Liverpool FC Forum

[Thor Viking]

Remember from last winter some talk here about a new stadium ! On wot stage is it ? Planning - financing - building or forgotten ?

[stmichael]

I will put these questions to all members of this forum.

What does the new stadium say about Liverpool? Does it:

a) Let you know about our history & who we are in any way?

b) Reflect the City in any way (don’t forget, capital of culture 2008)?

c) Say anything about the people of this great City & their history?

d) Set new precedents in stadium design?

e) Represent a brighter future for this City

A stadium is so very important in many ways & we HAVE to make sure we get ours right, first time!!

If we aim high (as we should) we could have a stadium that is not only home to our beloved football club but also a facility that the whole community can be proud of & use. A place where travelling supporters from all over the country (and Europe) would flock in their many thousands week in week out just to see!!!

Tourists would be able to visit the new stadium bringing extra money into the community. A new stadium on a grand scale would be so much more than a place to play football; it would be a beacon from which the city of Liverpool can shine through!

And I think this point is crucial in any modern day development: It has to have multi functions & benefit the community it lives in. With 2008 drawing ever closer, I think planning & money (grants from EU for Capital of Culture along side private investment) would not be an issue if the right plans where in place.

And so, I say NO to the proposed plans AND the proposed site! It’s time to move forward & plan for the future! To build something that will still be regarded as something fantastic in 50 or 100 years time! We need to think big & we need to act quickly!

We need to let go of sentimentality & look to the future. The hallowed turf we all know & love will one day be no more that is for certain, but moving to a slightly less cramped space just literally a stones throw away is at best naïve at worst damaging! There are many, many sites available for development in this city & surrounding area which have established road & rail links in place. As we know Anfield & Stanley Park do not!!

[lakes10]

from bbc

Liverpool stadium approved

 

Liverpool have been granted planning permission to build a new 60,000-seater stadium in Stanley Park to replace their current Anfield ground.
The new £80m stadium will be built just 300 yards from the current ground.

Liverpool council announced the approval on Friday after an 0800 BST inspection of the new site.

However, the plans will be referred to deputy prime minister John Prescott for his approval due to the size of the plan and the opposition to it.


It is almost certain Prescott will call for a public enquiry but if he does not and chooses to pass the decision back to Liverpool Council, the final approval will then have to be given by planning committee boss Councillor Lady Doreen Jones.

Liverpool have been working on the plan for five years and have encountered strong opposition to their attempts to build on the historic park.

There have also been calls for the stadium to be shared by Liverpool with neighbours Everton, but the Anfield club are against such a move.

The approval will come as a great relief to Liverpool, who currently have a 45,000 capacity at Anfield.

The club say they must expand and improve their stadium to be able to continue to compete with the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal, who are building a new home of their own to replace Highbury.

A number of buildings in the Anfield Road area will be demolished and the old stadium site will be turned into a plaza, shops, restaurants, flats, offices and a hotel.

The Hillsborough memorial will also be relocated to the new plaza.

Opposition to the plan continues to come from a variety of sources, including the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Anfield Regeneration action committee and many local residents.

They are concerned that the new stadium means 15,000 extra fans will be in the area on match days

[fivecups]

Good news. Prezza's public inquiry will no doubt take a while though.

[Scousewil]

St Michael I entirely agree with most of what you say. I know you're all against a ground share with Everton but that's just something we'll have to agree to disagree on. But the idea of a groundshare at Kings Dock was a brilliant one if you ask me. It wasn't just going to be a football stadium it was going to be huge with a retractable pitch so other sports could be played there. It had the potential of a great transport network with only a small amount of road building to link up to the motorway and it was said that there would be underground parking - enough space for everybody. Now i dont know what happened to the plans or why it was decided not to go ahead exactly but think about this -  Manchester are decades ahead of Liverpool. Their council has made sure over many years that Manchester is able to put bids in for prestigious events safe in the knowledge that they not only have the facilities to do so but also a transport network that can handle the amount of people such events attract. This generates a lot of income for their city.

In my opinion Manchester shouldn't be streets ahead of us. We are Liverpool... the greatest city on Gods earth and yet the Mancs have overtaken us!? Our city desperately needs regeneration and a stadium like that proposed for the Kings Dock would have facilitated this, bringing much needed money into the community. We would also have been able to make bids for events. And it goes without saying that the extra capacity would make us a lot more money on the gates. Shared with other sporting communities the building and maintenance of such a vast stadium wouldn’t lie soley with us either.

I love my team but I also love my city and i really think it's a bit pointless movin over to Stanley park when you consider the whole city could have something so much bigger and better and to be proud of. We will always be LFC wherever we are.

Last time i dared to mention something along these lines my post was followed by a string of replies telling me quite simply that im not a true supporter. NOT TRUE. I’m just a supporter of both my city AND my city’s football team. Sorry if that's not good enough.

[supersub]

I actually agree with you scousewil,but sadly it's no to be.

[Scousewil]

Yeah sorry to go on when it makes no difference now but it just seems a waste.

[supersub]

We could have had a stadium similar to the Millennium with 78,000 seats.

[AussieRed]

I agree.. half the seats blue.. half the seats red... if they can do it in Milan why can't we... Anyway in 5 years everton will be relagted and we will buy their 50% and Wayne Rooney for 1 pound!   I am for groundshare all the way.. half the costs and you still wouldnt even know another team was there except for the blue seats as we play on alternate weeks at home!

[Scousewil]

I red in the Echo last nite about Coventry City's new stadium... a £250m scheme that cost the taxpayers of Coventry just 10m - the rest has come from the private sector eager to get involved. It said 'What they will have when Arena Coventry is complete next July is a leisure scheme that will attract pop concerts, exhibitions, conferences and gamblers aswel as football fans... The council was able to fund the project not because of the football stadium but because of the regeneration and 3000 jobs it will create... two exhibition halls are planned for events like snooker tournaments or business presentations and beneath those will be a massive casino with a gambling casino the size of a football pitch...'

If permission isn't given to LFC by the deputy priminister (which due to the size of the protests against it and the fact that theoretically Stanley Park shouldn't be sold to a private company of any sort i can see this happening) surely we should look towards something of the calibre of Coventry's new stadium?

[Stan Laurel]

It is good new and bad new for us, because it is going to be strange for us to leave Anfield to move to Stanley Park and we have too many memories at Anfield. It won't be same when we will move to new stadium. It is going to be heartbroken for us as well.

Moving to new stadium will be very good investment for us as well.

[72-1090627431]

I think its potentially a bad idea. I dont think LFC can sell 60,000 tickets for each home game unless they start winning trophies. Anfield last season was half empty many times.

Also, the design of the new ground just looks like a round bowl, with no new defined "Kop" . So where do all the old kopites go?

It could mean that the new stadium has a muted atmosphere.