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Liverpool have addressed their problems of crowd attendance as the club has revealed its plans to rebuild and modify Anfield instead of shifting to a new stadium.
The first phase of redevelopment will commence by the summer of 2016 and will enable the Reds to regain their financial status alongside the other top guns in English football.
The revamp will cause the seating capacity of the stadium to increase to 53,000 and the second stage will follow shortly, which will further raise it to 60,000. This step will generate profitable match-day revenues for the club placing them second, only after rivals, Manchester United.
Ian Ayre, Managing Director at Anfield, pointed out that that the plans have been designed for manager Brandan Rodgers to bring in new signings rather than selling any player from the team.
“We won’t be selling a player to pay for it. There’s never been a discussion about selling a player to pay for the stadium,” he said.
“If anything, we’re doing it to support investment in the team. Obviously, there’ll be a period where we have to pay for this thing but again it’s been designed to make this happen as quickly as possible and the core reason for doing it is to support the core finances overall.
“To compete we knew we have to progress on two fronts – that was Champions’ League and the stadium. We are now back in the Champions’ League, and we believe this is a great solution for the stadium.” added Ayre.
Liverpool are at the summit of the league for the first time in Premier League era as Brendan Rodgers and his boys are closing in on the title. With Anfield serving as a fortress for the Reds, American owners have rejected the concept of building a new stadium and have decided to work on restructuring the existing one.
This is what the new Anfield will look like on matchday
KSS architects’ blueprints which are due to be submitted this June, have plotted to build new tiers on top of the existing main stand and construct the stadium without decreasing the capacity. The redevelopment cost will be £150m which will provide the same seating volume with one third less than the cost of a new stadium.
Ayre is confident that the idea of staying of Anfield will prevail over moving to fresh territories because of an increase in revenues, which will see the club surpass league foes Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal without the worry of debts.
Ayre said, “I can’t comment on Arsenal but we’ve found a solution that had a return on investment as quickly as possible – there’s no point investing hundreds of millions of pounds if it just burdens you with debt that prevents you from being able to invest in the team.
“That wouldn’t be helping you; it’d actually be hindering you. That’s why £600-700m stadiums don’t work because you’re just setting yourself back rather than forward.
“This way, we can generate new revenues to invest in the club, and the ownership has proved that it has reinvested every penny back into the football club and into the team.” he further added.
With a £200m turnover profit, Liverpool are in fifth position in the list of top Premier League earners.
Manchester United lead the way by a long distance with £400m. While Manchester City are second at £300m, Chelsea and Arsenal both generate around £280m a year.
