is the cut-off before they need to reapply for permission, and the Foxes will hope their place in the Premier League will be secure by then.
Their two relegations have meant a loss in funds and understandably, any work on a stadium is likely to cost a pretty penny.
It’s these other factors that have got Williams thinking that the Foxes will need their luck to change if they are to meet that deadline.
He added: “The scale of the project surely means they are looking at £150-200m-plus. I think that’s probably quite conservative, really. Man City’s recent redevelopment was £300m and Leeds are looking at around £200m. They are both of similar scale.
“It takes time to raise that kind of capital, and it doesn’t look like there has been any sort of progress made. Personally, I would be very surprised if there were shovels in the ground before that December 2027 cut-off. After that, they would have to have a re-think.”