The seats have been installed in the Anfield Road End, although full opening remains slated for early 2024
The £80m project to increase the capacity of the Reds’ home stadium by 7,000 seats, taking it to 61,000, has been hit with significant issues in recent months after the collapse of the Buckingham Group, the construction company that had previously been engaged to deliver the development.
Liverpool’s Friday update focused on the final installation of seats in the upper tier, a visible sign of progress as the club edges towards its goal of opening the stadium to full capacity early next year. Work continues inside the stand in relation to the fit out, with a number of test events required to satisfy Liverpool City Council before a full opening can be given the green light.
One of the major decisions that FSG had to make when they took over Liverpool was whether or not to remain at Anfield or seek a new purpose built stadium elsewhere in the city. Options were explored but the eventual decision was taken to remain at the club’s spiritual home and redevelop the stadium to bring it in line with the kind of revenue potential that the owners had envisaged.
In the 2015/16 set of financial accounts published by Liverpool, matchday revenue stood at £62.4m. The following accounting period, 2016/17, saw matchday revenues at £73.5m, an increase of almost 18 per cent year on year. The increase in matchday revenues since the completion of the Main Stand has been 39 per cent.
Speaking at the Sportico Invest in Sports conference in New York last year, where the ECHO were present, one of FSG’s most senior leaders and partners, Sam Kennedy said: "We found an unbelievable facility, a venue that means so much more than football to the community. It is literally a place where generations have shared memories and made connections and bonds unlike anywhere else in sport if you think about what Anfield means in Liverpool.
"We made the decision to do exactly what we did at Fenway Park, preserve Anfield, protect it and expand it. We have invested several hundred million pounds into the facility, we have created a new main stand, an Anfield Road stand that is coming online, all inside the venue to bring people to the games earlier and to enhance the experience that they have there.
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