Anfield Road Stand completion pushed back to 2024
Liverpool Football Club chief executive Billy Hogan broke the news to fans on Thursday, saying additional time was needed for information gathering by the project’s new contractor, Rayner Rowen Construction.
The Anfield Road Stand was meant to bring in an additional 7,000 seats to the Liverpool stadium, increasing its capacity to 61,000 football fans. When work started in 2021, it had been set to complete in time for the start of the 2023-2024 season.
While the lower stand is ready for use, and has been available for fans during home games this season – the upper stand is still under construction.
Former main contractor Buckingham Group went into administration earlier this year, slightly pausing the scheme. Within days, Preston-based Rayner Rowen took the helm. This has led to a fact-finding mission to allow Rayner Rowen time to craft an informed decision about the project timeline.
That mission is still ongoing, according to Hogan.
In a statement to fans he said: “…It has become clear that in order to complete a thorough assessment of that project completion timeline, it’s going to take longer than really we first thought.
“Ultimately, what that means for supporters is that until we have visibility of all the information needed, we’re going to have to maintain the status quo for the remainder of the calendar year, essentially meaning capacity at Anfield will remain the same as for the previous home games that we’ve seen this season.”
Hogan acknowledged that having to delay the stand opening was a “really complex and deeply frustrating situation”.
“I want to ensure our supporters that everyone is working incredibly hard to bring the project to a successful completion,” Hogan added later.
“It is a huge and important project for Anfield, obviously we’re incredibly excited about having 61,000 at Anfield and so as soon as we have additional updates we will certainly share that with supporters.”
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It’s important that this gets resolved as quickly as possible. The travel trade, in particular, relies heavily on the number of in-bound supporters and the delay will be cutting a swathe through hundreds of business plans. Hindsight is a glorious thing, but buy cheap, buy twice: if only they’d chosen a proper Tier One contractor.
By Sceptical
Probably will affect any potential new concerts in the summer. Getting Taylor Swift was impressive and will be great for the city.
By Jon
Is it me or do those seats where two stands meet don’t face the pitch at the correct angle?
I expect this is the downside of developing an old stadium.
By Peter Chapman
The Norwegians and “out of town” Woolley Backs will be very disappointed.
By Stanley Parkend FRICS