Liverpool Football Club today unveiled stunning new designs for their stadium in Stanley Park, coinciding with the submission of the official planning application to Liverpool City Council.
Scheduled to open in 2010, the 60,000 seat stadium has been designed to allow for future expansion which could see the capacity increased to the high seventies dependent on improvements to the local transport infrastructure.
The central importance of the Kop has also been recognised with a hugely increased capacity to 18,000 seats in a single tier stand.
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The stadium represents an investment of around £300 million by the Club in North Liverpool.
Chief Executive Rick Parry said: "It was always the aim of the Club, with the backing of Tom Hicks and George Gillett, to be world class both on and off the pitch. When they took over, the first thing Tom and George wanted to do was review the stadium both in terms of the design and the capacity. This is the immensely impressive result of their deliberations.
"We're creating a stadium that not only the Club and supporters can be proud of, but something the whole city can be proud of. Liverpool as a city is on the move and deserves world class developments like this.
"Our architects HKS have a wealth of experience and have fused a very contemporary and unique vision together with the values that are crucial to Liverpool Football Club. A critical design consideration was to ensure the stadium sat naturally within its park environment, complementing its surroundings and a huge amount of work has been done to ensure this happens. The stadium is a massive investment in North Liverpool and a key driver in the regeneration of the whole area.
"The asymmetric design sets it apart from other new stadia, as it is a clear move away from what is becoming the traditional bowl model. It recognises and makes reference to the fact that English football grounds were historically asymmetric. We make no apologies for that, we've gone out of our way to embrace that culture and it works
exceptionally well for both the new ground and its location within Stanley Park. This new design will be unmistakably Liverpool and instantly recognisable as our stadium.
"We've also recognised the central importance of the Kop. It will have a significantly increased capacity of 18,000 seats in a single tier structure that will be the heartbeat of the new stadium. The rake of the stand will be steeper and the seats tighter together, with the acoustics of the roof designed to accentuate the atmosphere during games."
