The expansion hasn’t had planning approval as yet from the Council. It’s going to be decided at LCC planning committee on the 15 June. If it’s still on the agenda for that meeting, the planning officers report and recommendation will be published a week before the meeting (on nexr Tuesday, 8 June), at which point we will have a good idea of how its going to go.
Edit: the officers recommendation is already online under the planning app - I put a reference to it in this thread earlier. Points of interest;
Most of the objections to the planning application are from those concerned about the preservation of, and encroachment on, Stanley Park (Grade II listed).
Importantly, no objections from statutory consultees
Only 35 general objections - a lot lower than I was expecting - cover a wide range of concerns including the principle of development, park impacts, traffic, ecology and environment, events/concerts, residential amenity.
Financial contribution by the club will be in the region of £800,000 - going towards East of Mill Lane Regeneration
Officer recommendation is that the application be granted, subject to a number of conditions, which is standard.
Given this, my below statement about preparatory works is slightly more likely - but still that would be very quick!
It may well be that the preparatory works are starting - so contractors are doing their detailed surveys and markings under the assumption that it goes through on 15 June and they can crack on - which I think would be surprising.
Looks more likely to me that it’s planned services/utility works that are about to take place though.
I think ARE is back up and running, work should be starting soon. I suppose that means that the suits are confident that by the time ARE is done, we’ll be back with 61k people allowed in the stadium.
I think when the project was put on the back burner, that confidence wasn’t there.
Old Trafford (fair enough - always been the bench mark)
the relatively new Emirates (Arsenal), which is a lifeless shithole
the Etihad (City) which is lifeless as there are no fans anyway (yet it’s always sold out…),
West Hams rented Olympic Stadium - again lifeless
Spurs new stadium which does look good to be fair, but the massive overspend has sent the team the wrong way
Previous to the main stand, there were a couple of others above (St James Park, Stadium of shite), but in short, those clubs with bigger capacities (with the exception of Old Trafford), have new stadiums that have been a downgrade on the old stadiums (from what I’ve read).
Arsenal and West Ham particularly. I was lucky enough (or unlucky enough depending on how you see it), attend a game at the Old Boleyon Ground (upton park) a few years ago - I can see why hammers hate their new ground.
Basically, I prefer (as a fan) that we’ve stayed at Anfield, that FSG have been sympathetic to our history at the ground and kept it as our home - even if its meant we have a few less people in - we always make more noise!
Barcelona, Real, Milan/Inter, Roma, Bayern, Dortmund, Zenith, Moscow have stadiums with around 80,000 capacity. We can do with a bigger (70,000) stadium. I frequently read about people being on the waiting list for years before getting season ticket.
It’s a struggle as the main “pay-off” for both the main stand and the annie road is adding premium/hospitality… Which boosts the pay back per seat significantly.
The Kenny D stand already have these, and it’s relatively new. The ROI would be many many years so potentially not viable. I believe the houses behind it are all privately owned and in-use also. It could be expanded (footprint issues aside) to match the mainstand and nearly double from 12k to 22k ish.
The Kop is probably the next candidate but the road which runs right behind poses a complex build, including re-routing busy roads. If safe standing is approved in the UK the Kop could look at something like that to boost numbers within the similar footprint. You’d really not want hospitality in the Kop, it needs as many fans together to keep the atmosphere.
You can see how the stadium is going to look as they continue around, increasing capacity incrementally.
The Kop will be last and it will be epic. The WBR will be slightly rerouted and the new Kop will then loom up impressively above the three other stands.
I’d expect capacity to approach 75,000 at that point.
There are a number of problems with “expanding” the Kop, not least the re-routing of Walton Breck road, and the fact that the structure/geometry of the existing stand do not lend themselves to a major increase in capacity. In effect it would require the complete demolition and rebuild of the Kop, and I can’t see that happening.
In any case, wasn’t a capacity of 60,000 recognised as the “sweet spot” (attendance/ROI) some time ago, so once the Annie road is done that will be that?
How about transportation that Is already a problem today. The last time I went to Anfield roughly 2 years ago I was in a pretty long line for the bus to get back to the city centre and 75.000 is 1/3 more than it is today.
