Liverpool reveals plans to rebuild Anfield
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E-mail Xinhua, April 24, 2014
English football's Premiership leaders Liverpool on Wednesday night unveiled a 150-million-pound scheme to rebuild its Anfield Stadium home.
It will increase capacity from around 45,000 to 60,000.
The boost for the club comes as its success in the top flight this season has guaranteed a place in the world's greatest club contest next season, the European Champions League.
The plan brings to an end the uncertainty that has affected the community around the Anfield Stadium for many years.
At one time the club earmarked a site in nearby Stanley Park for an all-new stadium, costing well over 500 million pounds. But that was abandoned in the wake of the global recession.
The new scheme will see the main stand being rebuilt, with seating increased by 8,500 to 21,000. The Anfield Road Stand, traditional home for visiting fans, will also be expanded.
Once formal planning consents are in place the club aims is to start work next year on the new Main Stand, with it opening at the start of the 2016-17 season. Work on the Anfield Road stand would then start.
The club's re-entry into mainstream European football next season is expected to have a major impact on Liverpool FC across the world, especially in China where it already has a growing fan base.
People living around the stadium will be asked for their views in the coming weeks, but early indications are the club's plans will be voted a winner.
Many LFC fans will also be delighted the club is remaining in its historic home rather than move to a new site elsewhere.
So passionate are fans many tie the knot by getting married at the stadium, and even have their ashes spread on the hallowed ground when they die.
The new Main Stand will include a huge outside pedestrian area and will also become the new home to the Hillsborough Memorial which marks the 1989 tragedy in which 96 fans died in what was the UK's worst ever football disaster.
The Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson welcomed the proposal and said Liverpool's plans were an integral part of a massive 260- million-pound regeneration scheme for the Anfield area of the city.
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