From BBC Sport
Liverpool have revealed their plans for a new £350m stadium in Stanley Park will be delayed “in the short term”.
Reports had suggested Liverpool’s American co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett were struggling to raise funds for the next stage of the project.
A Liverpool spokesman said: “Our commitment to building a new world class LFC stadium is undiminished.
“Like many other major development projects in the UK and overseas we are affected by global market conditions.”
The spokesman revealed: “We will use this period productively and revisit the plans for the stadium to increase its capacity to 73,000 seats.”
Liverpool’s plans for their new home, which was expected to have a 60,000 capacity, were approved by the city council in May, but it now remains to be seen if and when serious work will begin on the stadium which was expected to be finished by August 2011.
When the Americans took over 18 months ago they immediately redesigned previous plans and had to allow for new planning permission.
The current credit crunch is being blamed for the latest delay, even though enabling work has already started in and around Stanley Park.
After the owners took over, didn’t they say work on the new stadium would start within weeks? Now how many weeks have we gone now and still no sign of a new stadium. Yes, the world markets are not doing well but maybe if work had started when they said it would they could have gotten better financing than is available now. I think the only solution for a new stadium is to get funding from Dubai i.e. Dubai takes over Liverpool. With their kind of money, we could get a new stadium within months and a couple of 30m pound players to showcase at the new stadium.
Unfortunately for me, I have known of Tom Hicks for most of my adult life as he owns a team in Major League Baseball. He has always been something of a farce as far as competing, and has never won anything. I don’t they’ve even made the finals.
He’s much more a businessman than a club owner. That will always be the case, so just hold tight until LFC is sold. It will happen in the next few years, and there’s nothing much to do besides.