Stadium Expansion *APPROVED* Sept ‘22 - Details / Images Released on Planning Site

[justfoxes]

9 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

Who's Rachel?

 

[Sly]

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is today.

 

The sooner they’d have moved on construction of this, the less this will cost in the long run. All businesses know this, so they tend to move quite quickly if they want to get something done. I wonder is the initial rise in interest rates impacted us. 
 

Companies will always look at short, medium and long term strategies, one of which will be growth and expansion through upscaling.

We haven’t just slowed us up in terms of PSR. Unfortunately as the off field financial situation changed with heavy losses at Leicester, this was coupled with a change in King Powers priorities due to challenges in Thailand and the financial impacted they have also faced.  
 

The potential King Power priority check has happened in terms of longer term investment into the overall business and they have potentially adapted to a model whereby they’ve just got to stem the bleeding, rather than growing.
 

You don’t make money in football unless you have a conveyor belt of talent and sell more than you buy. How many clubs do that? Whilst we do have the facilities to do this, the reality is, no one at the level Vichai aspired for us to be at have a continual nett positive profit set of accounts. 

 

We can assume by our transfer activity that our strategy has changed. PSR is a convenient excuse, however I don’t think King Power / Top want us, or can afford for us to be bleeding money at the rate we have been for the past 10 years. We also like to leverage our assets to secure loans, so how are they doing this? Would they use the current stadium as collateral? It’s on hire purchase to the club from another King Power business, so that’s a little messy as well. 
 

The model we had was always semi unsustainable, as we gambled and didn’t sell out depreciating assets (the players) at the right time. 

 

We have gone to a lot of effort, to generate plans, concept designs etc, just for it to be used as an upsell gimmick to sell the club.
 

We are at a crossroads though, if the longer term plan is to sell then the leg work has been done I guess. 
 

The cost to build the stadium, hotel, extra hospitality, additional sports stadium etc is going to cost potentially £250m - £300m realistically. That is only going to add in the region of £150m - £250m to our valuation, making us a £500m - £600m purchase. If King Power do plan to sell, maybe they are thinking sell and let someone else build, as it generates further losses for them, thus placing more financially burden on a business which has faced its challenges in the past year. 

If you are a potential buyer of a football currently, if the rumours are true, quite a few clubs are on the table.

 

Bristol City - £150m

Leicester City - £300m (£600m with rebuild)

Southampton - £250m

Tottenham - £3b

Manchester United - £6b 

 

We have upscale value against some others and will have a current depressed value due to our status outside the Premier League. We have a decent catchment as a one club city however. 

When you consider who would potentially be buying us and then pouring money in to undertake the expansion etc, it’s an entire host of people that supporters will rebel against. 

You’re looking at Gulf investment firms, Asian consortiums, with potentially betting links (albeit the upside of betting is slowing down), American investors who want to engage in sports etc.

The supporters will kick back whoever buys us, as top level sport isn’t really local or a family run business now. 
 

The entire future and how we operate, could change dramatically.

 

1. We could sell our souls to the devil and push to be a top, unethical club. You can see how well that isn’t going for Newcastle and Aston Villa in that regards. I mean, could you see us as Red Bull Leicester, with the expanded Red Bull Stadium? 

 

2. We meander back to a club that ticks over, balancing the books and only spends what we earn. This feels like where OHL are sort of at. This likely sees us stay continuously in the Championship. 
 

3. The place gets asset stripped and we are sold off piece meal, similar to what happened with Bolton, Bury, Wigan etc. 
 

We are in a bit of a stick or twist moment in terms of where we are at as a club but unfortunately, we are halfway through the cycle of current Premier League money, with the next re-bid likely in late 2028. Football is at a bit of a crossroads itself, as PSR is strangling investment and it’s geared toward supporting the current big six clubs.
 

Longer term, are the TV rights worth as much of the current deal, therefore reducing the money in the Premier League and again lowering all clubs value outside those clubs. 
 

It would be an interesting topic of debate for @Ric Flair and the @BLSBPod to debate.
 

Unfortunately as communication from the Club / King Power is like shouting into a vacuum in outer space, we are all, literally speculating on what the long term plans are. 

Edited 16 September 2025 by Sly

[Trav Le Bleu]

3 hours ago, Sly said:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is today.

Have you been reading Confucius or something? 

 

Excellent post though.

[Trav Le Bleu]

I do think that, typically, Leicester City Council has had a large part to play in the delay. Historically the club has struggled with the Council to get permission to get anything approved ever since I was a kid (1970s).

 

[sylofox]

Vichai had a dream

To build a football ground

He knew that 30 thousand isn’t enough

Isn’t enough

 

[FOTS]

17 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

Who's Rachel?

 

Edited 16 September 2025 by FOTS

[Plastik Man]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I do think that, typically, Leicester City Council has had a large part to play in the delay. Historically the club has struggled with the Council to get permission to get anything approved ever since I was a kid (1970s).

 

Planning was granted years ago. I'm not sure you can lay blame at the council for lack of activity.

[wattolcfc]

I think the lack of action shows that KP are hoping to sell up. 

If they were truly planning on sticking around for the long term then it would be a no-brainer to get this done, not just in terms of PSR but to bring in additional fans and non-footballing revenue.

As the costs will rise year on year, this summer would have been the perfect time to start. The lower attendances would have meant less affect on the current finances and it could have been potentially finished for the start of *hopefully* the next Premier League season.

It’s a shame that the vision isn’t there anymore after such an exciting time for the club in the last decade, it seems as though the owners are happy for us to just plod along until we have a buyer.

[davieG]

1 hour ago, Plastik Man said:

Planning was granted years ago. I'm not sure you can lay blame at the council for lack of activity.

There was a big delay in getting the full planning for the stadium approved so missing the opportunity to take advantage of our rise at that time. Sliding doors moment and we went through the wrong one.

[RoboFox]

1 hour ago, wattolcfc said:

I think the lack of action shows that KP are hoping to sell up. 

If they were truly planning on sticking around for the long term then it would be a no-brainer to get this done, not just in terms of PSR but to bring in additional fans and non-footballing revenue.

As the costs will rise year on year, this summer would have been the perfect time to start. The lower attendances would have meant less affect on the current finances and it could have been potentially finished for the start of *hopefully* the next Premier League season.

It’s a shame that the vision isn’t there anymore after such an exciting time for the club in the last decade, it seems as though the owners are happy for us to just plod along until we have a buyer.

Had we not been relegated 3 years ago I think we might've seen some movement on this IMO.

 

But ultimately that disastrous period started a decline we still haven't managed to halt. Nobody's redeveloping a stadium when they could be playing long-term Champo football, not only because of the gulf in income but if we fail to get promoted this year, attendances will start to drop off. Whether we like it or not, success brings people through the door. 

 

Again, the club blew their own foot off through the negligence of decision makers. A lot of people said the ramifications of that failure would be felt for much longer than one season in the 2nd tier - and they were right. 

 

Edited 16 September 2025 by RoboFox

[Sol thewall Bamba]

If they're looking to sell I hope they don't do the expansion. Don't want the ground modelled on a duty free office 10 thousand miles away.

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, Plastik Man said:

Planning was granted years ago. I'm not sure you can lay blame at the council for lack of activity.

It could have been done immediately after winning the Prem. It was looked into, but the council stalled it for long enough that KP had fallen on harder times and Ace was dead.

[Gamble92]

2 hours ago, FOTS said:

 

Thank god someone else got it 😂

[Muzzy_no7]

7 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

Thank god someone else got it 😂

Come on!?

 

[Gamble92]

4 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

Come on!?

 

Apologies 😂😂😂

[Pita]

2 hours ago, Plastik Man said:

Planning was granted years ago. I'm not sure you can lay blame at the council for lack of activity.

It took ages to go past planning by then king power was in trouble money wise can’t see them selling or doing the expansion 

[Langley]

7 hours ago, Sly said:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is today.

 

The sooner they’d have moved on construction of this, the less this will cost in the long run. All businesses know this, so they tend to move quite quickly if they want to get something done. I wonder is the initial rise in interest rates impacted us. 
 

Companies will always look at short, medium and long term strategies, one of which will be growth and expansion through upscaling.

We haven’t just slowed us up in terms of PSR. Unfortunately as the off field financial situation changed with heavy losses at Leicester, this was coupled with a change in King Powers priorities due to challenges in Thailand and the financial impacted they have also faced.  
 

The potential King Power priority check has happened in terms of longer term investment into the overall business and they have potentially adapted to a model whereby they’ve just got to stem the bleeding, rather than growing.
 

You don’t make money in football unless you have a conveyor belt of talent and sell more than you buy. How many clubs do that? Whilst we do have the facilities to do this, the reality is, no one at the level Vichai aspired for us to be at have a continual nett positive profit set of accounts. 

 

We can assume by our transfer activity that our strategy has changed. PSR is a convenient excuse, however I don’t think King Power / Top want us, or can afford for us to be bleeding money at the rate we have been for the past 10 years. We also like to leverage our assets to secure loans, so how are they doing this? Would they use the current stadium as collateral? It’s on hire purchase to the club from another King Power business, so that’s a little messy as well. 
 

The model we had was always semi unsustainable, as we gambled and didn’t sell out depreciating assets (the players) at the right time. 

 

We have gone to a lot of effort, to generate plans, concept designs etc, just for it to be used as an upsell gimmick to sell the club.
 

We are at a crossroads though, if the longer term plan is to sell then the leg work has been done I guess. 
 

The cost to build the stadium, hotel, extra hospitality, additional sports stadium etc is going to cost potentially £250m - £300m realistically. That is only going to add in the region of £150m - £250m to our valuation, making us a £500m - £600m purchase. If King Power do plan to sell, maybe they are thinking sell and let someone else build, as it generates further losses for them, thus placing more financially burden on a business which has faced its challenges in the past year. 

If you are a potential buyer of a football currently, if the rumours are true, quite a few clubs are on the table.

 

Bristol City - £150m

Leicester City - £300m (£600m with rebuild)

Southampton - £250m

Tottenham - £3b

Manchester United - £6b 

 

We have upscale value against some others and will have a current depressed value due to our status outside the Premier League. We have a decent catchment as a one club city however. 

When you consider who would potentially be buying us and then pouring money in to undertake the expansion etc, it’s an entire host of people that supporters will rebel against. 

You’re looking at Gulf investment firms, Asian consortiums, with potentially betting links (albeit the upside of betting is slowing down), American investors who want to engage in sports etc.

The supporters will kick back whoever buys us, as top level sport isn’t really local or a family run business now. 
 

The entire future and how we operate, could change dramatically.

 

1. We could sell our souls to the devil and push to be a top, unethical club. You can see how well that isn’t going for Newcastle and Aston Villa in that regards. I mean, could you see us as Red Bull Leicester, with the expanded Red Bull Stadium? 

 

2. We meander back to a club that ticks over, balancing the books and only spends what we earn. This feels like where OHL are sort of at. This likely sees us stay continuously in the Championship. 
 

3. The place gets asset stripped and we are sold off piece meal, similar to what happened with Bolton, Bury, Wigan etc. 
 

We are in a bit of a stick or twist moment in terms of where we are at as a club but unfortunately, we are halfway through the cycle of current Premier League money, with the next re-bid likely in late 2028. Football is at a bit of a crossroads itself, as PSR is strangling investment and it’s geared toward supporting the current big six clubs.
 

Longer term, are the TV rights worth as much of the current deal, therefore reducing the money in the Premier League and again lowering all clubs value outside those clubs. 
 

It would be an interesting topic of debate for @Ric Flair and the @BLSBPod to debate.
 

Unfortunately as communication from the Club / King Power is like shouting into a vacuum in outer space, we are all, literally speculating on what the long term plans are. 

 

 

Interest rates are too high - We don't have the cash. 

[Swarles Barkley]

20 hours ago, Gamble92 said:

Who's Rachel?

Edit: Nevermind already posted above

Edited 16 September 2025 by Swarles Barkley

[ourla]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

It could have been done immediately after winning the Prem. It was looked into, but the council stalled it for long enough that KP had fallen on harder times and Ace was dead.

Arguably the council weren't convinced of the long term state of the club and/or ownership. And if that were the case, they were correct.

 

However, I suspect that was not the case and they were just being their usual bureaucratic selves. Not that they are unique.

 

Ultimately this is on the owners to see it through. 

[davieG]

The stadium and surrounding land all belongs to KP, it'll be them funding any work. With the state that KP are in I doubt they have the money, financial backing or even the motivation to do this.

[filbertway]

1 minute ago, davieG said:

The stadium and surrounding land all belongs to KP, it'll be them funding any work. With the state that KP are in I doubt they have the money, financial backing or even the motivation to do this.

Yeah I can imagine that the KP board have no interest in spending anymore money. The value of the club must be falling with every season that passes under Top so there can't be much desire to throw more money at the club. 

Which makes it all the more mad that fans cry about the league having rules that are in place to discourage us from running up massive losses each year.

[FoxFossil]

KP are broke. Spend £300m on LCFC? No chance, as this just pushes up the sale price/ loss. We'd end up like Wednesday  with the owner trying to sell at some unattainable price, and even more loans. Fans should be against any stadium expansion for this reason alone. Talking up plans for expansion is cheap.

Edited 16 September 2025 by FoxFossil

[jammie82uk]

2 hours ago, ourla said:

Arguably the council weren't convinced of the long term state of the club and/or ownership. And if that were the case,

The council was in it for what they could get, They wanted the club to be financially responsible for the Raw Dykes monument but the council still wanted to own it, The council wanted preferential access to the “fan zone” area on non-match days to host events at the clubs cost and a range of other things including executive match day tickets 

[Filberts lovechild]

Anyone want to chip in and buy Filbert Street? 
 

https://www.loopnet.co.uk/listing/filbert-st-leicester/34996353/

 

[MPH]

6 hours ago, FoxFossil said:

KP are broke. Spend £300m on LCFC? No chance, as this just pushes up the sale price/ loss. We'd end up like Wednesday  with the owner trying to sell at some unattainable price, and even more loans. Fans should be against any stadium expansion for this reason alone. Talking up plans for expansion is cheap.

 

we are not going to end up like Sheffield Wednesday at all