Liverpool
Anfield
The Ground
Walking up to the ground
alongside Stanley Park, I have to say, that from a distance, Anfield
is not particularly impressive. Inside though, the ground is
wonderful and only the most critical of visitors would find fault with it. The famous Kop Terrace at one end
of the ground, has been replaced by a huge stand designed to emulate
the old Kop, hence it's odd shape (kind of semi circular) and single
large tier. The other end, the Anfield Road Stand, part of which is
given to away supporters, is the most recent addition to the ground.
It has boosted not only the overall capacity of the stadium, but has given Anfield
a more balanced and enclosed feel as all corners are now
filled. On one side of the stadium is the large, two tiered,
Centenary Stand, where the front tier leg room is the tightest I
have ever known. Opposite is the Main Stand, the oldest in the
ground and looking its age with a number of supporting pillars. This
stand has a TV gantry suspended beneath its roof.
In the corner between the Kop & Centenary stands is an electric
scoreboard, which surprise, surprise, shows the match score in
bright red letters.
Around the outside of the
ground, there are the Bill Shankly Gates on Anfield Road. These
wrought iron gates have the legendary Liverpool phrase 'You'll Never
Walk Alone' displayed above them. There is also a statue of the
great man, Bill Shankly near the Club shop. Also along Anfield Road,
there is the moving memorial to the victims of the Hillsborough
disaster, which always has flowers adorning it.
Future Developments
The Club have received planning permission to build a new
60,000 all seated stadium, to be located in nearby Stanley Park. It
was hoped that preliminary work would commence on building the new
stadium during 2008, but this has now been postponed by the Club. It
is now unclear whether the scheme will in fact go ahead. If it does
then the soonest now that Liverpool could move to the new stadium
would be for the start of the 2011/12 season. It is intended that
the stadium will feature an 18,000 capacity, single tier kop stand.
Images of its futuristic design can be found on the BBC Liverpool
website. |
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