Wow... fook me the Kop with 18,000 single tier capacity That is going to be absolutely terrifying for the opposition teams to play against it!

Great thing that they have now planned for expansion, once the transport infastructure is able to handle it, they will be able to increase the capacity to 80,000 with ease!! The sooner the infastructure can be planned the sooner they can submit the next planning appliclation which will be for a cpacity increase. It could be higher capacity then 60,000 upon completion, depends on the infastructure (they need to build the new rail link first, which will apparently be bankrolled by LFC).

The old plans were nice, but 61,000 with no chance of expansion was just far too small for a club as huge as Liverpool.

Im hoping they will release better views of it in the next few weeks, it look a bit odd albeit futuristic from the current views they have released.



LiverpoolFC.tv Official Announcement

View to the Kop - absolutely stunning!

looks good, but will this come at a price, to the fans i mean, season ticket and nomal ticket prices will more than likely go through the roof,to fund the expansion...

Well its either stay in an old 4 star stadium that can hold 45,400 fans which will probably become way outdated in the next few years and lose its UEFA rating, or build a brand new, state of the art, UEFA 5 star stadium that can hold 78,000 fans, which do you prefer?

You can't have a new stadium and keep the existing pricing structure for tickets im afraid.

Besides, they wont go up that much anyway, the extra capacity will pay for a lot of the investment. The investment is short term, the gains from the extra capacity financially is long term. Hicks and Gillett are building for the future, not the next 5 or 10 years but 25 - 50 years!

The new stadium and extra capacity is also needed to be able to compete finacially with the likes of Chelsea and Man Utd in the UK and the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid in Europe.

am not saying its a bad idea mate, but the owness to fund things like this always, even with sponsorship, falls back onto the fans to fill in the gap that the sponsorship does not cover...

Ill wait and see if theres a dramatic increase in ticket prices.

Dont forget, there pro's and cons to them increasing ticket prices, yeah they make more money on each ticket but the risk making less overall by pricing fans out of the market.

It seems to me like Gillett and Hicks are taking the traditions of the club very seriously, they will understand that many fans can barely afford the pricing as it is, without increasing it by any great deal.

Its the working class fans who they want through the doors, the real fans, not a load of posh rich ponces who have no idea about the club and its tradition. If they wanted that, the would have just built the original stadium instead of re-designing it like Arsenal did with the Emirates.

It has to be paid for, true, but with a final capacity of 78,000+ and a lifetime of at least 50 years, there is plenty of time to worry about that in the future.

Dont forget, none of the money is borrowed upon the club, any money that comes for the investment is direct from Hicks and Gillett, and no matter what heppens to them financially, Liverpool is secure for the future even if they went bankrupt because of the way the company is formed etc...

Whereas other clubs who expand their stadia have to either pay a certain amount to a developer each year, or repay a loan over a certain period, we dont, this goes to prove that Gillett and Hicks are in it for the long term and also relieves us of any tight financial committments.

It also means the £300million it will cost, will have zero interest, so we can take longer to repay it if needs be. But it shouldnt be looked at as a loan, as its not, its an investment, by an investing group, and its a long term investment, which probably wont make a penny profit for a decade or more.

At the end of the day its a business of course and it needs to be profitable. But as Hicks and Gillett said when they took over in February, they are not in to make profit straight away etc, they expect to lose a lot of money whilst the rebuilding process of the club, both on and off the field, takes centre stage over the next decade or so.

Besides, success on the field, will pay off any stadium costs within years. We netted over £50million alone last season just through our champions league run, and that included losing it. We lost on the field, but we won massively financially!

This is why Hicks and Gillett are willing to spend big and buy £24million players like Torres, because they understand that if you have a team that wins on the field, you have a team that will generate insane revenues and it also increases sponsorship revenue and overall worldwide merchandising revenues.

Just noticed that the Echo have some extra pictures which havent been posted anywhere else, and they make the stadium look even better!

It also looks as though the away stand will be very small and that is where a lot of the extra capacity will be gained once we have planning permission to do so. Its still actually unclear where the whole extra 18,000 capacity will be coming from - according the Liverpool FC, the gaps at the kop end wont be filled for certain, and I can't see the away stand catering for an extra 18,000 on its own.

Not filling the gaps at the Kop end is a great idea though, it will distinguish the world famous Kop from the rest of the stadium, and will certainly make the whole stadium based around the Kop as promised. But it also means that if in the future we ever needed to go higher then 78,000 (and were able to get planning permission of course), the estimates are saying the corner gaps at the Kop end alone could cater upto 6,000 extra capacity (which would make the total at 84,000) and if the corners at the away stand end arnt filled in (its not known about these yet), then it could push the capacity upto around the 90,000 level.

So it actually has a lot of practical plus points in not filling the corners in.

Here is the Echo/Daily Post pictures - http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/videos-pictures/pictures-of-liverpool/

Here is another picture which isnt widely available, shows an excellent ariel view of the stadium - http://videos.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpoolecho/AerialStadiumSouthEast.jpg

Looks amazing imho, im still not 100% bought on the idea until Liverpool can announce further and more in-depth details on the plans, but I am glad we are not going the same way as every other club and building a lifeless symmetrical stadium with no character.

This stadium will be one of greatness and unique, not run of the mill, fit for a club of greatness, unique and not run of the mill.

They have now released a video with George Gillett and Tom Hicks talking about the design, as well a computer simulated 3D fly-around of it.

Interestingly, it looks like the KOP might be the last stand to be built, as they dont seem to have a final capacity for it. George Gillett said somewhere between 18,000 and 20,000 and Tom Hicks mentioned 19,500, although the official figure in the current plan is 18,000.

So it sounds like they are hoping to get planning permission for a bigger capacity stadium and then make the KOP even bigger then the current announced 18,000!

Great news if they do/can do this I say, the bigger the better, it means we will get even closer to the 24,000 single tier capacity of its heyday.

Click here to watch the video.

News Just In:




BBC News Report

ready by 2010

2011 according to Rick Parry

Highly doubtful for 2010 realistically, they are not legally allowed to start building it until February 2008, and even thats provided there are no legal challenges.

read heard on radio.

lol yeah its cos all the media go on rumors and past speculation.

The original design was sposed to be ready for 2005/06, then it slipped to 2007/08, then it was officially made 2008, then when the takeover rumors were happening it was 2009, at the takeover it was announced as 2010 and today Rick Parry has confirmed 2011 providing all things go to plan.

And crouchy just scored!

Haha make that 2-0 Yossi just got one

See what happens without Shuyt i mean Kuyt on the pitch Rafa!!!

Fook 6-0... haha no Kuyt yasee!

Okay... erm 7-0 - off Babels backside

8-0 - Crouch again!!

Biggest ever win by any team in the history of the Champions League!

Still time for 9... lol!

lol awesome!

Lol tis over now... gutted we never got number 9

Dam missed the second half