Leeds’ Rise: NFL Playbook, Premier League Stakes, ‘Untapped Potential’

Leeds United won its final match of the season Saturday to seal the EFL Championship title, in addition to its previously clinched promotion, which marks the first time the English soccer club will be back in the Premier League since being purchased by 49ers Enterprises, the investment arm of the NFL franchise.

In June 2023, 49ers Enterprises acquired Leeds, which had just been relegated to the second tier of English soccer, at a reported valuation of roughly $200 million. Since then, Leeds has had a new chairman, Paraag Marathe, who still serves as president of 49ers Enterprises and EVP of football operations for the 49ers.

Marathe led the somewhat controversial deal to bring on Red Bull as a minority club investor and kit sponsor last year, and is now leading efforts to renovate and expand Leeds’s longtime stadium, Elland Road, from its current capacity of 37,645 to up to 56,500.

Leeds counts several American celebrities as minority owners, like actors Will Ferrell and Russell Crowe, in addition to professional athletes like Jordan Spieth and Michael Phelps. 

With Leeds headed back to the Premier League, Marathe caught up with Front Office Sports to dive into the past two years of ownership, his dual roles with the 49ers and Leeds, the influx of American investment in English soccer, and the financial pros and cons of promotion.

Some of Marathe’s remarks have been edited for brevity and clarity.

What was the journey to promotion like?

It’s been a pretty challenging two years. When we first took this club over, we knew that Leeds United had so much untapped potential—and still does have so much room to grow. But gosh, it was a club that had just been relegated, had a credit card bill of over 250 million pounds of payables on transfers for players who were either already not playing for us or we were trying to move on from, or had loan clauses to play elsewhere. Organizationally, we had to bring in people to stabilize on the football and commercial side. It was a lot of work. In some ways, the difficult journey makes this all the more rewarding.

What investment did the ownership make to help Leeds get promoted?

Make no mistake about this: There was even more jeopardy involved if we did not get promoted this season, because we were so heavily invested, via credit card bills, when we were last in the Premier League. So, buying players without yet paying for them. I’m talking bills and payments that are still due in 2027 and 2028. There was a lot of pressure on us. So, as part of us taking this club over back in 2023, it was an understanding with us and our investors that there’s going to be a significant capital injection required just to get us to baseline last year and this season. It was a risk and a chance that we all took because we believe in where we can go.

What does promotion mean for the valuation of Leeds?

Valuation is kind of irrelevant to me because right now I’m just focused on getting the club as competitive as we can. And honestly, the name of the game is survival. It’s not lost on me that all three promoted clubs from last season are getting relegated. I know it’s going to be a challenge. I’m trying to set us up for: What do we do differently? How can we be differentiated? How can we be a little bit more smart than we have been in the past to be able to stay up?

The biggest revenue growth is media rights, which is important, but all that means is we’re able to strengthen our squad. Every single penny we earn is going to be poured directly back onto the pitch. We’re not taking a dividend out of this club today, tomorrow, ever. We welcome all new revenue that comes in, but we’re not making money for money’s sake. We’re making money to turn it into a striker, or midfielder, or whatever we can to make us better.

What will expanding and renovating Elland Road mean for Leeds?

Non-financially, the thing that I’m probably most excited about is that we have an opportunity for more Leeds United supporters to attend matches. We have a 28,000-person paid season ticket waiting list. We are the largest one-club city in the country. So, being able to get more supporters to be able to watch their club live is going to be really neat to do. Second to that, yes, it’s going to generate more revenue for us, and that revenue is going to go right into players.

How are you managing your dual responsibilities with Leeds and the 49ers?

It’s a passion. It’s not a job. It’s what I love to do. I love competition. Actually, I hate losing more than I love winning, but it’s what drives me. I don’t really think about it in terms of: How do I do it? It’s more: How could I not? It’s about: How can I get both, whichever club I’m focused on, get them as good as they can be?”

Does your focus ebb and flow throughout the year depending on which club needs more attention?

Yeah. I was bummed to not be there for the Stoke City match, where shortly after we clinched promotion. That’s because I had the NFL Draft that was Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And then Sunday morning, I drove to San Francisco International Airport, and took a flight to make it to the last home Leeds match for Bristol City. It’s the way it works. But I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way.

What do you make of other high-profile promotions like Wrexham and Birmingham City?

Really awesome what they’ve been able to do. Wrexham, three leagues in three years. Birmingham City coming right back up in such a dominant way. I can’t speak to how they’ve done it. I could speak to how we’ve done it—we wanted to be hands-on, take a lot of the key learnings that we had from the 49ers, things that worked for us. I happen to be the beneficiary as vice chairman here at Leeds for a while, of being able to see how not to do it. So, I sort of had both. I was equipped with both playbooks. I think that’s really helped us, and I’ll continue to be very hands-on to help us grow.

Is Leeds getting more interest from potential investors?

We already have such a great group of investors, who from the jump were pretty passionate about Leeds. What’s happened over the course of this season, we’ve had a ton of inbound from folks who want to be involved and want to be investors. So, it’s a pretty neat phenomenon that’s happening. I hear so many times from our investors that when they wear Leeds gear, they get noticed by somebody wherever they are in the world. There’s that picture of Will Ferrell wearing his Leeds kit at Coachella. He said he had so many people reach out to him when he was there.

Leeds is one year into its kit deal with Red Bull, who also became club investors. How is that going?

Let’s call it for what it is: When we first announced it, it was met with some criticism and skepticism, but they have been tremendous partners. They have a commercial deal and now a bigger commercial deal that we’re in the Premier League, and they are minority investors. They’ve been really great partners, offering advice, suggestions, and letting us plug into any of their processes at any of their clubs. Hopefully in time, and I think it’s already happened with Leeds supporters seeing that, but they are really, truly great partners, who I consider good friends now.

With reports of 49ers Enterprises exploring the acquisition of Scottish soccer club Rangers FC, what is the strategy for Leeds and 49ers Enterprises around building a multiclub portfolio?

It’s not a multiclub ownership model in the traditional sense, where you’ve got feeder clubs going up to a parent club. Consider these all closed-loop universes, where what we are looking for are clubs that have a history of success, and by virtue of that success, have great global fan bases. Call it uncut diamonds. It’s what the 49ers were 25 years ago when I first got involved, needing to make them better on the field and commercially. Same thing with Leeds, similar things in other clubs that we’re focused on as well. We’re, first and foremost, looking for that. Where can we really help grow value and make clubs better?