The split of the cost earlier in the year was £12m for the South Stand, an eye-watering £28.5m for the shared stand with its sub-4,000 RL capacity plus another £2.5m fitout. How much of that £28.5m is paid by Leeds hasn't been confirmed but the total Leeds cost of the development was reported to be around £24m so a little under half (which makes sense given Leeds benefit most from the corporate bit of the stand but Yorkshire's structure is much more complex).
Separately a report with Hetherington quoted Leeds as paying £18m in "rent" which ties back in with the £24m as Leeds have around £6m in cash/available funds.
The basic structure of the deal as outlined was -
1. L&G take a 140 year lease of the joint stand land from Leeds and provide the cash for redevelopment
2. Leeds City Council sublet the completed stand from L&G for 40 (or 45) years which provides L&G their return
3. Leeds and YCCC take further sub-leases of the stand from LCC at a rate which in turn provides LCC with a return
4. After 40 years the subleases from L&G to LCC and from LCC to YCCC and Leeds come to an end. At that point YCCC/Leeds have the option to acquire the 140 year long headlease back for a peppercorn.
LCC has no right to terminate or reduce their lease to L&G but Leeds and Yorkshire can both make lump sum repayments to reduce the rents they have to pay to the council going forward.
The council was planning on taking security from the clubs in the form of ECB fee income, the stadium naming rights, a Caddick group or Leeds guarantee of up to £5m plus other odds and sods.
The main mystery to me is how the £12m South Stand financing works. Leeds provide their £5m or £6m of this but it looks like L&G provide the balance - but from the horses mouth I was told this development was being done by Leeds entirely separately to the shared stand and it isn't mentioned anywhere in the council agreements which all talk about L&G's 140 year lease of the shared stand.
