Liverpool City Council are increasing the pressure on Liverpool football club to move to a new stadium at Stanley Park. Relations between the two are becoming increasingly strained with council leader Joe Anderson going public on his frustrations at what he sees as the club’s decade-long failure to accept that national planning laws have greatly diminished the possibility of redeveloping Anfield. The club has been warned that they could be forced to pay back
Liverpool City Council are increasing the pressure on Liverpool football club to move to a new stadium at Stanley Park. Relations between the two are becoming increasingly strained with council leader Joe Anderson going public on his frustrations at what he sees as the club’s decade-long failure to accept that national planning laws have greatly diminished the possibility of redeveloping Anfield. The club has been warned that they could be forced to pay back an EU grant worth £8.2m unless they proceed with their new stadium plans.
Fenway Sports Group would prefer to remain at Anfield, just as they have re-developed the historic home of the Boston Red Sox. However, although it is in a downtown location, Fenway Park is not hemmed in to the extent that Anfield is by Victorian housing. It is also benefits from being close to the vibrant campus of Boston University and is easily accessible by subway. Anfield is one of the most atmospheric stadiums I have ever visited and a great place to watch football, but it would be difficult to make it into the kind of 21st century stadium that Liverpool needs to generate corporate revenues if it is to remain one of Europe’s leading clubs.
The City Council, of course, has a regeneration agenda, although how much the stadium would lead to regeneration is an open question. Liverpool as a city has made great progress in recent years, but there are still many challenges to overcome, not least long-term unemployment which is not helped by current economic conditions.
If the Stanley Park stadium is built, one difficult question is whether Everton would be prepared to move into it. It would be a rational solution, but football is about emotion and identity.