The Liverpool FC Forum > Anfield Stadium

17th of May 2002- the day the Kop shook

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smicer07:
This has been written by a French LFC supporting friend of mine:


So Liverpool FC is to leave Anfield Road in 2005 to play in a new stadium, with a capacity of 55,000.

Liverpool supporters have mixed emotions, some of them seem to be happy to move to a new stadium (it doesn’t mean they are happy to leave Anfield though), some others just don't want to leave the Stadium that has been the home of Liverpool FC since it’s creation in 1892.

Instead of going and shouting blindly about my opinions, I'll compare both sides of the argument; why we shouldn't leave Anfield, and also why we should.


1- Why we should leave Anfield.

Football has evolved a lot during the last few years. More money is involved in games, the league, and competitions, some players are sold at some incredible prices and just a few clubs in Europe can afford them.
European clubs have to be very rich if they want to build a successful team in he long term: building a good academy that will provide young talented players, instead of just buying some quality foreign players...

Football has become a complex play where many actors are involved. The clubs, the media, the supporters, sponsors etc...
Big clubs can't afford to live in the past if they want to battle in their countries with other teams for the title, or to compete in Europe for more glory and trophies.
For example, a lot of english clubs have changed their structures in recent years and started to adapt to this new process.
A club like Manchester United had a plan in the early 90's to build one of the best teams in England, and in Europe. They started to improve their academy, they brought a new manager in whom they trusted strongly, they associated with strong sponsors, big media groups, and bought good foreign players to bring a continental touch to their game.
They also promoted their club in south east of Asia to make more benefits on the merchandising side.
Needing more money they expanded their stadium, that reaches now a capacity of 69,000.

Liverpool FC is entering into what could be the same process (I'm not comparing the 2 clubs). Liverpool FC have thousands of fans in South Asia (that’s why we went there last summer), they associated with a strong media corporation (Granada) to promote the club through various media (with this internet web site for example). On the pitch we brought in a new manager (one of the best really), and many foreign players.
But Liverpool FC is not rich enough to compete with other European giants. Our transfer record was for Emile Heskey. We can see now that we would probably have bought players that the manager really wanted if we had more money.
Medias (tv rights), Champions League, and supporters revenue at home games, plus merchandising provides most of the money.

Our stadium has only 45,000 seats. In term of capacity, it's an average european stadium. I'm trying to see how many European clubs have a bigger stadium than ours (2 in France, 4 in Spain, 4 in Italy, 2 or 3 in Germany, 1 in Holland, 2 England, soon 3 with Arsenal’s new arena, 2 in Greece etc...).
With a bigger arena, we'll surely make more profits, and we'll allow more fans to come. Some fans are waiting years on the season ticket list.

A new stadium will surely provide more money for the club.

Money is not the only argument to support the construction of the new stadium.
Anfield, is an old stadium, many supporters complain about the small, uncomfortable seats... A new stadium with all the modern conveniences can only be a good thing.


2-Arguments to stay at Anfield

On the other hand, we just can't leave Anfield so easily. As a friend of mine told me earlier today, maybe for some of us, our head says "new stadium is needed", but our heart is clearly screaming "stay at Anfield".
Anfield is the ground where it all started, where our epic history was born in 1982. This is where all the supporters, throughout the century have shared their hopes and their sadness with the team, the Reds.
This is our basis, this is where we all stand up to sing You'll Never Walk Alone, all together.
We are all human beings (yeah I'm sure) and we are all sensitive to those kinds of things. Destroying a building ('cause if we move to a new stadium, Anfield will be knocked down, most of it) that we admired so much, will hurt terribly.

Even if we still sing You'll Never Walk Alone, it won't be the same. Not the same feeling, not the same atmosphere, not the same background. Just because of the weight of history this stadium holds. And we know how much it meant, and still means to people.



My personal opinion (after long reflection):

Leaving Anfield means leaving a part of our history. Shankly had the idea one day to put the famous "This is Anfield" sign up. Why did he do this ? Because Anfield is Anfield, it's not the Nou Camp, its not Old Trafford, its not the Olympic Stadium of I dont know what city in Europe. Anfield is different, that’s why we can read "This is Anfield" before entering the pitch with You'll Never Walk Alone ringing in your ears.
This is Anfield, because they all know throughout Europe, that we have a different stadium, a great stadium, the best in the world (the words are from great players like Pelé, Platini...).
Moving "This is Anfield" to the new stadium will lose its original sense. No, This is not Anfield, this is another stadium. I won't accept moving the famous sign to a new stadium. "This is Anfield" belongs to Anfield Road.
I also consider we shouldn't name the new stadium Anfield, because it's like lying to ourselves. Why has Rick Parry said it's gonna be called Anfield ? Because we care about our history eh? History is not just in the name, its in the building. Inside it.
Seats are too small? I don't care, I'm not in a movie theatre. I'm not here to watch Star Wars on a giant screen with popcorn. If the seats really annoy me, I’d prefer to change every single seat in Anfield than move to a new stadium.

Will a 55,000 stadium provide more money for the club? Of course it will, but not immediately, because building a new stadium is not a Christmas present, we must spend cash on it. We'll see the benefits of the new stadium around the year 2007.
Why more money? I explained it in the first paragraph, but it doesn't mean I agree with it. What I said is reality, but I don't accep it. We don't have to spend millions in the European transfer market to get a Zidane, a Rivaldo or a Figo. I prefer to spend a bit of cash on the academy and get a Michael Owen, a Steven Gerrard, or a Jamie Carragher instead of Lilian Thuram on whom you'll still have doubts as to whether he loves the shirt he's wearing or not, and not just the money he receives each month in his bank account.

We already won 5 trophies last season, with Gary McAllister who cost us nothing.

Another thing: moving to a new stadium is not a good thing for the team itself. We have had many examples in the past years (Arsenal moving to Wembley for their european games, Southampton and their scoring problems at St-Mary’s, Ajax Amsterdam with their new ArenA ….and the list goes on).


Anfield Road is a great piece of Football history, and I think we should keep it as part of  our patrimony. Anfield Road, makes us different than any other club in the world.

I hope that I'm not the only one on this message board who thinks we shouldn't leave Anfield Road. If you don't agree with me, just let me know.


ANFIELD FOR EVER.

You'll Never Walk Alone


PS: it's funny, but when I started writing these lines, Fearless (by Pink Floyd, with You'll Never Walk Alone at the end of the song, sung by the Kop in the 60's) was being played on my computer (this one out of the 120 mp3s I've got on my hard drive).

Anfield-Reds..

TOGH:
ure not the only one that feels this ways  :(

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