Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Revealed: Liverpool’s New Stadium Plans

Liverpool will announce they will be renovating Anfield rather than move to a new ground in the next few days.

Sportingo reports the club owners Fenway Sports Group will increase capacity at the famous ground to 60,000 with room to expand up to 10,000 more.

Currently the stadium holds 45,000 but Liverpool claim they could attract nearly double that if they had the room.

Old Trafford (76,000) and the Emirates (60,000) are the two biggest grounds in terms of seats and Liverpool are missing out on massive sums of potential revenue each season.

But FSG have decided against moving, despite it being the cheaper option as the atmosphere Anfield provides is almost peerless in football.

“The Kop is unrivaled,” said John Henry earlier this year. ”It would be hard to replicate that feeling anywhere else.”

FSG used a similar model when it took over the Boston Red Sox and redeveloped Fenway Park rather than move the Baseball franchise.

No dates have been set yet for work to start or be completed, but the news will come as a major relief for Liverpool fans.

Previous owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett guaranteed the Reds a new stadium when they bought the club in 2007 but that turned out to be empty promises.

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