Business editor Bill Gleeson's verdict

“NEVER” is a big word, but it  is extremely unlikely that  Liverpool Football Club will  build a new stadium at  Stanley Park or anywhere  else for many years to come.

It doesn’t take an expert at  reading between the lines to  interpret the club’s statement  yesterday that it was  “delaying” a decision about  a new ground to mean that,  in reality, the project is dead.

Liverpool trawled its way  around every bank in the  world but none of them were  prepared to stump up the  necessary £300m in loans  needed to make the project  happen.

The word is that some  banks would have  contributed to the  construction costs if the  club’s American owners  were agreeable to chipping  in some significant cash of  their own, which they  weren’t. So what’s likely to  change by this time next year  or even the year after? The  blunt answer is nothing.  Owners George Gillett and  Tom Hicks will still be at  loggerheads and the banks  will still be very wary about  who they lend money to and  on what terms.

It’s the second bit of bad  news about football grounds  to hit Merseyside in the past  few weeks. Everton has been  told their Kirkby stadium  planning application will be  called in for a public enquiry  to take place later this year.

But for both clubs, tight  credit conditions and  onerous planning laws may  in the end serve only as  handy excuses for their  failure to rehouse  themselves in the sort of  grounds a modern Premier  League team needs.

A combination of  squabbling, haggling,  dithering, and bureaucratic  regulations mean neither will  be in a position to build a  new ground for at least a  generation.

It has always been  expensive to build football  stadia, particularly a big one.  Everton tried to build what  would have been a fabulous  new home at Kings Dock six  years ago, but couldn’t raise  the £30m they were required  to contribute to the £160m  venue. Now the club is  talking about another  bargain deal with Knowsley  and Tesco for a new ground  at Kirkby, but Everton’s  share of the costs of  the project is close  to £80m. Where  will that cash  come from?

When Liverpool  first started talking  about a new  ground at Stanley Park eight  years ago, the price tag was  just £80m. Since then costs,  particularly steel, have risen  sharply. The latest figure for  the cost of building at  Stanley Park ground is  £350m.

The fear has to be that the  window of opportunity for  building any new football  ground has passed. Even if  Everton and Liverpool agree  to share the costs of building  a single shared stadium it’s  questionable that they could  find sufficient resources  between them to complete  the project.

While the clubs have  hummed and hawed,  redrawn their plans, haggled  with public authorities over  grants, the Chinese have got  on with building their  country, whether that be  skyscrapers in Shanghai,  rapid rail connections, new  airports or Olympic venues.  In this era of global markets,  the Chinese have moved with  alacrity, pushing up the price  of steel and making the  ambitions of our clubs  unviable.

It is a pity for both teams.  They needed their new  venues. The revenues from  larger grounds would  generate the cash essential  in the drive to match the  spending of rivals.

Implicit in yesterday’s  statement is an admission  that the the search for a big  brand to pay huge bucks for  the Stanley Park stadium  naming rights has failed.  This is no surprise, given the  tough economic conditions  at present. And if Liverpool  can’t find a naming rights  sponsor, then the likelihood  Everton can is also pretty  thin, a fact which adds to the sense that their plans for Kirkby are unrealistic.

The only hope is that the  owners of both clubs show  tenacity and seek out new  investors. For Liverpool, this  could mean selling the club  to the Dubai royal family,  while for Everton, there are  persistent rumours that retail  entrepreneur Philip Green is  lurking in the background.

With banks refusing to  back football, fresh cash  investment by club owners is  the only way new grounds  will be built.