Danny Mills says Leeds would sell out 50,000-seat Elland Road

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Danny Mills has told talkSPORT that Leeds United fans would have little problem filling Elland Road if they were promoted and the capacity was increased to 50,000.

Marcelo Bielsa’s side are once again in the Championship promotion race. The Whites sit third in the table and they have not lost any of their last five games.

One table that the club top by some distance is the one showing average attendances. According to Transfermarkt, attendances for games at Elland Road average over 35,000. Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest are second with the City Ground averaging almost 28,000 fans per game.

As reported by Leeds Live, Leeds recently announced plans to increase the capacity of Elland Road to 50,000 for some stage in the future.

And while commenting on the support for the club, former Whites defender Mills made a point which certainly hints that the expansion plans may actually not even be extensive enough.

“You can’t buy a ticket at Elland Road at the moment,” he told talkSPORT. “It’s sold out every single week, 35, 36,000 plus. It’s tough. Season tickets have all gone.

“So imagine if they got to the Premier League, they’re talking about possibly extending the stadium and making it to 50,000. They would sell that out in the Premier League, week-in, week-out, no shadow of a doubt.”

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There is no question that the level of support is one of the reasons why Leeds are often one of the first names to be mentioned when neutral fans discuss clubs that should be in the top flight.

Some may argue that it is easy to keep attendances high when the team is playing well. But in response, Leeds fans could point to the 2014/15 campaign when they still boasted the fourth-highest average attendance in the division (via Transfermarkt).

That season proved to be somewhat farcical for Leeds on the pitch. They had three managers and spent hardly any time in the top-half of the table. Even then, they never went higher than 11th.

Nevertheless, the average attendances would suggest that Leeds were promotion-contenders that season. This time around, Leeds will finish as the league’s runaway winners if their final position mirrors their spot in the attendance table.