Stanley Park lease fear for Liverpool FC

Aug 30 2008 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

Last night Dr Rogan Taylor, who heads Liverpool University’s Football Research Unit, said that because of the greater capacities at their stadiums, Manchester United and Arsenal were currently bringing in £50m a year more than Liverpool by playing in a larger ground.

Meanwhile, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed still remains keen to buy the club, though is now operating in a more personal capacity rather than through his investment arm, Dubai International Capital.

Sources close to Dubai said the money to build the stadium is there, but the Sheikh is starting to lose patience as costs are rising on the ground while the ownership saga drags on.

Last night, Liverpool Football Club insisted the commitment to build a world-class stadium was undiminished.

“Like many other major development projects in the UK and overseas we are affected by global market conditions and, as such, work on the project will be delayed in the short term,” said a spokesman. “We will use this period productively and revisit the plans for the stadium to increase its capacity to 73,000 seats.”

But a source said the delay would be “at least a year” and possibly much longer.

Putting aside the financial issues, the club will have to re-submit a fourth planning application to increase capacity from the already approved 60,000 plan to 73,000. As part of that process, Liverpool FC will have to submit a transport plan and an environmental study.

The headache for the club will be explaining how 73,000 fans can get safely to the venue.

Talks have previously taken place about re-opening the Bootle line to passenger trains and it is likely a new station to handle the additional fans would form part of a new transport plan.

Dr Taylor, who also founded the fans’ group ShareLiverpoolFC, who want to take the club into community ownership, hit out saying: “This has not come as a surprise. The Americans did not have any money for the stadium.”