Two prominent politicians have expressed their position on Liverpool FC’s stadium decision in recent months. Back in October, Leader of the Liverpool City Council Joe Anderson told the Guardian that he supported the building of a new stadium at Stanley Park:
“I would discourage [Liverpool] from redeveloping Anfield and would encourage them to stick to the commitment that is already in place.”
Today, in front of the Communities Select Committee, Housing Minister Grant Shapps urged Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group to make a decision urgently because it was very important for the regeneration of the area in Stanley Park:
“There’s a really urgent decision to be made there, and in fact if that decision’s not made, it holds back regeneration. But it’s not about has the government got hundreds of millions of pounds to put in to this.”
When the original stadium plans were announced in 2002, a wider regeneration of the area around Stanley Park was also planned with new homes, primary schools, a health centre and a £37m academy school all being proposed, creating at least 800 new jobs.
The Reds were given £8.2m in European funding towards the Stanley Park project, and this will have be paid back should they decide to redevelop Anfield rather than move to Stanley Park.
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Hopefully the Murdoch saga will bring down the Condems and things will get better sooner rather than later.
FFS we NEED a N E W stadium!
Anfield is obsolete! hallowed Ground yes, still a fine spectacle, but Obsolete nevertheless! we NEED a triple AAA rated 70’000 Stadium to compete and for the Future! we cannot live in the Past!, get it done!.
It seems to me that “IF” LFC made promises then FSG bought them with the club and should keep them
as much as i love anfield i believe a new sheet so to speak new owners new stupid money to spend new manager new players new assistant managers new optimism why not a new stadium for a new era of liverpool dominance and a sign a new player called juan mata
In order to compete financially with the top teams, we need a 60,000-70,000 seater stadium. Redevelopment of Anfield would result in reduced ground capacity which in turn has an effect on revenue generated.
If I am being totally honest (red hat not on) the best thing for our city would be to share a 80,000 seater with the blue noses! I know I’ll get shouted down but for the city of Liverpool this would make a lot of sense. I think it might even improve the community spirit. With my red hat on I would say no way let’s redevlope Anfield, so many great nights and memories. If not possible then our own stadium on Stanley park sometime in the near future please!!!
A shared stadium would cause too much headaches it wouldn’t work. SHankly would be turning in his grave at the thought…… where would the Shankly statue be situated and the gates n the Hillsborough flame, would they be along side a Toffee legend?
The only way id have the Toffee nosed in the stadium is if we owned the stadium and they rented it on their home games, we are the bigger club and deserve the bigger ground……YNWA
As much as I love Anfield I believe that both clubs should look at a joint development. Before people start to shout, I’m talking about two seperate stadiums but with shared conference facilities, hotel, offices etc.
This would reduce costs/overheads and provide a more structured redevelopment of the local community.
Anfield will forever be in the hearts of LFC fans.
Personally I would prefare to redevelop but if this cannot be done and we need a new stadium, why limit it to 60,000?? We should get one over on the Mancs and build a 75,000 – 85,000 stadium
We would all love to redevelope Anfield but it would cost more and would take even longer then it already has, people would hold out for money for their homes surrounding Anfield.
I would love a 80,000 seater but most clubs take their time to extend their stadiums because of overheads etc look at Shitty they can build a huge stadium if they wanted to but you do it step by step just like Manure have done, 60-70 thousand seater sounds about right with planning permission to extend in the future……YNWA
History makes us who we are. Anfield is the heartbeat of our club and is legendary all over the world. Of course we need to progress but not by ripping out everything that makes us special. This is Anfield means somthing – what does the Standard Chartered Stadium mean to anyone? Anfield is a shrine – destoying it sacrilege. The redevelopment is perfectly possible but is being blocked by the Council who will only listen once we say No to a new ground.
What about the residents around the ground they’ll just end up wanting more for their homes, they won’t accept the first offer that comes their way, this will just hold up the development even further, so it aint just the council who will want to avoid that headache.
At the end of the day we are lagging behind out rivals, we are losing big money and thats what football is now. Clubs like Newcastle take in huge amounts over the season, even Middlesborough when they were in the Prem took alot of money. I totally understand where your point and 99.9% of us LFC would love us to stay at Anfield me included but the fact of the matter is, its just not viable, we all want Liverpool to move forward with the times not backwards in to non existent……YNWA