Apologies for not digging up the old stadium thread, but after 6 pages of searching I figured I'd start a new one. Please merge if necessary. Henry is in town for 10 days and the stadium plans are reportedly on his agenda, so I thought it would be a good time to revisit what the topic. Obviously stadium investment is essential to the growth of the club moving forward. At this point, I'm inclined to pursue redevelopment of Anfield to meet the future needs. The history and atmosphere of the place are just to strong to walk away from. I can't believe there isn't a way to make it work. Reading stories like this really drive home what will be lost if we move away. It is generally assumed that redevelopment is impractical, but I've seen strong arguments to suggest it hasn't really been fully explored. The upside of staying put is pretty easy to get a handle on, but what are the downsides?
I'd like to see Anfield redeveloped but the City council seem hell bent on building new. I guess we'll see how good a politician Henry is ...
New. 80,000 plus. Including free seasons tics and 1/2 price beer to all regulars on this board. And if it has to be named it better be good..."The Carlsberg New Anfield" might be ok. "King Kenneys Kastle" might be ok. KFC finger lickin field is not ok. Boring boring bank stadium is not ok.
Build a new stadium but take pieces from the old stadium and make sure to incorporate a lot of the architecture style from Anfield into it. To truly compete Liverpool is going to need a much bigger stadium and I don't know if that's really feasible with updating Anfield. I'd be perfectly happy with doing something like the New York Yankees did with their stadium.
It's not just about geting a couple of more seats to the stadium. If you look at Arsenals stadium, it´s only a 60,000 capacity but generates a lot more due to the facilities and other "Add ons" that generate a huge amount of money. The fact that there is no space available around Anfield means that if we do expand its capacity it won't be competitive enough against the other teams. The truth of it all is that for the long term future of our beloved club the best option is to move over to a new stadium. It would be great it we kept the kop just with its inclination and hell, even keep some of the original material in from Anfield to symbolize what Anfield has ment to thousands of supporters around the world over the decades.
This is often stated to be the case, however, I've seen suggestions that will it may have been the case a decade or so ago, this isn't necessarily the case anymore. Now, I'm not a Liverpool native, so those with more intimate knowledge please correct me where I'm wrong, but looking at the current birds eye views on Bing, I can envision ways to expand the footprint of the existing stadium. I would propose the following: 1) Walton Breck Road appears to be the major thoroughfare through the area, providing a boundary to the south. This limits expansion of the Kop. 2) Anfield Road appears to be a secondary road providing access to local residences. I would close this road between Lothair and Skerries Roads. The properties across Anfield Road have already been demolished, so expansion to the north wouldn't displace anyone. Also wouldn't be major disruption to traffic. 3) Buy up houses on the stadium side of Lothair and Skerries Roads. I count about 30 or so. How for each? 100K 200K? Thats between 3 and 6m. Not outrageous. 4) Reconstruct a continuous horseshoe around the Kop. Current layout has no seats in the corners which is a lot of wasted space. My assumptions my be way off, but to me, it certainly seems redevelopment is achievable. It at least deserves a closer look and I'm glad the owners are doing it.
I reckon those are the things which FSG must be considering. My suspicion is that they want a multi-purpose stadium, in the sense of hosting musical events and, cripes, rugby league.
I'm not a native either, but from my travels there I'd say you are close. Anfield Road is a secondary road and the houses across it have been bought up and Stanley Park is just beyond their gardens. The houses on the side streets include a number of abandoned homes and the remainder would not go for anything like 100K. They would be 25-40K GBP. The price might go up knowing the owners have some leverage. Its not a great neighborhood except on game days. L4 has massive unemployment and is one of the poorest health areas in the nation. A commitment by FESN to work on regeneration and employment could ease the way forward. And on another note, only the Main Stand is really historical -- and it is rundown. The Kop today was re-built only 15 years ago. Anny Road and the Centennial Stand have also been completely rebuilt since Shankly's time. Its the pitch that is in roughly the same place and the changing rooms/walk to the pitch that really stir the memories. Frankly the changing rooms are laughable for professional footballers at the top of the game. In the States lots of high schools would have better facilities. Whatever is done those rooms will change. So re-build the whole thing around the set of stairs with the "This is Anfield" sign and we can all Walk On!
I think a lot will depend on what type of help they get from the local government in acquiring the resources (land, permit, amenities, tax breaks, etc) to refurbish the stadium. For Fenway, they were able to get the land nearby the park, expand the concourse and fit in new seats into what was a pretty small stadium. I'm not so sure that Anfield offers the same type of options. Luxury boxes alone would bring quite a bit of revenue that I think would be rather difficult to improve or fit into Anfield. i think the Stanley Park might be the eventual option, but I do think FSG is going to look through every option and do what's best for the supporters and the club.
Of course money talks, but i think a new stadium would be the way forward. I love that FSG has resisted temptation with Fenway and despite it being one of the smallest stadiums in MLB, they have made it profitable for them. However, this doesn't seem to be achievable at Anfield at first glance. In this case, it appears (and I have never been) that Anfield has been an additive architecture over the years. It is certainly much more appealing from inside than outside and would likely have to be massively rebuilt around the ground or the Kop anyway. Adding 15k-20k seats plus a healthy number of hospitality suites should do the trick. The key thing is trying to help pump some life into the neighborhood, but this isn't necessarily a slam dunk. The surrounds of Yankee Stadium are some of the worst in NY (for example) and really never has seemed to have much of an effect on the area (it was nice in the 1920's!) which has degraded mightily over the years.
So tear down the Main Stand and: Acquire all of the properties in between the stadium, Lothair Road and Tinsley Street - auf wiedersehen, Lake Street! Rebuild the stand w/: A second tier to increase seating. More boxes/suites. New locker rooms and team offices. Re-install the intimidating stairwell and entrance to the field. Rename the Main Stand after Dalglish in some form. A large plaza/common area for the fans could be built on what is left of the Tinsley/Lake Streets residential block. Then build another one on the opposite side of the stadium around the corner of Anfield and Skerries Roads - assuming they can shut down that stretch of Anfield Road and acquire the properties in between the stadium and Skerries Road.
At that point, if you're rebuilding most everything, a new building is probably best. I know it would be sad, but New Anfield could be done right. It won't be the same, but then again, it might be better.
Maybe, maybe not. Rebuilding on the current land is most likely going to be cheaper because all of the infrastructure is already in place. Running new sewer, water, electric, gas, telephone, fiber, etc all costs money. Who knows how far they have to run sewers to handle 60,000 people going to bathroom at half time? Is the city going to pay for that? However, the cost savings will be offset by the reduce revenue from lower attendance during construction. My hope is they are doing full and honest assessment of these issues and any report that is produced is released to the public for review.
Yeah, but where will they play during construction? If they remodel in a major way on existing land the Reds may have to replicate the Yankees 1974 when they played in Shea Stadium for a year! If it's a remodel, MAYBE it can be done in time (I seriously doubt it), but a full build out will take over a year to complete. Infrastructure, while pricey, will not be a factor into whether they go with new construction or not. It really is going to come down to the result/ end game. I mean if they can drop $230m on a remodel vs. $500m for a new stadium and can achieve the same results, the answer is clear. We can't tear down Goodison b/c we might have to pay in it!
I pretty sure all you're point have been taken for and against remodeling Anfield so lets just hope they make the right decision. Buying the property near Liverpool is an option, but then i have a new problem with that. I haven't been to Liverpool unfortunatly, but where exactly do fans park there cars in game time? A real plus on Stanley Park is that we could surely build a good parking lot that will generate a healthy amount of income on matchdays and other events. If we expand Anfield and close some of the streets we would seriously need to invest on new streats to prevent trafic congestion. I've heared from fans that as of now they leave their car parked in the street BLOCKS away from Anfield.....what would happen if we get 15.000 more fans?
http://thekop.liverpoolfc.tv/_Anfield-Redevelop-or-Relocate-Have-your-say/blog/3271094/173471.html Article from the KOP blog about the options.
Just for arguments sake, one could build the garage in Stanley Park its only meters from Anfield Road. When I go I bus or taxi from the City Centre but then again I don't rent a car on those trips either
If the neighborhood is as down-trodden as you say it is - they could easily build a garage (or two) to the NW or SW of the stadium on one or two of the residential blocks along the WBR. No reason to lose perfectly good public park space in such a congested country.