Well thats based on two assumptions -- that they could get the houses bought (no eminent domain in the UK) and get planning permission in the first assumption and second that Stanley Park is "perfectly good public park space". Years of Thatcherite neglect, and the decline of the neighborhood, have left much of Stanley Park in disrepair. A large surface car park exists only blocks away. That could be easily expanded into a garage with minimal loss of currently open, albeit rundown, park space.
A shame about the park. I saw the park's surface lot on Bing and the thought of turning most, if not all, of that into garage occured to me as well. Another possibility if they renovate the Main Stand would be to have a garage attached to the stadium. It could include several access points to the locker-rooms, offices, suites, second tier, etc. dcc134 - thanks for linking the redevelopment piece.
Too many great Stadiums have merely been swept aside instead of properly renovating. The history and appeal of Anfield as a historic landmark mirrors the importance of Fenway park to Boston. When you take away the history and spirit of sports, you're left with entertainment that has no deeper meaning for the viewer. That is why Baseball, a generally boring sport, is still so lauded in America. And that is also why (American) Football will never succeed elsewhere in the world: its grip on history is tenuous at best. Teams are not called clubs but 'franchises'. Even the name denotes a total concentration on their money value and little inclusion for the average fan. There's enough over commercialisation in football, lets try to save something for us. Save something for the fans.
I am from Liverpool and while I would love it if Anfield was redeveloped, there are some huge problems in doing so. Firstly, while it's true that many houses in the surrounding streets are derelict and the area is a shithole, it's still home to some people and they don't want to move. I think the club tried at one point to buy all the surrounding properties and were not successful. Secondly, the main stand is a bit dilapidated and is the worst stand to sit in (and the only one with obstructed views), so definately could be redeveloped. I'm not sure if the capacity could be increased, again as there isn't really anywhere to go, unless you put another tier on it, which might look ridiculous. Good idea about the corners not being utilised in the Kop, the same goes for the Anfield Road end. Thirdly, I don't think building a parking facility on the park is an option. No way will Liverpool council allow it. Currently if you want to park you can pay to park in either the Stanley Park carpark or in various pubs and supermarket carparks for a fee. Other than that you can park on a street and pay a scally to 'mind' i.e. not vandalise your car. While sataying at Anfield is my preferred option, I think it may prove to be more cost-effective to move to a new stadium. That's what the council (who want the regeneration money the stadium project includes) wants. If a new stadium is built, I actually would not have a problem selling naming rights. If the money raised was able to bring in one good player a season, I'm all for it.
If we built a new stadium though, what's a realistic capacity? Old Trafford does well with 75,000 and the Emirates sells out at 60,000. Considering the size of the metropolis, the size of the Club, and the amount of away fans we'd get, what should be the capacity?
Bigger question is how many boxes are needed. Emirates has about 120 I believe but I would think we'd be fine with half that.
Speaking of new stadiums: From Frank Lampard's Twitter: "I am surprised Manchester United did not bid for the Olympic Stadium, so they could be nearer to their fanbase in East London. "
They might have won it. On stadium size, I think 60k is fine. They aren't always selling out right now (last few home matches have been close, last one was) and without a lot of winning again, I'm not sure they justify a 70k seater. Sure, you want expansion options (60 with the option to get to 70+) but I'm not sure 70 outright is feasible.
Aye, an initial 60, 000 sounds about right. The way I read FSG, tickets prices may be held at current levels, or even lowered, to start with in order to raise the numbers going through the turnstiles.
I think it also needs to be looked at for the revenue per seat. The biggest thing a new stadium brings is more preimium seats. Is that economically viable in Liverpool? Are there enough top dollar supporters who will pay for those premium packages? Are there enough people willing to shell out 10 bucks for a hot dog or something like that? That's where money is made, not so much on the nosebleeds, though they will increase in price as the team is improving.
Rebuilding in every sense of the word, both on and off the pitch. Corporates and other top tier seats? I think we can bank on a fair few from the City through our association with Standard Chartered and the other sponsors. We shan't be able to command the premiums associated such as the London teams command, though, but, with time, I reckon we can get as close as is feasible.
I do think they've got enough of a supporter base around the world to sell out a lot of those seats. Packages to the States and other places have covered a lot of those premium seats for other big clubs. Buy a good Asian player or two and you can sell a good number of packages (I wouldn't be shocked to see that happen as NESV did it for the Red Sox) as well, and that could help. The question is more towards the corporate climate in Liverpool. I know the Standard Chartered is deeply invested, and a few other big sponsors are involved, but to sell out the club seats, the boxes and the like, are there top companies that are willing to shell out the money to get them? That's where you're making the money. I don't know that Liverpool have that financial base (or England in general compared with the US) or culture to offset a world class stadium. Maybe they do. I've a bit of an idea about Liverpool the city, but not a lot about Liverpool the economic business community.
Just a quick note on capacity. It looks as though 60 thousand is the accepted number but I have it on good authority that there are currently over 250,000 people on the season ticket waiting list so it's not out of the question that we could fill more. The important thing is that we leave ourselves room to expand if necessary
Then why aren't matches all selling out? I understand there has been fatigue with the club not performing as well, but if there are 25k waiting for tickets, we shouldn't have 2 or 3 thousand go unsold.
One '0' too many. At the very least. Whilst no one really knows what the size of the season ticket list is (the 25k number has been knocking around since the early 1990's) the more normal figure bandied about is 10-15k. Beyond that, there is no direct correlation between a waiting list for season tickets and week-by-week attendances. What empty seats tell you is that there are people who have signed up to pay for a season ticket someday who are not paying to buy available tickets for matches in the meantime. The argument for expanding the ground isn't made by a huge waiting list for season tickets, it's made by having a full house every week. It is reasonable to assume that failing to sell out 45,000 at least 5 times a season is not a good omen for trying to sell out 60,000 every week. Even United routinely have tickets on sale on the day of the match and they have a waiting list for season tickets at least as long as ours despite having a bigger ground and a higher proportion of season ticket allocations.
Rumors circulating that Henry is preparing to announce redevelopment of Anfield this week with work to begin at the end of the season. Mongers suggest they have planning approval for removal of Lothair Road to allow for expansion/replacement of the Main Stand and rerouting of Anfield Road to allow for an expanded Anfield Road stand. Kop potentially to be expanded by raising the incline. Once complete, stadium to have about 50 corporate suites, initially hold 60K with footprint to expand to 70K in the future.
Sounds good, and that should place us level with United and Arsenal again like we should be attendance wise.
I won't presume too much - but I bet most LFC supporting locals, and supporters lucky enough to have visited Anfield - will be happy with this decision.
There are some questions though. How long is this going to take? Are they going to be able to raise the capacity to £60k by the start of next season? What are the implications for these extra seats? When will these seats be on sale? When are they going to further increase the capacity - the following summer? How much do they estimate this building work will cost? How much extra will it bring in? And what are the same forecasts for when they expand again? Redeveloping Anfield starting in this summer, seems very quick to me. They presumably have to plan the work schedule and the summer is only a few months from now - seems a tight schedule to me.
Best wait for this announcement then, eh? An issue that will need careful examination is the impact on local infrastructure of another 15-25k people in L4 every other week. The plans that died a death under Dumb and Dumber were intricately bound up in extensive redevelopment of transport infrastructure and local amenities. Can't see Jumpin' Joe giving his assent unless this new plan has similar features. Which supports your point about timing. There's a lot of detailed negotiations behind such stuff - can't see that being done by May.
