Current and Ongoing Work
The stadium has an enviable central location close to the city centre. In order to maximise the earnings potential of the land around the stadium in June 2007 work began to build a 158 bedroomed 4 star Millennium and Copthorne Hotel behind the new Westfield stand. The new hotel opened its doors in November 2008.
At the Shareholders meeting in November 2007 the club announced that it intends to extend the back of the Kop stand with an additional 3,200 seats and remove the pillars holding up the roof. As the revised stand capacity is likely to be about 13,400, it will overtake Anfield to become the largest single tiered Kop stand in British football.
The club also plan a major upgrade to the Kop facilities and covering of the concourse areas. The club is conscious of creating non football related income streams therefore they also plan to build student accommodation at the back of the Kop and a large business centre (office block) between the Kop and South stand. A planning application is to be submitted in October 2008 with work scheduled to begin towards the end of the 2008–09 season. However this has been delayed.
In the same meeting the club announced that its long term ambitions are to add an additional 6,000 seats to the main South (Valad) Stand with the intentions of taking the overall stadium capacity to just over 44,000, however this expansion would depend on demand in the Premiership and any potential 2018 World Cup venue bid. United PLC Chairman Kevin McCabe has stated that he would build Bramall Lane's extensions to any specifications laid down by the FA with a view to the ground hosting matches should England be successful in winning their World Cup bid. However on 16 December 2009, the FA announced that Hillsborough Stadium (home of rivals Sheffield Wednesday) would be Sheffield's venue in the event that a World Cup is awarded to England and Sheffield is named a host city. Following this announcement Sheffield United's Chief Executive, Trevor Birch, made it known that all planned redevelopment work had been put on hold until the club was able to regain and maintain Premiership status. With Sheffield United's relegation to League One in May 2011 any further redevelopment work would seem unlikely in the near future.
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