Liverpool stadium plans in jeopardy

[Bender]

LIVERPOOL risk seeing their plans for a new stadium on Stanley Park ditched for good.

In another dire twist for Kop fans wondering whether the £400m arena will ever be built, it's emerged the American owners still haven't secured the 999-year lease required to build on the historic site.

Without the lease, which costs £300,000 a year, Liverpool can't begin construction.

The local council expected the lease to be purchased TWO YEARS ago.

The club now has until September 2011 to restart the project before planning permission runs out.

Co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr said the project was 'shelved' last season due to the credit crunch.

If they're forced to re-apply for planning permission in 17 months' time, it will be another lengthy and costly process with no guarantee of success.

Further delays are anticipated because new Kop chairman Martin Broughton last week stated if finance is ever secured the building work would be going back out to tender.

Previously, Liverpool's owners had an agreement with constructors Laing O'Rourke, who've now been told to re-apply for the contract.

In a move which further underlines there is no immediate prospect of leaving Anfield, the club will oversee a facelift of their own stadium this summer.

They're splashing out an estimated £500,000 on the renovation of existing executive boxes to improve their corporate facilities.

Council officials are understood to be 'extremely frustrated and anxious' that Liverpool are ploughing resources into improving their current home whilst the delays on the new arena continue.

A spokesman for Liverpool City Council said: "The main issue for us is about work on the stadium which will start the regeneration of the whole Anfield area."
From the News Of The World........

[tommyg]

500,000 for seat warmers for their fat arses and we can't buy a couple of decent players

[vlahka]

Come september 2011 they will get another extension.

[nebbers]

This really isn't that big a problem. Just some more paperwork that needs doing.

[Leyton388]

Dont care anymore the most important thing is for them both to **** off and i am sure whoever comes in will have their own plans for the new ground and different design which could involve it not being on stanley park anyway.

I think when the new owners come in this ground design should be scrapped anyway and all trace of hicks wiped away.

[Vermilion]

Dont care anymore the most important thing is for them both to **** off and i am sure whoever comes in will have their own plans for the new ground and different design which could involve it not being on stanley park anyway.

I think when the new owners come in this ground design should be scrapped anyway and all trace of hicks wiped away.

Stories like this one just underline the ****e job h&G have done since being here, on and on it go's...failure after failure, to invest in players, to build a promised stadium, they didn't even buy the lease ffs, shows exactly the level of commitment they had to this club..none, it was always just about money...nothing more, whatever crap they come out with about our history, they couldn't give a toss and never did.

[shanks69]

Dont care anymore the most important thing is for them both to **** off and i am sure whoever comes in will have their own plans for the new ground and different design which could involve it not being on stanley park anyway.

I think when the new owners come in this ground design should be scrapped anyway and all trace of hicks wiped away.

trouble is who's to say if the council would give the go ahead for a new design,they've been pissed about to many times.they may say build what we've said yes too or its nothing.

[Vermilion]

trouble is who's to say if the council would give the go ahead for a new design,they've been pissed about to many times.they may say build what we've said yes too or its nothing.

I was thinking that, and it's why our new owner needs to be very very wealthy, and predisposed to proving to the council the staidum WILL be built, either by buying the lease immediately as a show of faith and then moving on swiftly by getting plans drawn up and out to tender, i'm sure there are ways for any new owner to prove to the council they are serious, and that they're cut from different cloth to the two clowns they've replaced.

[Armchairkopite]

This is good news, its another reason to expect a sale sooner rather then later imo.

[Exiled_red]

This to me suggests (as I've suspected all along) that there was never any intention of this two pricks building the stadium

[dww]

I always thought that the main problem with building the stadium was the need to pay the £400m or whatever for it. Until the funding is in place I don't really see why we would pay for the long term lease.

[CJ]

i wouldnt pay the lease till i had to. they have saved nearly a million by not paying it. they could start building tomorrow having saved a million.

i wouldnt say the not buying the lease meant they never planned to build the stadium.

thinking about it i would have thought they had a couple of exit stratergies and one was exiting with just planning permission

i could be very wrong

they are ****s and i want shut.

[dom9]

500,000 for seat warmers for their fat arses and we can't buy a couple of decent players

How many players can you get for £500,000?

[CJ]

How many players can you get for £500,000?

lots of crap ones to then beat rafa over the head with and say how poor he is.

[Armchairkopite]

lots of crap ones to then beat rafa over the head with and say how poor he is.