Liverpool have moved a step closer to building a new Ground

Dub13

This is good News for the club.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N146163040927-1357.htm

Liverpool have moved a step closer to building a new 60,000-seater stadium in Stanley Park after receiving the okay from Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's office.
Liverpool received the planning permission for their new stadium from Liverpool city council in July and it then went to John Prescott's office. The good news is there are no objections and Liverpool are now a step further to a new stadium.

The new stadium - set to retain the Anfield name - will not only enable a further 15,000 fans to see the Reds in action every time they play at home but will also kick-start a whole regeneration project in north Liverpool.

A 150-page planning application was submitted by the club in October 2003 and details how Stanley Park will benefit from the construction of the new ground and how the current stadium site will be transformed into a public plaza surrounded by apartments, offices, bars and restaurants and a hotel.

Liverpool FC Chief Executive Rick Parry said the news is a very good one but said the new stadium is not a mere formality just yet, and just a step forward in the right direction.

Rick Parry told Liverpoolfc.tv: "It's not the final hurdle but it's a very significant step forward.

"Obviously everyone is very pleased with the news. It is good news for Liverpool Football Club and it is also good news for the local community who want to see something happen.

"We hope there will be no more legal challenges."

Building is expected to start on the new stadium in the spring of 2005 with plans to open its doors in 2007.

Liverpool council leader Mike Storey expressed his delight with the news and said: "This is brilliant news for the city of Liverpool and is about more than a football stadium. It will mean new jobs, homes and investment."

Local councillor Jeremy Chowings said: "This is the news that the people of Anfield have been waiting for."

midget lord

was reading this earlier alright. Great news, but i will still be teary eyed when we eventually anfield, i think we'll have one more championship before we move, for old times sake like!

cerbeus

Everton are said to be still very keen on a ground share with Liverpool.

p.pete

I've been waiting for that announcement for weeks - thought it was only supposed to be at Prescotts office for 1 month. At least we can see some progress now:D

Ardent

Superb news. I too will be sad to see Anfield to go - it's a great stadium when it's full, everyone so close to the action - but it's looking a bit long in the tooth in these modern times. You can see what I mean if you ever do the stadium tour, it's quite underwhelming when it's empty.

Hopefully Liverpool City Council will do up the whole area around Anfield in tandem with the new stadium, the whole area is a bit dumpy. Everton can hang on to their shed.

p.pete

cerbeus wrote:

Everton are said to be still very keen on a ground share with Liverpool.

They can pay us rent! I don't think it would be such a bad thing but only if the pitch quality was gauranteed.

It'd be great to back to the days when both clubs were strong forces - unfortunately that's far from the case at the moment...

Shaque attack

cerbeus wrote:

Everton are said to be still very keen on a ground share with Liverpool.

i cant really see that happening.
i'm delighted everything is going according to plan though

The Muppet

midget lord wrote:

, i think we'll have one more championship before we move, for old times sake like!

That,ll give them plenty of time to raise the cash


Theres a great tradition at Anfield and it would be sad to see that lost but they need the bigger crowds to generate the money an as there is no space at anfield to develope a move is a must. At least they are holding onto the name.

If I were a liverpool supporter I would be concerned what the short term effect on team building financing the new stadium would have. In the longer term it will be a good thing for the club because Liverpool have the tradition and pedigree to be one of the biggest clubs in world football when they start getting things right on the pitch

Ardent

p.pete wrote:

They can pay us rent! I don't think it would be such a bad thing but only if the pitch quality was gauranteed.

It'd be great to back to the days when both clubs were strong forces - unfortunately that's far from the case at the moment...

F**k them. It would never work, the fans hate each other. The only reason Everton are interested at this stage is because they are broke and have no hope of moving into a state-of-the-art stadium of their own.

p.pete

We could potentially get 5-10 mil out of the deal and we don't need to like them. Roma / Lazio, Genoa / Sampadoria, Milan / Inter - none of these teams love each other but they still see benifits to sharing and in this case we could dictate whatever policies we wanted and have them under the thumb

<edit>

5-10 mil per season

emertoff

I can't understand the anti-Everton vitriol of some here. It's not Everton who have taken LFC's status as a big three club off them. Why should Everton be tenants of Liverpool? I would not argue for one moment that Everton are a mediocre club in terms of finances and could not compete with Liverpool on that level, or in terms of supporter base, but they have the majority following in Liverpool itself, even Graeme Souness admitted it.

Liverpool cannot compete with the top three so it would make sense for both clubs to share. Let Merseyside have a world-class stadium that both clubs can use. Good luck to Liverpool if they wish to go it alone, but today they have only won planning approval - not a brick has been laid and the cost will make it prohibitive for them to persue big-name transfer targets in the meantime. It's no coincidence that they are touting for takeover bids.

The North West development agency has put a £45 M incentive on the table if both clubs are willing to share, on equal terms. That's too much for either club to turn down. That will probably outrage some kop fans, but it's the reality for both clubs.

p.pete

If it's done as a joint thing then it wouldn't be Pool's stadium and there would be a lot of shared decision making, everything that is now planned would have to go back several steps and there'd be months if not years of joint planning to get back to the current position. Time means additional building costs and I'd venture the price would go up a good deal more then 45M.

If we rented to Everton we'd get the 45m mentioned in less then 10yrs, thinking ahead that would be the much better option for the reds. Everton may not like that arrangement but if they want to build their own stadium then they are entitled. So far I don't think they've produced anything other then talk, Pool have finalised plans, won approval and looked into funding - it'd be very dangerous to these plans to start talking to Everton.

I think it's a necessity to be brave and go ahead. We're about 15 years behind ManU in that respect and financially it shows. Maybe we'll have to use more youth players over the next few years but that could have a plus side too.

Dub13

emertoff wrote:

and the cost will make it prohibitive for them to persue big-name transfer targets in the meantime.

This is not true,Rick Parry has said many times that the new ground will not effect transfer funds.


As for a groundshare with the bitters this will not happen,we dont need then and it has been ruled out by the LFC board.We are well on our way to building with work due to start in around 6/8 Months.

pickarooney

p.pete wrote:

They can pay us rent! I don't think it would be such a bad thing but only if the pitch quality was gauranteed.

It'd be great to back to the days when both clubs were strong forces - unfortunately that's far from the case at the moment...

Don't lose heart, you're only six points behind them.

emertoff

Dub13 wrote:

This is not true,Rick Parry has said many times that the new ground will not effect transfer funds.


As for a groundshare with the bitters this will not happen,we dont need then and it has been ruled out by the LFC board.We are well on our way to building with work due to start in around 6/8 Months.

Whatever you say. :rolleyes:

p.pete

emertoff wrote:

Whatever you say. :rolleyes:

Ehm - he was actually refering to what others had said - people in the Liverpool hierarchy specifically...