Featured image credit: Liverpool FC
English Premier League football club Liverpool has today (Wednesday) announced that Anfield will operate at reduced capacity for the opening exchanges of the 2023-24 season due to delays in the delivery of the new Anfield Road Stand.
Work began on the £80m (€93.3m/$103.4m) project in September 2021, with redevelopment of the stand set to see 7,000 more seats added to Anfield, taking its overall capacity to 61,000.
Construction has been carried out in the same way as the redevelopment of Anfield’s Main Stand, with the build taking place throughout the season while matches continued as scheduled. The project has seen the lower tier of the Anfield Road Stand retained and refurbished, with a new upper tier built above it.
However, while Liverpool had expected that work would be completed in time for its first home game of the 2023-24 Premier League campaign against Bournemouth on August 19, Buckingham Group, the main contractor, has now confirmed that although the existing stand will be open and operational for the first home game of the season, the new upper tier will remain closed for the time being.
Liverpool said it is anticipated that the additional capacity will be incrementally phased in during the course of future home fixtures. Following the Bournemouth game, when Anfield’s capacity is expected to be reduced from around 54,000 to 51,000, Buckingham plans to increase the capacity, using the upper tier as part of the phased opening process which it expects to be completed in October.
Andy Hughes, managing director of Liverpool FC, said: “This has been a hugely ambitious and complex construction project right from the start and I would like to thank everyone who has played a part.
“Unfortunately, the upper tier of the Anfield Road Stand is not quite ready for the Bournemouth game. The main contractor, Buckingham, will therefore work with Liverpool City Council’s licensing team to deliver a phased opening process.
“As with any complex major construction project of this scale, there are always so many variables and challenges along the way.
“We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding while we work through the next few weeks with Buckingham to complete this programme and we can’t wait to have this great new Anfield Road Stand fully open for supporters.”
Liverpool stressed that today’s news is a similar process to when the club opened its new Main Stand in September 2016. The club played the first three games of that season away from home and opened parts of the stand in phases.
The new Anfield Road Stand marks the fourth major capital build project undertaken by Liverpool in recent years, following the new Main Stand, the Anfield Megastore in 2017 and the opening of its AXA Training Centre in 2020. A fifth capital project was recently announced with the repurchase of Melwood, which will be the new training centre for Liverpool FC Women.
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