Sheffield United stadium expansion: Blades to expand two stands

Back in 2017, Sheffield United applied for planning permission to add 5,400 seats to the South Stand at Bramall Lane.

The stand, which currently seats 7,500 fans, would if the scheme goes ahead, seat just under 13,000. Like the recently extended Main Stand at Anfield, Liverpool, this would be achieved by building behind and above the existing stand, adding an additional tier.

An artist's impression of the proposed south stand

Image courtesy of Sheffield United FC & Whittam Cox Architects

Why has progress been so slow?

Despite the plans being submitted seven years ago, construction work is yet to begin. In the meantime, the club have also submitted plans to add more seats to the Kop Stand behind one of the goals. If both plans ever come to fruition, then the capacity at Bramall Lane will go beyond the 40,000 mark.

The latest update from the club in relation to the expansion plans is that they have updated both planning applications to keep the permissions alive, so there is still clearly an appetite to get the stadium expanded.

Initially, the club became very serious about their plans to expand Bramall Lane whilst the Blades were in the Premier League. However, after the team were relegated back to the Championship at the end of the 2023/24 season, the project became much harder to plan and justify financially.

There was also a US-consortium-led takeover in December 2024, which, while likely to strengthen the future of the club in the long term, made it nearly impossible for Sheffield United to proceed with their expansion in the short term.

Sheffield United stadium expansion timeline

October 2025 update

As of October 2025, there remains no fresh updates in Sheffield United's proposed South Stand expansion. Despite earlier planning applications being kept alive, the Blades are yet to begin planning construction or continue with designs.

Indeed, it is believed that any stadium plans are certainly on hold with all focus on stabilising and improving the club's on-pitch form, given the Blades sit 22nd in the Championship in a 2025-26 season in which they again expected to push for Premier League promotion. Despite the return of popular manager Chris Wilder early in the campaign, the South Yorkshire outfit still sit on just nine points from 12 league outings as at 31 October 2025.

It is likely that the project will only gather pace should the Blades return to, and potentially cement themselves back in, England's top flight.

September 2025 update

The Blades' US takeover last year is yet to kick the proposed South Stand expansion plans into gear, with no further developments announced by the club.

In their second attempt to return to England's top flight, which would surely kickstart the plans once again, Sheffield United have endured a dismal start, immediately falling behind their fellow promotion-chasers having lost each of their first five league outings.

The low mood around Bramall Lane after their Wembley defeat and poor start under Ruben Selles has been reflected in early-season attendances, having seen an average of 27,434 fans through the gates in their first two home outings, 653 fewer than last season and more than 5,000 under their South Yorkshire home's capacity.

There is cause for optimism, though, with Chris Wilder's return to the club confirmed in mid-September. The Blades hierarchy will hope that the boss who led them from League One to the Premier League and oversaw last season's eventually unsuccessful promotion bid, will again inspire an upturn in form, climb up the table and improve the mood around Bramall Lane.

May 2025 update

After the club's US takeover was completed at the end of 2024, many supporters believed that the news would be the catalyst this project needed to really start to gain serious momentum. But, almost six months later, there have been few to no new developments in this regard.

The club's defeat in the Championship playoff final to Sunderland only means that these plans will stay on the shelf for even longer, too, as there simply is no justification for any expansion at Bramall Lane with attendance figures the way they are when the club are in the Championship.

Over the course of the 2024/25 season, Sheffield United averaged just over 28,000 fans per match at Bramall Lane. While this was enough to rank them third for the division, it still works out at an average of around 4,000 empty seats per match.

The scenes at Wembley for the final were damning, too, with the Sheffield United end featuring thousands of empty seats compared to the packed Sunderland side.

Until the club are back in the Premier League and can survive for a prolonged period of time, it feels unlikely that we will see these plans get off the ground. Unless, of course, the new owners want a vanity project to show the fans that they mean business.

August 2024 update 

Pushing forward with the Bramall Lane expansion plans relies on the takeover of the club by a US-based group being finalised. On 22nd August, it was announced that they had already submitted documents to the EFL, which are currently being assessed, according to the Sheffield Star. One of the known members of the consortium so far is Tom Page, a businessman who was born in Wolverhampton and now lives in California.

The Sheffield Star added: “Stephen Bettis, the current United chief executive, is understood to have been heavily involved in the takeover deal and has impressed the would-be new owners during the process.” 

It is understood that Bettis will play an important role in pushing ahead with the stadium plans if the new owners are ratified due to his part in drawing up the original stadium project.

On the pitch, Sheffield United have started their 2024/25 Championship campaign with one win and a draw, but have already been deducted two points for “defaulting on payments”.