Work on Liverpool’s new stadium could get underway in the New Year.Its reported city politicians will give the go ahead to lease out part of Stanley Park – that means builders can start after Christmas.
The ground should then be ready for the start of the 2009 season.
But the club will have to confirm in the next few weeks that they’ve got enough cash to fund their part of the project.
Current stadium manager Ged Poynton says they’ve worked hard on the designs to make sure fans approve – and they include keeping the Kop.
“One of the main points the board of directors have decided on, and I think it’s great on Liverpool’s behalf, is their going to retain a ‘Kop Three’ if we can call it that," he told Radio City.
“It won’t be a two tier stand; it will be a one lift stand for about 14,000 to 15,000 seats.
“It’ll look similar to the old Kop so we’re going to retain a Kop type of end to the new stadium which I think most fans will be happy with,” he added.It’s thought the club will have to put together a financial package worth £180 million.
Planning permission for the stadium has already been granted.
http://www.radiocity.co.uk/article.asp?id=267991Happy days I thought, but to quell my sense of wanting to know more I decided to dig a little bit deeper.
So you now where I’m coming from, I was one of the few fans who was unhappy with the design that was given planning permission in 2003. The design gave us the fans, a goal end that was just over 13,000 in capacity & had a concrete concourse half way up the stand that effectively split the stand in two, although I do accept that it’s a single lift stand & I might be a bit pedantic. That said I do think it will affect the atmosphere. To compound matters the opposite goal end is exactly the same.
I’ll cut a long story short.
I’ll tell you what I know or what the council told me.
I’ll tell you how Ged Poynton has continually ignored my calls and emails for the past two months & let everyone make their own minds up.
Since September I have contacted the council on numerous occasions, the plans that were re aproved where not available for public viewing as they where with the council’s legal team. However every person that I spoke to in the planning team told me the same thing – No changes to the design of the stadium or alteration’s to any of the stands had been logged on their system or been recorded in a changed schematic etc.
Not satisfied I asked to speak with the planning officer who had dealt with the planning application from Day 1 – Fergal Mcevoy.
Fergal was a nice bloke & very accommodating – He stated that the only change to the design was to the height of the West stand roof. Basically to make the stadium less imposing on the surrounding park land, its height has been reduced slightly.
All other changes in the planning application where to do with policy & agreements with private & public bodies involved with the funding & the build.
The synic that I am has made me think that maybe the roof height of one of the goal ends has been reduced to make the other goal end (THE KOP) look bigger, without changing the design or altering the capacity?
With this info to hand I emailed Ged Poynton for his comments, as obviously this is at odds with his comments at the top of this page. I’m sure the stadium manager of LFC is a very busy man, but lots of my emails & phone calls to his PA have been ignored.
His PA is a lovely women & I’m sure he always got the message.
So the question is why would he not respond if what he said at the top of the page was true?
I’ll let you make you own minds up, but I’m sure that the design that was re approved in April 2006 is identical to the one approved in 2003, bar the Height of the west Stand.
