DECEMBER 30
'April start' for new Liverpool
stadium, says council

BBC Sport Online

Work on Liverpool's new stadium in Stanley Park could begin as early as April 2010, the leader of Liverpool City Council has told the BBC.

Warren Bradley said Liverpool have told the council they are "very close now to securing the finances".

He added it would be "in April that hopefully, fingers crossed, we'll see some activity on Stanley Park".

Bradley also revealed the council would hold talks with Everton about their plans for a new stadium on 11 January.

The government rejected Everton's plans for a 50,000-seater stadium in Kirkby, with Liverpool City Council one of the opponents of the plan.

Development of Liverpool Football Club's proposed new ground has been a casualty of the unstable global financial situation.

Construction on the new site in Stanley Park, which is next to the Reds' current Anfield Stadium and has a planned 60,000 capacity, was frozen in August 2008 after preliminary work because of the financial conditions.

But in September Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks insisted it would go ahead once the financial situation improved, and Liverpool City Council leader Bradley says the club is now confident of securing the required cash in the first three months of 2010.

"What they've said is they'll secure the finances in the first quarter, so that's between January and March," he told BBC Radio Liverpool.

He added that work on Liverpool's new stadium, which is part of England's proposed 2018 World Cup bid, could then begin in April.

"We've been pressing Liverpool Football Club to ensure that they deliver the stadium and if they're not going to deliver it, to come clean with the council so we can look at other options," said Bradley.

"Liverpool Football Club have come back to us and said they're very close now to securing the finances and they want to move on as quickly as possible, not only for the World Cup bid but also for Liverpool Football Club, who see a new stadium as being the heart of the business plan."

Bradley added that talks with Liverpool's city rivals Everton to help them secure a new ground would take place early in 2010.

"We have got a meeting with Everton where we will put all our cards on the table," he said.

"I will be there as will be council chief executive Colin Hilton and executive director of regeneration John Kelly. We want to make sure that we can facilitate things for Everton."

DECEMBER 17
Purslow makes assurances
over new stadium

This is Anfield

Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow has assured England’s 2018 World Cup Campaign team that the New Anfield Stadium will be completed in time to host matches if England’s bid is succesful.

Purslow intervened when the city of Liverpool was, reportedly, almost rejected as a potential host city when the cities were announced yesterday.

Purslow met with the chairman of the bid team, Lord Mawhinney, and provided assurances that the new Anfield will be ready.

Peter Shaw, Liverpool’s assistant executive director said “Our plans remain exactly the same, our intention is to build a new stadium. The financial markets need to be right for the club to move forward on the stadium and in the new year maybe that will happen. A stadium is needed and that stadium will be the new Anfield.”

SEPTEMBER 14
Purslow: New deal
boosts stadium plans

TEAMtalk

Managing director Christian Purslow believes the biggest sponsorship deal in Liverpool's history can get their new stadium plans back on track.

Liverpool have struck a four-year sponsorship with Standard Chartered Bank, who will become the club's main sponsor from July next year until the end of the 2013-14 season, replacing Carlsberg as the Reds' shirt sponsor.

The deal is reportedly worth £80million to Liverpool.

Liverpool City Council last year granted planning permission to allow the club to build a 60,000-seat stadium in Stanley Park, however progress has been delayed, with Anfield officials citing "global market conditions" as the cause.

Purslow said: "The overall financial health of our football club is a key ingredient of being able to get the stadium project back up and running.

"This is a huge step forward for the club financially and that can only be helpful to create the conditions in which we can restart the stadium project."

Purslow was delighted with the new commercial link-up.

He said: "This partnership brings together two highly successful organisations with a really strong cultural and strategic fit.

"The sponsorship opportunity attracted a huge level of interest from a wide array of globally recognised brands and in Standard Chartered we believe we have the ideal partner to move forward and help develop our global ambitions for the club.

"It is a real sign of the progress we have made at Liverpool that we have been able to secure the largest ever commercial deal in our history."

Purslow said that Standard Chartered's global status reflected Liverpool's ambition to be the best football club in the world.

"They operate in a number of markets around the world where we have a vast and growing fanbase," he said.

"They have 1,400 branches in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, 14 million customers and over 70,000 employees. These branches will effectively be a shop window for Liverpool football club around the world.

"On the park, it is clear that we want to be the most successful football club in the world. To do that I believe that there is a pretty important link to how we perform off the park."

SEPTEMBER 5
Liverpool WILL build a new
stadium, promises Tom Hicks

By Simon Mullock- Daily Mirror

Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks has vowed that the club will build a new stadium – but has said that the move will not be financed by the £450million he is set to bank from the sale of baseball club Texas Rangers.

Hicks and business partner George Gillett have been unable to raise the £500m it will cost to fund the development of a 60,000-capacity home for the Reds at Stanley Park because of the credit crunch.

There have been reports in the United States that Hicks has now entered into negotiations with six potential buyers for the Rangers – and that Liverpool will benefit from the windfall.

But Hicks said: “Rangers and Liverpool are totally separate investments, so there is no connection.

“I do plan to keep a significant participation in the Rangers. We are close to winning our division. I want to finish what we have started.

“Liverpool will obtain stadium financing when the financial market opens back up. We have all of our permits and will be ready when the market is ready.”

Liverpool’s new managing director Christian Purslow admitted last week that the club hope to have the stadium completed in time for 2018 – should England’s World Cup bid be successful.

That is six years behind the original schedule set when Hicks and Gillett bought Liverpool three years ago.

The American pair have been criticised for failing to provide the finance for the stadium and for manager Rafa Benitez to build a championship-winning team.

But Purslow’s portfolio is to develop new commercial streams – and he is in talks with several interested companies about a £15m-a-year kit sponsorship deal.

Hicks added: “Christian Purslow is working hard. Liverpool’s new management focus is producing great new commercial results that will become known in due time.”

SEPTEMBER 3
Liverpool's new Stanley Park stadium
on hold until recession is over

By Telegraph staff and agencies

Liverpool's new stadium will not be built until the global recession is over and credit becomes available to finance the $800 million project.

The 60,000-seat replacement for Liverpool's historic but crumbling Anfield was due to have opened next year, but the economic downturn forced co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. to halt building work last August.

The American owners had said it would be a "short-term delay," but they are still not able to put a date on building work resuming.

Construction on the stadium will begin when the current contraction in the banking industry ends and the global financial markets re-establish their equilibrium," Liverpool's new managing director Christian Purslow said.

Purslow hopes the stadium on the adjacent Stanley Park will be ready in time for 2018 to stage World Cup matches should England's bid to stage the showcase event prove successful.

"The centerpiece is to deliver a world-class football ground that everyone can be proud of, a new home for the club with a stadium of at least 60,000 seats, giving the best possible match experience," Purslow said.

Liverpool has been financially hamstrung by the economics of 45,000-capacity Anfield, where there are just 34 luxury suites and few amenities to generate extra funding to enhance the squad.

Manchester United's Old Trafford can welcome 76,000 fans and Arsenal moved from 38,000-seat Highbury into 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium in July 2006.

Liverpool vice-captain Jamie Carragher has said he is embarrassed and irritated by the delays in replacing the stadium.

Millions of pounds were written-off when existing plans to replace Anfield were ditched after Liverpool was bought by the Hicks and Gillett in 2007 so architects from Hicks' native Texas could design a more spectacular stadium.

MAY 15
Sponsor eyes Anfield name deal

By Ian Herbert - The Independent

Liverpool's main sponsor, Carlsberg, is ready to discuss the idea of a naming rights deal for the proposed new stadium at Anfield, as part of a renewed deal with the club.

The Danish beer company, whose 18-year deal with Liverpool is the longest running in the Premier League, has offered the first indication that its widely known dismay at the in-fighting between club owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett has receded.

The Americans have put on a more united front of late and the sponsor suggested that the controversial idea of a Carlsberg Anfield – which would vastly increase the current £7m sponsorship deal – will be on the table when discussions begin in earnest at the end of the season. "That will be part of the discussion, I'm sure, but there have been no decisions yet," Gareth Roberts, Carlsberg UK's director of sponsorship, told The Independent.

Naming rights are a way for the Americans to extract serious money from the club they secured through a leveraged buy-out in February 2007 and growing what, by current standards, is a modest deal with Carlsberg when it expires at the end of next season. Arsenal's 13-year stadium deal with airline Emirates is valued at £100m, which includes an eight-year shirt deal.

It will be up to the Americans, already undertaking a global review of assets in an attempt to raise finances, to decide whether the additional revenue naming rights would bring is worth the anticipated opposition from some fans to such a sensitive issue. Their dire need of money suggests they may be willing to make the move.

The fact Carlsberg is willing to discuss the naming rights proposition reveals that the threat to the future relationship between the two partners has receded, though Roberts admitted that uncertainties surrounding the July expiry of bank deals rescheduling £350m of loans the Americans took to buy Liverpool had been a "distraction" on sponsorship talks.

Carlsberg is still seeking more assurances about whether the loans will be refinanced but the prevailing view, supported by leading football financier Keith Harris this week, is that they will be. "We would be very interested in what happens [with the rescheduling]. I'm sure that the conversations that go on between the two parties will reflect that," Roberts said.

But Carlsberg does appear to be more confident that the stadium, placed on hold by the Americans with the credit markets frozen, will actually be built.

"The stadium is a big step of their progression in the future and we want to be part of that," Roberts said. "The best thing is they [Hicks and Gillett] seem to have resolved the internal issues and they are going to take the next step. We need to understand where they are going with the stadium [but] we are really ambitious that they get the next step right as it will take them into the next stage of their progression [as a club] as well. They have done very well taking the next step in the league but it is about them setting the platform for the future."

Roberts' language was notably different to that from sources close to Carlsberg earlier this year, who spoke of the civil war at Anfield as "pretty bleak".

Hicks and Gillett have attempted to create some sense of harmony recently and actually sat together during Liverpool's 4-4 draw against Arsenal at Anfield in April.

Name game: Ground sponsorship

Emirates Stadium (Arsenal)

Reebok Stadium (Bolton Wanderers)

Pirelli Stadium (Burton Albion)

Weston Homes Community Stadium (Colchester United)

Ricoh Arena (Coventry City)

Northern Echo Darlington Arena (Darlington)

Keepmoat Stadium (Doncaster Rovers)

KC Stadium (Hull City)

Walkers Stadium (Leicester City)

Britannia Stadium (Stoke City)

Liberty Stadium (Swansea City)

JJB Stadium (Wigan Athletic) [will be renamed DW Stadium this summer]

KitKat Crescent (York City)

Thor Zakariassen ©