UK Edition
Liverpool forced to delay £60 million Anfield expansion
Plans to increase capacity by 7,000 seats postponed for a year due to coronavirus pandemic
Liverpool have been forced to delay their £60million Anfield expansion by at least a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The club will push ahead with a planning application to increase their stadium capacity by a further 7000 seats, but the initial construction timeline for a new Anfield Road stand is no longer deliverable and has been altered because of the virus.
Subject to planning approval, Liverpool hoped to start work as early as December, with a new structure in place for the start of the 2022-23 season. That 18-month schedule depended on work taking place out of season in consecutive summers, in 2021 and when adding the final touches a year later.
That is because most of the construction was to occur without impacting on the current Anfield attendance of 54,000.
With enduring uncertainty as to when social distancing measures will be relaxed, or indeed what a revised football calendar will look like over the next 12 months, Liverpool had no option but to reconsider the feasibility of those deadlines.
Today’s announcement does not impact on the planning application itself - which the club intends to submit in the next 12 months - or mean the project is permanently cancelled. Liverpool can still seek a permit for their proposals because once given, they have five years in which to proceed.
The club will submit its plans once the lockdown is over.
“We have experienced a number of delays to the planned project as a direct result of the COVID-19 lockdown,” said Liverpool FC’s chief operating officer, Andy Hughes
“Given the challenges that many sectors are facing right now, including the construction, procurement and public sectors, we are taking a responsible approach to pause the project for at least 12 months.
“The complex build programme for Anfield Road is an 18 month process and needs two clear summer closed season windows in order for it to be successful. This is why we are pausing on the project for at least 12 months so the earliest we could complete the programme is summer 2023 rather than summer 2022 as originally planned. Given the planning application is no longer time critical, it is our intention to submit our planning application at some stage during the next 12 months.
“We will use this period to review and consider options. When the football calendar and the wider delays to the construction and supply chain industries begin to plateau, we will provide further updates.
“We understand this is disappointing for many as it is for us but would like to thank all our key stakeholders including local neighbours in Anfield, our supporters, the City Council and others for their great co-operation in the pre-planning stages.”
A new two-tier Anfield Road stand is intended to add 5,200 new general admission seats, and 1,800 in hospitality. The capacity in that end of the stadium will rise from 9000 to 16,000, making it bigger than The Kop, which holds 12,000.
Liverpool earned £84 million in matchday revenue last season, and optimistic projections for an increased Anfield would swell this nearer to £100 million based on the club hosting the same number of fixtures as the last few years.
Prior to the Main Stand extension, Liverpool’s matchday revenue was £62 million. It has started to rise proportionately since 2016, although the number of Champions League games hosted in that time have been a factor.
Today’s development follows Liverpool having to consider remaining at their current training site at Melwood for another year having originally pencilled in a move to a new facility in Kirkby for the start of next season.
Work on that project cannot be complete until constructors can return. If the project cannot be finished before the next pre-season training - the date of which is still unknown - Klopp is highly unlikely to uproot his squad mid-season. He would not want any such disruption while his players were focused on winning matches at home and in Europe.