Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
Over a century after calling Anfield their home, Liverpool Football Club is still expanding on the stadium, adding more structures and decorations that even the top UK casinos can only dream of.
Developers have been hard at work building the new Anfield Road stand, the newest expansion following Liverpool's main stand opening in 2016. According to a recent update, the club has announced that the new Anfield Road stand will increase stadium capacity to over 61,000 seats for the 2023-24 season.
The stadium began work in September 2021 and has since added three floors to a new stand in construction. The Liverpool drone video showcases a vast park for fans at the ground level, along with lounges for fans in the three stories above.
The stand can hold over 20,676 sports watchers. It is split by approximately 9300, 3100 and 7900 across the levels. The expansion promises to add over 7,000 new seats to the stadium. Around half of these seats will be classified as high-priced business seats, potentially increasing the stadium's future revenue.
Anfield Vice President of Operations Paul Cuttill noted that the stadium has remained operational throughout its construction period. Anfield has still been able to hold over 50 games and three concerts in its functional area. The construction has also not hindered training and events for the Liverpool Football Club.
The new stand construction follows a series of projects undertaken over the past decade. Shortly after the stadium was declared an asset of community value in 2013, Anfield began house demolition work in 2014 to prepare new space for development.
The stadium primarily focused on expanding the area behind the main stand, leading to architectural plans for the reconstruction. In December 2014, workers began laying the groundwork before finally installing steel structures in March 2015.
The development process also required major overhauls and removals from the old Anfield structure. In May 2016, after Liverpool's final match of the 2015-16 season, workers began removing the old structure's seats and roofing to make way for the new main stand. This caused some light inconvenience in later matches, leading Liverpool to face off against Burnley at Turf Moor later on.
Construction quickly advanced in the following months, eventually culminating in the rebuilt main stand revealed in September 2016. It would then hold the most amount of spectators since 1977, with over 53,000 fans witnessing Liverpool's 4-1 victory against Leicester F.C. on September 10.
While the cost of the new main stand remains ambiguous, construction was estimated at over £75 million. Investment-related spending added overall costs to a total of £114 million for the Merseyside club.
Liverpool also officially opened the AXA Training Centre in November 2020. The state-of-the-art training facility was constructed to give the club more spaces to instruct and train both Liverpool F.C. and the Liverpool F.C. Reserves and Academy players.
To commemorate the AXA Training Centre's opening, the club planted a time capsule with various memorabilia for future Liverpool generations to come. It also helped signify the importance of the new expansion, as it marked the occasion when Liverpool moved away from its long-time Melwood training grounds.
While Liverpool voiced fondness for Melwood, its smaller size and equipment made accommodating the club's ever-growing members, coaches and staff difficult. Built at Kirkby, the AXA Training Centre has solved many of the club's problems with its historic training grounds.
Compared to Melwood, not only did the new training ground have a goalkeeping space and a full-sized pitch area, but it also had extensive indoor facilities with gyms, a sports hall, and rehabilitation suites. In anticipation of press releases and media conferences, the training centre also hosts a TV studio with its own conference facilities and office spaces.
Anfield has numerous workers and overseers to thank for its rapid expansion in the decade. Among them, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has been pivotal in the club and the stadium's development.
Klopp has been present throughout most of Anfield's reconstruction period since he joined the club in 2015. He has overseen the period's training facility's development to the very end, and would later mark the first spade in Anfield Road's construction in 2021.
Liverpool has remained a household name in the UK and European football scene, having won numerous trophies in the past few seasons, including their sixth Champions League title in 2019 and Premier League in 2020.
The club's rivalry with other football clubs like Everton and Manchester United regularly fuels numerous sports-related bets in some of the United Kingdom's top sportsbooks and casinos. This allows the club to splurge on their facilities.
Anfield's most recent expansion is expected to add around £80 million or more in construction costs. This is part of the club's ongoing efforts to improve the Match Day experience for supporters and continue to be one of the most successful clubs in the world.
Over just two years, Anfield Road has reached a variety of milestones. Notably, development began with a safety net for visitors, spectators and players during the construction period. Around four months after the building commenced, Anfield placed Y-shaped columns that formed a space beneath to continue regular sports and events operations.
The columns opened up a safe zone for spectators and players to shelter in during match days, all while the stand's construction continued several stories above. Owing to the robust characteristics of the steel columns, they safeguard the spectators situated beneath against any potential hazards occurring above. This allowed developers to build a new roof for the stand, with plans to remove the old roof heading underway.
The new stand would then go through its official roof truss instalment in May 2022. The stadium erected two steel towers to the foundation. The workers would later install a pair of haunches to support the towers' weights, propping them up alongside the truss.
In a miraculous feat of skill and human ingenuity, a total of 30 engineers took 12 hours to connect the different components and put them in place. A pair of 600-tonne cranes came in to haul and maintain the building's shape. Workers would then use over 25,000 bolts to finally solidify the parts into the structure seen in the present day.
Anfield Road and its towering roof have reached new heights and can be seen all across the United Kingdom. The building's main frame, beams and columns have also been completed. Construction will eventually build on the structure's facade exterior in the following months, likely finishing sometime in the summer before 2023/2024 Premier League season starts.
All good things have to come to an end, and the same unfortunately has to be said for football stadiums too. This article looks at the grounds which are soon to host their last match, the stadiums whose days are numbered and where fans will be watching their football from next.
Taking my son to his first football match was one of the best experiences I've had as a father so far. I've written this article for Alex to read when he gets older.
My daughter's first ever football match - Orlando City v Atlanta United, August 2019. Written for Izzy to read when she gets old enough. Vamos Orlando
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