Hull City owners plan leisure village scheme with expanded KC stadium

Businessman Assem Allam and his son Ehab completed a 40m takeover of the Championship club last month.

They want to acquire the 46m stadium and expand the number of seats from 25,000 to 38,000.

In a statement Ehab Allam said: "Now that deal has been successfully completed we need to look to the future, the future for sport in this city and the region generally. To enable our plans for the club to succeed, we need to make significant investment in the ground and the facilities and to do this we will require ownership of the stadium. It is common knowledge that it was designed with a view to be extended to accommodate a capacity crowd of approaching 40,000 and we would like to see this happen sooner than later."

Council leader Carl Minns said there had not been a formal approach but it would listen to what the Allams had to say.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last year that a 50-year deal agreed under Labour had seen the council receiving as little as 2.50 a week in lease payments.

Coun Minns said would take "a lot of convincing", adding: "The current rental agreement that the council gets is clearly not value for money. Whatever deal happens with regards to the stadium it has to be right for the clubs that play there and has to be right for the taxpayer."

Coun Minns said a sale would not help the council's dire financial situation because Government accounting rules mean that capital receipts cannot be used to run services or pay wages.