Liverpool FC Forum

by **Dundalk** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:25 pm

From The BBC:

Liverpool Football Club's plans for a new £400m stadium have been passed.

The 60,000 capacity ground at Stanley Park has been unanimously approved by Liverpool City Council planning committee after a five-hour meeting.

The premiership club's new stadium will hold 15,000 more fans than the existing site, but that could increase to 75,000 in the future.

The plan was resubmitted to planners after American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett were unhappy with them.

The new stadium will hold 114 executive boxes, twice the number in the original design, and will regenerate public land which stands between Anfield and Everton's ground, Goodison Park.

Paul Hyett, chairman of HKS Architects in charge of the stadium project, said: "You don't often get one like this to deal with. Most people never get to work on one like this.

"It's a fantastic job to be involved with, a fantastic city and fantastic club."

A spokesman for Liverpool FC said work on the new stadium could begin almost immediately and was expected to be finished by August 2011.

by **destro** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:41 pm

The Manhattan Project wrote:
Rain water from the roof will be collected and used to water the pitch. The water will also be used to operate various urinals in the stadium. It is also hoped that a wind turbine will be installed to help generate power making the stadium even more cost effective and 'green'.

What happens if it doesn't rain ? We end up with the best Stadium in the World, a dry pitch and toilets that smell like a Glastonbury porta-loo !

by **JoeTerp** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:48 pm

destro wrote:
The Manhattan Project wrote:
Rain water from the roof will be collected and used to water the pitch. The water will also be used to operate various urinals in the stadium. It is also hoped that a wind turbine will be installed to help generate power making the stadium even more cost effective and 'green'.

What happens if it doesn't rain ? We end up with the best Stadium in the World, a dry pitch and toilets that smell like a Glastonbury porta-loo !

doesn't rain? the stadium is in Liverpool not the Sahara.

by **red37** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:00 pm

Dundalk wrote:From The BBC:

Liverpool Football Club's plans for a new £400m stadium have been passed.

The 60,000 capacity ground at Stanley Park has been unanimously approved by Liverpool City Council planning committee after a five-hour meeting. *

The premiership club's new stadium will hold 15,000 more fans than the existing site, but that could increase to 75,000 in the future.

The plan was resubmitted to planners after American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett were unhappy with them.

The new stadium will hold 114 executive boxes, twice the number in the original design,**
and will regenerate public land which stands between Anfield and Everton's ground, Goodison Park. ***

Paul Hyett, chairman of HKS Architects in charge of the stadium project, said: "You don't often get one like this to deal with. Most people never get to work on one like this.

"It's a fantastic job to be involved with, a fantastic city and fantastic club."

A spokesman for Liverpool FC said work on the new stadium could begin almost immediately and was expected to be finished by August 2011. ****

* Great news!

** :glare:

*** Even better...

**** :Oo:

Oh well, plenty of time left to add a couple more trophies to Anfield's voluptuous cabinet. Hopefully the Premier League trophy will be one of 'em.

by **lakes10** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:04 pm

I wonder who will be in our team on the first game there. Strange to think that almost all team we have now might not be there.

by **The Manhattan Project** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:06 pm

They should start work immediately.

Can't wait to see it under construction. This huge monster so close to Anfield taking shape week by week.

Enjoy this again:

New Anfield

by **J*o*n*D*o*e** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 12:06 am

an 8.0 victory and this on the same day, no sooner after a kick in the balls your back up dancing again.

by **Reg** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 5:39 pm

Not sure if the full version of the Hicks interview has been posted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-us38agPyAo

by **hello_red** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 6:56 pm

Tom and George fighting?

?

Well it is taken from News of the world so take it with a gallon of salt.

Trash but you might wanna read it.

by **The Manhattan Project** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 11:37 am

New Anfield has been added to the HKS site

Link

by **HacksawJimDuggin** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:05 pm

I was at a conference at the Emirates Stadium recently and it was very impressive. New Anfield looks even more impressive. Happy days!! :buttrock

by **tommycockles** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 4:15 pm

When are they due to actually start the work then? with all the 'reported' problems lately i was started to worry that this may not happen

by **Judge** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:42 pm

looks really nice and modern

by **ste123lfc** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 8:37 am

Liverpool’s current owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, are said to be not only intent on sacking manager Rafael Benitez before the start of next season, but are about to announce they’ve gone back on their word regarding the new stadium.

The exciting plans for a 61,000 capacity stadium, to be possibly extended to a 78,000 capacity by the time it opened, are now looking likely to be shelved. In their place comes a slightly adapted version of the unpopular anonymous bowl design that was first revealed seven years ago. It’s said those plans have been adapted to a 70,000 seater version, which if true would require further planning permission to be applied for before building work could commence.

The new owners, it seems, are running out of money and not only want to take money away from transfers, but want to produce a stadium which won’t meet Tom Hicks’ description: “The Kop is the symphony stage and it needs to play to the rest of the hall.” The Kop will be one end of the bowl, not a unique part of a unique stadium.

It’s not long ago, August, that George Gillett was last heard speaking about the club. He’s been silent since, amid rumours of him falling out with co-owner Tom Hicks. The credit crunch seems to have hit the plans the pair had for the club, and the downgrading of their stadium plans is said to be above Rafa’s future in the agenda during their rare visit to the club this weekend. In August Gillett was enthusing about the supporters he now seems happy to disregard: “I’d never seen anything like it,” he said of the Champions League semi against Chelsea, “The noise and the energy - just amazing.”

Hicks said at the time that this noise and energy was what inspired the designs that are now looking like staying on paper: “The architects came to the Barcelona match and they got it right away because that night the fans were so loud and they knew they had to keep the Kop. They said ‘we get it’.” Then that famous quote: “The Kop is the symphony stage and it needs to play to the rest of the hall.”

Gillett even said that the new stadium was a big part of the decision the pair had in taking our club from us: “The stadium was a critical element in our decision to come here. It’s a necessity. We are in a sport without a salary cap. And if you are going to remain competitive, and Liverpool’s fans deserve to have a club that remains competitive, we have to have a larger stadium. We don’t have the economics of London so we have to have size.”

If the reports are true - and they’ve been rumoured now for a couple of weeks, slowly gathering momentum but hitting a peak now the new owners are in town - then the size will still be there. If they get the planning permission, which requires changes to the local infrastructure before it can be considered, the new stadium will hold 25,000 more supporters than the current stadium. But it won’t have the impressive looks that were promised by the duo with all their razzmatazz in August. Fans will be frustrated because it’s another sign of the way the owners have lost interest in their new toy.

Hicks showed in August that either he doesn’t understand how the transfer market works in football, or that he thinks the supporters aren’t capable of doing sums. Rafa wasn’t given any more money than he’d have got had David Moores stayed on as owner of the club, and had to rip up his first list of targets. He got the players on his second list, including Fernando Torres for £8m less than is usually quoted in the press. Hicks tried to make out he’d given Rafa everything he’d asked for, which wasn’t true: “I can’t go into any of the three stadiums I own without thinking how much people are paying to be there,” he said, quickly adding: “We want to give them value for money. We want to win the Premiership. Before we arrived we were a team that could do well in Europe but not in the Premiership. We now have the depth to do that. We have brought in the players Rafa identified.” Those words must have made Rafa choke.

At the time Gillett was still enthusing about Rafa, in particular Rafa’s work in bringing in players for the future: “Rafa believes in youth and we share that philosophy. That’s why Tom and I are so comfortable with him. He’s a very responsible man. He’s not a slash and burner. He said we needed four or five new players to be competitive and we went out and got them.” Again Rafa must have been shaking his head on hearing this.

David Moores and Rick Parry’s version of how the DIC deal collapsed differs from the story told by DIC in the aftermath. David Moores was made much richer by accepted the American offer rather than the DIC offer, and he accepted with amazing haste.

Gillett spoke of how he and Hicks “love sports” at a time when their spin was still working on many Reds: “The American invasion of the Premiership is a misnomer. Seven foreign groups have come into the Premiership and only three of them are American, and all three have been involved in sports before. It’s been presented as some kind of capitalist invasion, but I don’t think that is an accurate representation at all. We are different to the Glazers and the Glazers are different to the Lerners, but we love sports.”

Maybe they do love sports, they certainly have a lot of financial stakes in sports, but do they love sport more than money? Back in October Hicks claimed that refinancing for the new stadium - financing that also took all debt from their purchase of the club away from them and back onto the club, effectively giving them the club for free - was thirty days from being tied up. It’s still not been tied up.

The reversion to the amended older plans could save over £200m in building costs. As snippets of the story behind the change of heart leak out bit by bit it’s been suggested that loans for the other version of the stadium would have cost more than the owners felt would be viable. Not everybody is ready to lend money as readily as they might have been a year ago, and so their choices of lenders were restricted. The lower stadium costs for the generic-style stadium allow them more choices of lenders, and more attractive terms.

This story will be in Saturday’s press, and it will be interesting to see what kind of instant response Tom Hicks arranges this time. He was quick to get Rick Parry to deny he’d fallen out with Gillett recently, and quick to tell the press that Rafa had a month or so to even talk about possible transfers in and out of the club. He wasted no time in denying he was about to sell his share in the club. Will he be as quick in denying the stadium stories? Will he use the Echo to put his story out?

Oliver Kay’s report in The Times includes the following:

“Hicks and Gillett are back on Merseyside this weekend and it says much about the present difficulties at the club that their overdue peace summit with Rafael Benitez, the manager, is no longer top of the agenda. The word from Anfield over the past 48 hours has been that the club’s proposed move to a new stadium on Stanley Park is on the rocks again. With the global credit crunch forcing a rethink over their plan to take the club £500 million into debt, Gillett and Hicks are being forced to reconsider the jaw-dropping plans that they revealed in July. A minimum 60,000 capacity is a must, but the club are now looking to scale down those designs.”

As for Rafa’s future, the manager is still a sitting duck according to various sources. The owners are still said to be planning to oust him the first chance they get. They’ve still not denied that particular claim.

It’s time they put their cards on the table and admitted to the supporters exactly what they’ve got up their sleeve, unless they plan to become even greater absentee owners. Liverpool fans like honesty; they’d rather hear the bad news than some lies that hide the bad news in the short term. If the owners want the support of the fans in the long term they need to start earning some respect from them. More and more fans are becoming disillusioned with the mess David Moores made of the sale of the club.

LINK

by **red37** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 9:53 am

Was reading this late last night - worrying times ahead it seems.

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