Anfield: Plans & Moving On Up

ONE of my reservations about a new stadium was always the loss of tradition in the relocation and rebuilding.

Now that plans have been put forward to renovate and augment Anfield rather that abandon it, I no longer have that worry and look forward to the evolution of both the edifice and the surrounding area – and I can’t wait to see it.

My friend Markus, who came to Canada from Liverpool, travels to the homeland quite often and assures me that the rejuvenation and expansion of facilities around Anfield were highly overdue.

The Reds are full value for a facility that matches their status as one of the Grand Old Clubs of European football. Although seating is decent at a shade over 45,000 it pales in comparison to Old Trafford at over 75,000 and stands in about 70th place among the stadiums of Europe.

The renovation should take the capacity of the stadium to 60,000 or so, an increase in capacity of 30%. It still won’t put Anfield into the rarefied air of the Nou Camp at just under 100,000 but it will be a size that generates much needed revenue (after all, that’s what FSG is interested in) yet preserves the atmosphere of the present ground.

One of the early hurdles, it seems, is the reticence of some landlords in the area to part with the property that needs to be expropriated for this to happen. Already one such landlord, a certain Graham Jones who owns two of the properties that will have to face the wrecking ball, has indicated he will hold the consortium building the project up to ransom.

He considers Anfield and Liverpool FC responsible for allowing the properties around the stadium to become derelict and insists that he is owed “significant compensation”. With many landlords in the area being of the absentee variety, the negotiating power of the consortiums representatives will be put to the test.
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Although the plans are in their early stages, the estimate for the cost of the renovation is estimated at £260 million (the usual transfer budget for Real Madrid). Of that amount £150 million will go to the stadium and the rest includes proposals for new housing, office buildings, shopping, a hospitality academy hotel and other improvements to the livability of the community immediately adjacent to the stadium. One of these improvements, significantly, will be a tribute to the 96. The link at www.anfieldproject.co.uk contains all the details of the proposed “96th Avenue”.

In the coming weeks and months, the consortium is dedicated to gathering input from current residents and Liverpudlians in general on how they would like to see the project develop. This will, after all be a community venue and as such should be shaped by the community. The consortium which includes Liverpool City Council, Liverpool FC, and local developers like Your Housing Group is actively enlisting the public’s input, especially those who will be most closely affected by the initiative. And there should be jobs in the offing.

The whole project is expected to be completed by 2018 but that seems dependant on shovels in the ground fairly shortly. Knowing the pace at which public projects are completed, the timeline seems tight, with wrangling over the sale of existing homes, architects, planners, civic officials, and money men all having to be given their opportunity to throw their respective spanners into the works. But in the end, Liverpool will be the beneficiary of an expanded stadium and a rejuvenated community.

Maybe among those 15,000 new seats there will be one for an eager Canadian fan, across from the Kop, in a sea of red and singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.
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