Hicks: Liverpool Stadium Will Go-ahead
Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks has reiterated his belief that the Premier League club’s proposed new £350m stadium will be built once the global financial crisis stabilises.
Construction on the new site in Stanley Park, next to the club’s current Anfield Stadium, was frozen in August 2008 due to the financial conditions.
Said Hicks: ‘We’ve spent lots of money and we have a fully designed stadium. We have every permit in place, the council’s approval, everything is done. Certainly it will happen.
‘When we get to the point where the global market settles down, we can bring pieces together to finance the stadium.
‘I don’t know about the dates because of the global financial markets, but I know the markets will settle down and get better.’
Hicks bought Liverpool in 2007 with George Gillett Jr. and they wrote off £10m by ditching existing plans to replace Anfield so architects from his native Texas could design a new stadium in the adjacent Stanley Park.
It is expected to hold 60,000 fans, 15,000 more than Anfield, with more scope to generate commercial revenues.
Liverpool received a financial boost recently with the announcement of a new £80m sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered Bank.
