Liverpool’s home ground Anfield can now start giving a new look to its Main Stand by adding some 5800 new seats as consultation period to submit any objection has expired without any reasonable complaint. Liverpool City Council approved the project back in September but due to legal complications work could not start before offering a reasonable time to object the new initiative from anyone but now when no justified objection is received, club can go ahead with its optimistic plan. Significantly, games would continue playing on the venue during the rebuilding period hence Anfield would not lose revenue for the construction. Moreover, if everything goes well, Anfield Road End is also planned to be expend by adding 4800 seats but it would begin only after completion of main stand work which would expectedly take around 2-3 years. If we look at the expected cost for the whole project and who will finance it, 260 million pounds are initially planned for the whole work which would be shared by three entities: club, the council, and local social housing group: Your Housing, however, it is still unclear whether prime club members would be given an option to contribute directly or not.
Actually, fans had been expecting such a redevelopment after club owner Fenway Sports Group hinted about their plans back in October 2012 and this is also going to be first major expansion project for the club after 1992 when Centenary Stand was replaced by the old Kemlyn Road Stand. Liverpool chairman Tom Werner announced about the venture and said, “Since Fenway Sports Group took ownership of the club, we were committed to explore in depth all options for the future of Anfield Stadium.
“We listened to fans, the community, partners, the Supporters’ Committee and key stakeholders involved in the club. It was just over two years ago that we said our preference was to stay at Anfield and here we are today announcing that the expansion is going ahead. We have made more progress in the past two years than in the last decade. Having experience of expanding Fenway Park and being through a similar and very successful project for the Red Sox, everyone at FSG is extremely proud and excited to be part of expanding Anfield Stadium.”
Similarly, Liverpool’s chief executive also added, “Today is an important milestone in the history of Liverpool Football Club. Since we embarked upon this journey we have always said that we need certainty; we now have that certainty and will progress with the expansion of the Main Stand.”