John W Henry stated on his twitter page last night that a new stadium is more likely than not due to the many obstacles in the way of the redevelopment of Anfield:
“Anfield would certainly be our first choice. But realities may dictate otherwise. So many obstacles…”
The obstacles that he is talking are probably twofold. The first being that the cost of redeveloping Anfield maybe prohibitive. With it also being likely that they could only extend to 55,000, as well as the intermediate losses accrued by redeveloping stands and reducing capacity, it could all make the redevelopment not viable.
The other major obstacle is Liverpool City Council. After losing the best part of £100m in the government’s budget cuts, the Council are struggling to make ends meet and are having to rely on outside private investment to ensure regeneration in parts of the city. The new stadium would be ideal for such regeneration as the plans for Anfield to be turned into Anfield Plaza could create between 500 and 800 new jobs as well as greater amenities in the area.
To facilitate the creation of a new stadium (which could also regenerate parts surrounding Stanley Park), the Council have bent over backwards to ensure planning permission for Liverpool’s new stadium. With planning consents expiring on June 19th, the council extended them to September without any real reasoning other than stating “sufficient work” had been done in the progress of building a new stadium. As well as regeneration, the council would also earn £300,000 a year leasing out the site.
With the Council doing everything they can to encourage a move away from Anfield to Stanley Park, it means they may well obstruct any plans FSG have of redeveloping Anfield. With the planning consents only being extended to September too, the pressure is on for John W Henry and FSG to make their mind up.
The delay over any decision currently is most likely down to Liverpool trying to search for a suitable naming rights partner to part fund the new build at Stanley Park. The Reds shirt sponsor Standard Chartered have expressed an interest. Chief Executive Gavin Laws had this to say on Bloomberg today:
“There’s a whole lot of things got to happen before that becomes a sensible conversation and the club know that we’re interested in being involved in that conversation.”
Even after they find a naming partner, the issue of Hicks and Gillett’s stadium design maybe another difficulty. Some fans do not want to see H+G’s design become a reality but any total redesign would need a totally new planning application, which would delay construction even further, and only small corrections to the current design could be put in place without needing another application.
It is a very complicated issue, one which I don’t claim to have all the information on but as you may appreciate, FSG have a really difficult task on their hands currently and let’s wait and see what they do.
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If we have to build a new stadium, then so be it.
But let it be at least a 70,000 seater. Manure are our only real rivals as the biggest club in the Premiership. To build a brand new stadium of only 60,000 when we know they are already on 76,000 would be a betrayal of Shankly and his passion for Liverpool to be number 1 club in the world.
as for the new stadium , the two jokers who owned the club did many stupid things, but the one great thing they did right was the design of the new stadium, they spent over 40 million on architects etc and believe me i have seen the designs and they are fantastic, the new american owners should just go for it and have a capacity of over 73000 with more to come if need be, liverpool fc would then have the most modern and best stadium in the world and we would be the envy of most teams, this is the only way forward, yes i love the old anfield , but it is over 100 years old and we need another brand new stadium now to keep us going for the next 100 years, remember it is the fans that make our club what it is, moving 300 meters away will not make any difference , our fans will still make the ground shake and even more as we will have more inside, so please the fenway group . please just let it happen, i am sure we can recoup more then half the 400 million costs through the naming rights, we can still refer it to the new anfield YNWA
bah the la robbie shuuda brought dem dere houses and moved dem bloos out all the way back then
Shame to lose Anfield but the only proper option is to build a new stadium and I agree with the comment above that it has to hold over 65,000.
We need to redevelop the entire area and make it look more attractive to prospective players and sponsors etc. It’s a dump at the moment and no amount of minor reworks will make it better.
Sell the naming rights and bring in the money to overhaul United and co….it’s the only way!!
i’m with dev on this one! the ‘new anfield’ plans are spectacular.
part of being the best is looking the best! and for me anyway, this new stadium would be one of the best, if not THE best in the world, the home of the best club in the world!
yes, leaving our ‘spiritual’ home would be a wrench but we have to move with the times if we want to overhaul manure! as things stand, we simply can’t compete
80,000 lets over shadow man ure
Trying to get tickets for a match at the moment is a right pain, and sometimes impossible- the capacity needs increasing drastically; let’s get on with it- looks like a new ground then!
If There is gong to be a plaza where Anfield currently stands maybe for very little money (comparatively speaking) FSG could rehouse Shanks and maybe Sir Bob as central memorials together with a plaque or two listing the history of our great club?
I would love to see Anfield re-developed, but even if the crowd capacity is increased to 60,000 plus we will still be losing out on the corporate side of things. Citeh have just announced a 100 mil sponsorship deal for the naming of their stadium, the mancs, chavs and the arse all make millions more on matchday through corporate sales than we do. We have no choice really but to move to a new stadium that has the most modern facilities and can attract more investors so Liverpool can invest in quality players and not worry too much about the Uefa fair play rules.
Liverpool fans have already come to terms with the fact that we may have to build a new ground. We are realists and understand that football is no-longer a subculture that kicks off at 3pm each Saturday.
I haven’t got a problem with the plans for a new stadium produced under the tenure-ship of H & G. We’ve paid the money, and we were all pleased with the results at the time. The new ground would be iconic, and we and the new owners would show that we are able to pick up what was good and go with it.
I do think that it needs to be built to as big a capacity as viable, however, as we need to be looking forward to sustained growth rather than simply playing catch-up all of the time.
It’s a no brainer, new ground for me, for years now we have been trying to squeeze as much as we can into the existing Anfield footprint and we are still only at 45k while our rivals are getting bigger through higher matchday revenue’s.I have been a season ticket holder for 20 years and i love the place,however we will get to love the new ground even more with thousands of more passionate reds along side us, oh and yes, more corporate as well (don’t like writing that but it is a necessary evil)
the more you think about this new stadium , it just becomes clearer, LFC are losing millions every season we delay, the mancs/ Arsenal/ CITY/ chelsea will just power ahead of us even more, we need to get this done ASAP, we then can compete for the best players and have the most ICONIC ground in the world, and believe me the best players will want to come and play for us, we need to be in the champions league each season and winning trophys each year, that is what LFC is all about, we have the manager in Kenny, we have the backroom staff, we need to add more quality to our team, we now have the academy and the young players are now coming through and we definetly have the fans to push the team over the winning line for each game, we just need to all believe , together as a club we are MIGHTY force and will will be great again YNWA
Its only right that we build the stadium. To improve as a team and club this needs to be done. Anfield has been a fortress for us over the past years and memories of the glorious days were made here, these memories will never be lost. But our club deserves more, we need to be back right at the top like we used to so we can bring new success to a new generation. We need to start again and new anfield will be where it starts. FSG let’s do this.
I fear Man City are using the naming rights idea to get round the financial fair play rules. How can they suddenly sign a £400 million naming rights deal for their stadium with an airline that just happens to be in the owners portfolio. Liverpool will never be able to strike such a deal and will be left behind while the billionaire owners of our rivals flout the new rules.
So I’m all for a brand new stadium and selling the naming rights but how can we really compete if the situation above is allowed to happen?
Moving from Anfield will destroy what is special about LFC. Anfield is admired all over the world – everyone want to play there or remembers with pride the goal they scored in front of the famous Kop. Anfield is unique. Of course we can build a brand new stadium but it’ll be like every other new stadium – a charachterless aerodrome and it will soon be eclipsed by the next new stadium. ‘This is Anfield’ means something – that’s why they touch the sign. I am proud my club plays at Anfield. What pride is there to play at the Standard Chartered or Carlsberg or Burger King Stadium. It is the heartbeat of LFC – we must not rip it out. As a Hillsborough survivor I remember the pitch and the Kop being turned into a shrine as a floral tribute to those who died. Many people have had their ashes scattered on the goalmouth. Turn Anfield into a shopping mall you detroy our history and history is something you cannot buy but it makes us who we are. Yes we need to move forwards but we must retain what is special about LFC. Loose it and it will never come back
ur point is noted n appreciated. I agree that Anfield holds a lot of history n emotions for us all. but the most important thing is not the stadium, the owners, the managers, the players… its d fans. dats d one thing that keeps the clubs heart beating. No matter what changes, the true fans will always remain loyal n support the club. It is important for our club to be among the best in the world in terms of trophies, profit, players, stadium etc
So if we have to change the stadium to achieve that, I believe its worth it.
Remember, we’re all ‘Liverpool’ fans.even if the stadium name changes, the club remains ‘Liverpool’.
So how much would it now cost to build a new stadium ?? 12 months ago we where being quoted £400 million and suggestion where that this figure was increasing by £1 million each month.
A naming rights deal is the only way forward and we will all have to bite the bullet and except that the name Anfield may be something of the past.
Arsenal got a £120 milltion over 10 year from Emerates (this was 5/6 years ago) so we can expect similar if not more e.g. £150 million with would cover a third of the cost….
Dev Says:
July 8th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
“as for the new stadium , the two jokers who owned the club did many stupid things, but the one great thing they did right was the design of the new stadium, they spent over 40 million on architects etc ”
40Million what a rip off. How much of that went into brown envelopes and back to G&H?
The club was taken to the cleaners by those architects and if we went for that design, those architects come in and build it. No thanks.