Liverpool to Redevelop Anfield

BaZ87

BaZ87

BaZ87

Don
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The worst kept secret in football has finally been confirmed this morning - Liverpool have confirmed that they're planning to stay at and redevelop Anfield.

Previously we've always been told that redeveloping Anfield wasn't possible but today the council, as part of their regeneration of the area, have announced plans to demolish homes immediately backing onto the stadium and the change of use of homes (which would have been subject to right of light issues with a bigger stadium) to commerical properties.

The aim is for the Council to begin buying up the homes not already owned by them or the club and hopefully be in a position to submit plans for the regeneration of the area and redevelopment of the ground by the middle of next year, with work to begin in 2014. The possibility of CPO's could delay that though - although only a handful of homes aren't already owned by the club/council, there's already talk of at least one home owner refusing the council permission to value his home.

Because of the above no details regarding the design or capacity have been confirmed yet but the redevelopment is supposedly going to consist of an additional tier being added to the Anfield Road and Main stands, bringing the capacity to 60-65k.
 
Russinating said:
Wish I owned one of those homes as a buy-to-let.
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There's not going to be any king's ransom paid to the owners. They're going to get around 10% on top of the value of the homes + moving costs covered if they live in the properties (+ favourable mortgages etc). They're going to have a choice of accepting that or almost certainly being forced to accept it via a CPO.

It seems like the majority of home owners aren't kicking up a fuss but at least one is and it's easy to understand why. Over the years the club have bought up a lot of the houses around the stadium and left them empty, further running down the area (some say deliberately) which means that even with the extra 10% these people will get, they won't be able to buy a comparable house elsewhere.
 
I think it's unlikely that they will as they have nothing to gain. A CPO may mean they get less than what the council are willing to offer them now.
 
Anyone that puts forward the idea that the area is better off without the football club needs their head testing.

The council didnt/dont want Liverpool to redevelop Anfield, they want a new stadium built near by but have all but been forced to allow the club to do as they wish because if the club told them where to go and moved to another area, the Anfield area would go into further decline.

The football club is the driver for the regeneration of the area.
 
a1ex2001 said:
True but they would definitely be better off without two football stadiums within 1000m of each other, if I was a local resident I would push for any regeneration scheme to only include one stadium.
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Why's that? The football clubs are the only things that bring any money into the area. If either Liverpool or Everton left the area, the amount of jobs and money being spent in the area would would decline.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Neither club has the will to leave the area if they did they would already have gone. One stadium makes much better sense from every perspective except football fans have some weird idea that if they share bricks and mortar it will destroy the soul of their club which I've never understood.
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Liverpool don't have the will and won't leave the area but Everton would and very nearly did.

As well as the supporters opposing it there are practical reasons stopping a shared stadium, such as Everton not being able to afford a garden shed. The only was a shared stadium could work would be if it was publicly funded and I'm not sure how that would be in the public's interest.

Regarding your initial point, I'm still not too sure how having 2 stadiums in the area is any different to the local residents compared with one shared stadium. You've still got the same amount of people coming into the area at exactly the same times, causing just as much disturbance as before.

edit: As for the "it works in Italy" argument. It works there because the stadiums are owned by the City rather than the football clubs.
 
A small update from John Henry regarding our stadium situation:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/sep/10/liverpool-john-w-henry-anfield

It was initially hoped that a planning application would be submitted this summer but it sounds as if we could still be some way away from that. It does seem as if both the plans are ready to be submitted and finance is in place though so hopefully once the remaining homes are purchased, things will move along fairly quickly.
 
It looks like everything is finally falling into place. The Mayor of Liverpool has confirmed that the final properties holding everything up have finally been purchased and things can begin to move forward. The club are going to release designs for the redevelopment sometime in the next week and hopefully a planning application will be made this summer with work to begin next year.

The Mail have stolen some leaked pics from a fansite that shows part of the redevelopment, although these pictures supposedly aren't the finished design:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...club-prepare-expand-stadium-60-000-seats.html

A 2nd tier will be added to the main stand first and then the upper tier of the Anfield Road end will be replaced with a newer, bigger tier. When completed the capacity will be somewhere in the region of 58,500. The club are said to have plans to fill the corners between the Anfield Road stand and both the Main & Centenary stands which will then take the capacity to 64,000 but there's no suggestion that that will happen straight away.
 
Can we keep this thread for the stadium. If you want to post that sort of stuff either start a new thread or stick it in the banter thread deano.
 
An announcement wasn't due until the weekend but I guess the leaked pictures hurried things up. The club have released official designs of the new Main Stand:

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/161747-lfc-reveal-stadium-expansion-vision

The club hope the Stand will be complete by the start of the '16-17 season, bringing the capacity up to around 54,000 with work on the Anfield Road stand to follow, adding another 4,800 seats on top.
jonneymendoza said:
+1
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Cheers jonney ;)
 
John Henry confirmed sometime ago that funding was already in place. Where that's coming from I don't know but I strongly suspect they'll be some kind of sponsor for the stand (not the stadium).
 
The club expect match day revenue to increase by more than £30m per season (before any additional commercial revenue is taken into account). In the grand scheme of things £150m isn't that much. And while I won't write anything off regarding any sponsorship, I'm guessing we wouldn't get the full amount required from a stand sponsor.

One thing the club have said all along is the project has to be cash positive - in other words, once any interest charges, loan repayments are taken into account, there needs to be cash left over from the work or else it isn't worth doing.
 
Stretch said:
Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I hope the increased capacity makes tickets easier to come by.
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Don't get your hopes up. Of the extra 8,500 seats that the new main stand will bring, 6,000 of those will be corporate seats.

It will only be when the Anfield Road stand (and if/when they fill the corners in) is ready that a noticeable amount of regular seats are added.
omnomnom said:
Pretty sure a lot of the money is coming from the council, I'm sure that's what was said last year...
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The council are paying for the regeneration of the area, they won't be contributing to the cost of redeveloping the stadium though.
 
JohnnyG said:
I think I'm right in saying that you've lost a fair few quid in the last couple of years as far as FFP is concerned, so does this announcement have anything to do with that seeing as it was made around the time you were guaranteed a CL place next season?
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No. Costs related to stadium work etc (which make up a large amount of the money we've lost) are not counted towards FFP.
 
MM-Seat said:
I hope they never do this. It seems to ruin the atmosphere.
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There's little prospect of it happening anytime soon. The club are said to have drawings for it already however they were never mentioned when plans for the first phase were released and the club would have to do fairly major infrastructure work before they can go above 60,000.
 
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