AFTER years of uncertainty it has now finally been decided that LFC will be staying at their spiritual home, Anfield. For many fans this will be a pleasing result. For many others, this news will be taken with a negative and disappointing attitude.
For me, I am pleased about the redevelopment of our current home. One memory that will live with me for the rest of my life came on that amazing evening in 2005 as the referee drew a close on our Champions League semi-final 2nd leg victory against Chelsea. As a 20 year old on the Kop I had never witnessed a scene like it.
For 30 minutes after the final whistle the whole ground was still shaking to the loudest rendition of Fields of Anfield Road that I had witnessed at any game. It’s for nights like these why I am pleased that Anfield is a place we will still be able to call home for many more years to come. Even the older generation of fans claim that this evening was the greatest the Kop had witnessed.
Another positive for me about staying put is that hopefully I will be able to witness the joyful scenes of us parading a League Championship trophy around our famous surroundings. People may well argue that this point is irrelevant and that the stadium of where we parade trophies does not matter, but for me Liverpool FC is about tradition. Anfield is a major part of that tradition. I missed out on standing on the Kop, and this is something that eats away at me. As a hardcore Liverpudlian, listening to other people’s stories and memories is not good enough. I want to live those memories. I want to be the one telling the stories. I want to be the one sitting inside Anfield when our captain is lofting the League Championship trophy into the Anfield skies. I don’t want to carry on looking at TV footage of past greats celebrating title success and thinking I will never get to witness that in our ‘real’ home. By staying at Anfield I can still have this dream, and hopefully one day this dream will become reality.
As well as the positives there are a few concerns that crop into my mind. The first being is that modern football is more than just a game. It’s a business! Staying at Anfield means there will be no renaming of the stadium or the opportunity to sell the naming rights. You only have to look at how much revenue Arsenal and Manchester City make since selling the naming rights to their respective stadiums.
Another concern is the ability to redevelop again in 10-15 years. Would this be an option? For me one of the things that the club should be making sure of is that the option is there in the future. In 15 years time it is very likely that some of our Premier League rivals will be playing in stadia that can hold close to 100,000 spectators. The last thing we want is to have to consider leaving again in 15 years in order to compete again. This would just take us back to a stage that we are already at now.
To summarise I feel that the positives outweigh the negatives and I for one am happy that Anfield will remain. Moving the Shankly and Paisley gates as well as the Hillsborough memorial to a new site would never feel right in my opinion. The greatest players in the world will tell you that Anfield is one of their most favourite venues to play football due to the rich tradition and history surrounding the venue. I am grateful that we can have many more glorious memories inside our spiritual home, and I feel it’s a move that every generation of fan will not regret.
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I wanted a new stadium with new ideas but never forgetting the greatness of Anfield. This was possible but evidently the money is not there. This will come back to bite our club in the butt in 10-15 years time. Our city population is growing, not getting smaller.
There is a growing trend that less supporters are actually watching the games live at the stadium due to the continuing rise in ticket prices, the owners have obviously noticed this and there will be no need for further expansion in the next few decades! Just like flights empty seats are very expensive hence why the capacity will not be over 60,000 with the re-development!
unless you got owners like man city there was only one way it was going to go.another 15000 seats is a big bonus and far better than an imaginary stadium we were promised in the past.
One of the major draws of our club is playing at Anfield. The atmostphere and it’s history. If we can increase its capacity to the same as what a new stadium would have held whilst saving £150m in the process i cannot see the downside!
Parking is a major problem outside Anfield I hope something is done for the better.
What id like to see is the stadium have a new lick of paint rip the toilets out and build new ones, new seats for fans and the dug out and a screen so we can see goals replayed.
We don’t need a screen to show fans replays, should be focused enuf to see it on the pitch. Nxt we will be saying we should be playing a tune on the speakers after we score each goal!! Redevelop Anfield and the surrounding area is a bonus for everyone asdociated with Liverpool, city & club..
We need to able add more seats than 15,000 we need the option to 80,000 or 90,000 in the future otherwise we will be back here again as said above and it’s already biting us in the ass how many years is it since we won the title and how many players have we missed out on all down to not having the money
staying at anfield is always preferable but its not a done deal yet so wait and see .
and no screens please , if you want them stay at home and watch it on tv
Why not put that money for signing the whole Barca team need by BR?
Let’s not reminisce past glories all the time ! WE ARE IN DEEP ##S… and other clubs are making fun of LFC. Dispose of all “deadwood” in the team, especially those brought in by KD. We are indeed a laughing stock !
at last someone who speaks reality
wait and see 1st . believe it when i see it . FSG out
the only decision FSG i want to make is- when to sell
Don’t be fooled by Ian Ayre or FSG when they say the sums didn’t add up blah blah blah believe me if they had money like that of the City owners they would have gone for a new ground.
I don’t mind tho just hope something materialises this time around after so many false promises. It’s going to be a big job and a lot of work to get it done with a lot of meetings with locals and the council.
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