Liverpool will have to repay £8.2m European grant if they do not build stadium

Liverpool will have to repay £8.2m European grant if they do not build new stadium at Stanley Park

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8633298/Liverpool-will-have-to-repay-8.2m-European-grant-if-they-do-not-build-new-stadium-at-Stanley-Park.html

Liverpool have been told they will have to repay £8.2 million of European funding if they do not go ahead with plans to build a 60,000 capacity stadium at Stanley Park.

Although the club’s American owner, John W Henry, has hinted he would prefer to keep Liverpool at an expanded Anfield, preparatory work has already been carried out at the adjacent Stanley Park site using money from a European Objective One grant, which will have to be paid back if Liverpool stay put.

“The broken promises of the previous owners [Tom Hicks and George Gillett] have come back to haunt the current owners,” said Labour MP Steve Rotheram.

“If Liverpool city council has to pay the money back, Liverpool Football Club will have to pay the money back. Liverpool signed up to that, albeit under different owners.”

Liverpool have until September to decide whether they are going to take a 999-year lease on the Stanley Park site, but managing director Ian Ayres has warned they will not be rushed into a decision.

Should they decide to move they need to find a commercial partner willing to cover a large part of the cost through stadium naming rights, but if they stay at Anfield it could take at least three years to get planning permission to expand because of complex negotiations with local residents.

“What people don’t think of a lot of the time is that we don’t get 60,000 new seats when we build a stadium,” said Ayres. “We only get the difference between Anfield currently and whatever we build.

“The economics of that difference don’t really stack up in the medium term. It would be a huge investment with very little financial gain. On its own that doesn’t look like a viable proposition, so what we’re having to do, is explore an opportunity for naming rights".

Probably about how much wages Konchesky was due over the remaining years of his contract.

Seriously.

Anyway, as if that £8M is in a pot somewhere. That's well disappeared away on interest.

I've heard this a few times now - it always seems to be wheeled out by the council who are clearly getting anxious about us even pondering staying at Anfield.

Stay at Anfield. Bring it on bitches

I really think we will end up moving, to be honest  Anfield is tired and if we cannot refurbish in a way that takes us forward it's time to move on. Sad as it is.

I think we will be moving, sadly. The council seem to be forcing us to move away to a new stadium and there seems to be many difficulties with either solution, but staying seems the much harder alternative.

I knew we shouldn't have bought Poulsen and Konchesky