LIVERPOOL FC’s principle owner John W Henry has suggested that the club’s financial fortunes would not be transformed by building a new stadium, dismissing this train of thought as a ‘myth’ in a recent email.
FSG’s lead figurehead insists that the best way for Liverpool to compete financially now, and in the future, is through worldwide commercial revenue streams and not dependent on the stadium issue that has been ongoing for a number of years.
Henry also suggested that any new stadium on Stanley Park would affect fans by having increased ticket prices, citing recent examples in the Unites States. The email, sent to The Anfield Wrap, stated:
“A long-term myth has existed about the financial impact of a new stadium for Liverpool. A belief has grown that Liverpool FC must have a new stadium to compete with United, Arsenal and others. No one has ever addressed whether or not a new stadium is rational.
“New stadiums that are publicly-financed make sense for clubs – I’ve never heard of a club turning down a publicly-financed stadium. But privately carrying new stadiums is an enormous challenge. Arsenal is centred in a very wealthy city with a metropolitan population of approximately 14m people.
“They did a tremendous job of carrying it off on a number of levels but how many new football stadiums with more than 30,000 seats have been built in the UK over the past decade or so? New stadiums increase revenues primarily by raising ticket prices – especially premium seating.”
The Liverpool supremo then returned to discussing the tough decision the club’s owners have to make in either going ahead with a new stadium, or redeveloping Anfield:
“We’ve been exploring a new stadium for the past 18 months. At one point we made it clear that if a naming rights deal could be secured of sufficient size, we would make every effort to build a new facility. Liverpool FC has an advantage in being a global club and a naming rights deal could make a new stadium a reality. It is something we are working on. There has been interest.
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“Going in the other direction, many football clubs have successfully enlarged their seating capacity. LFC has had plans to expand the main stand at Anfield but this avenue has been very difficult for the club over the past couple of decades.
“There are homes behind the main stand. Expansion of the main stand would have to be a priority for the city, community and immediate neighbourhood in order for that to occur. This issue is vital to the neighbourhood’s future but we cannot and will not act unilaterally.
“While a new stadium or an expansion of Anfield is beneficial over the long-term for the club, the financial impact of adding seats and amenities should be put into perspective.
“That’s why I say that it is a myth that stadium issues are going to magically transform LFC’s fortunes. Building new or refurbishing Anfield is going to lead to an increase from £40m of match-day revenue to perhaps £60-70m if you don’t factor in debt service. That would certainly help but it’s just one component of LFC long-term fortunes.
“Our future is based not on a stadium issue but on building a strong football club that can compete with anyone in Europe. This will be principally driven financially by our commercial strengths globally.”
With the owner change, uncertainties and indecision of recent times, Liverpool fans could already be forgiven for thinking that any new stadium is simply a ‘myth’.
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Renevate Anfield, something is going on there with the council already taking control of the remaining properties by compulsory purchase, which would allow and pave the way to expand Anfield. The council has also received a government grant to regenerate the area, so this combined with the extension of facilities at anfield and increased capacity is looking the objective by concerned, especially as the right to light issue with remaining housing has been resolved….I expect by start of next season plans will have been announced that LFC is staying put and the ground is be developed !!! Go LFC
A number of points here Jimmy.
Firstly without doubt it is far more important that we build on our worldwide reputation to the max as Mr Henry suggests. It was one of the absolute failurs of Mr Parry that he thought a megastore in Williamson square helped us to compete with the global brand of Man United. Since Mr Ayre’s appointment there have been significant improvements in this andI expect this to continue. We need to add to our 5 actual stores espically in Scandinavia, Republic pf reland and the Far East.
Secondly since the topic of a new stadium as been out there since the start of this century one has to ask who was doing the sums at Anfield? Again this comes down to Mr Parry, who in my opimiom was not only poor at increasing revenues but lazy about getting things done. I do however ask what difference to our match generated incomes a new stadium would make? Let’s leave aside ticket]price increases we would automatically raise 25% more on tickets in a 60,000 stadium (provided we sell out which we should). That doesn’t count the extra 15,000 people exposed to the megastore, programes and other club merchandise. Last year I went to visit my mate who lives in Munich and he got us tickets for the Bayern v Leverkusen match, he like me is a huge LFC fan. We went to see Sami Hyypia play but as fate would have it he ever got off the bench. However we were both skeptical about out of town atadia until we got there, they have atleast one, probably four fans halls, you go in they have a dj spining tunes and people buying drinks. The clever thong about it is you have to go and buy a card before you get served, you select the amount (it could be 10 Euro or whtever) you then order your drink they swipe the card and the amount comes off the card (say you put 20 euro on the card and the drink comes to 6 euro, you have 14 euro left). It creates a brilliant atmosphere and gets you well up for the game, I went in my Liverpool top supporting Leverkusen but left with Bayern being my German club. In the fans hall I was in there were at least 8,000 most probably 10,000+ all spending money in effectiveky Bayern’s bar that would raise huge money. Could we do this at Anfield? It would be very problematic but we could plan for this in a new stadium.
Finally ticket costs, why do we have to stick the price of tickets up for normal punters we couldoffset costs with fresh revenue streams I’ve already mentioned, stadium naming rights and charging the corporate market. We cou;d add a bit extra to the corporate such as having John Bishop doing 15 minutes after the game and if he’s unavailable Dave Whelan’s only a phone call away! I don’t know the finances invlved but I trust the owners to do what’s best. If we can extend the Main Stand then redeveloping Anfield may well be the way to go.
Maybe they could hire brendan Rodgers to design the regenerated anfield. He’s about as qualified to do that as manage the team.
kfax you cretin. follow some other team **** head.