Liverpool FC could lose right to build stadium on Stanley Park

Basic preparatory works for the new Stanley Park ground started some weeks ago, but the council and LFC are yet to sign an agreed 999-year lease on the park.

"I would not want the council to sign the lease until such a time as we know that Liverpool FC can deliver it 150%," said Cllr Bradley last night.

"I have always had my reservations about their ability to raise the funds.

"I just wish they would sort themselves out, the Anfield and Breckfield areas have waited too long for this."

The Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) is also to demand a meeting with Kop Holdings, the Gillett and Hicks company which owns LFC, within two weeks over £9m the agency had previously agreed to give to the club.

The Daily Post understands the American co-owners "spoke to any bank that would listen" to raise the loan for the stadium but were turned away because they refused to put up 25% of the cost themselves, around £100m.

The £350m the Americans borrowed when they re-financed the debt taken out when they bought LFC is also "looming large in their minds" as the deal expires in January and can only be extended for an additional six months, if banks Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia agree.

One of the main drivers behind a new stadium is to increase Liverpool FC's revenues to help the club better compete on the pitch.

Last night Dr Rogan Taylor, who heads Liverpool University's Football Research Unit, said that because of the greater capacities at their stadiums, Manchester United and Arsenal were currently bringing in £50m a year more than Liverpool by playing in a larger ground.

Meanwhile, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed still remains keen to buy the club, though is now operating in a more personal capacity rather than through his investment arm, Dubai International Capital.

Sources close to Dubai said the money to build the stadium is there, but the Sheikh is starting to lose patience as costs are rising on the ground while the ownership saga drags on.

Last night, Liverpool Football Club insisted the commitment to build a world-class stadium was undiminished.

"Like many other major development projects in the UK and overseas we are affected by global market conditions and, as such, work on the project will be delayed in the short term," said a spokesman. "We will use this period productively and revisit the plans for the stadium to increase its capacity to 73,000 seats."

But a source said the delay would be "at least a year" and possibly much longer.

Putting aside the financial issues, the club will have to re-submit a fourth planning application to increase capacity from the already approved 60,000 plan to 73,000. As part of that process, Liverpool FC will have to submit a transport plan and an environmental study.

The headache for the club will be explaining how 73,000 fans can get safely to the venue.

Talks have previously taken place about re-opening the Bootle line to passenger trains and it is likely a new station to handle the additional fans would form part of a new transport plan.

Dr Taylor, who also founded the fans' group ShareLiverpoolFC, who want to take the club into community ownership, hit out saying: "This has not come as a surprise. The Americans did not have any money for the stadium."

Liverpool Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle also condemned the latest delay. "I don't have a great deal of confidence in the American owners, I never have done.

"The real losers are the people of Anfield who have been waiting patiently for this to happen for years."

On Thursday night, the Daily Post contacted the club for confirmation or denial of rumours that the stadium was delayed but was told everything was proceeding to plan.

It is understood Gillett and Hicks had planned to make the announcement at the beginning of September but with the surfacing of speculation were forced to make it on the club's website yesterday morning.

Last night Steven Broomhead, NWDA chief executive, said: "Today's confirmation that the construction of Liverpool Football Club's stadium will be subject to delay is very disappointing news, particularly because of the potential impact this will have on the regeneration of North Liverpool. As such, we are very keen to meet with the club to assess the implications of this decision and understand their future plans.

"The agency's board will consider our proposed financial support in light of our discussions with the club."

Daily Post business editor Bill Gleeson predicts neither Liverpool nor Everton will be playing in a new football stadium for a generation

"NEVER" is a big word, but it is extremely unlikely that Liverpool Football Club will build a new stadium at Stanley Park or anywhere else for many years to come.

It doesn't take an expert at reading between the lines to interpret the club's statement yesterday that it was "delaying" a decision about a new ground to mean that, in reality, the project is dead.

Liverpool trawled its way around every bank in the world but none of them were prepared to stump up the necessary £300m in loans needed to make the project happen.

The word is that some banks would have contributed to the construction costs if the club's American owners were agreeable to chipping in some significant cash of their own, which they weren't. So what's likely to change by this time next year or even the year after? The blunt answer is nothing. Owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks will still be at loggerheads and the banks will still be very wary about who they lend money to and on what terms.

It's the second bit of bad news about football grounds to hit Merseyside in the past few weeks. Everton has been told their Kirkby stadium planning application will be called in for a public enquiry to take place later this year.

But for both clubs, tight credit conditions and onerous planning laws may in the end serve only as handy excuses for their failure to rehouse themselves in the sort of grounds a modern Premier League team needs.

A combination of squabbling, haggling, dithering, and bureaucratic regulations mean neither will be in a position to build a new ground for at least a generation.

It has always been expensive to build football stadia, particularly a big one. Everton tried to build what would have been a fabulous new home at Kings Dock six years ago, but couldn't raise the £30m they were required to contribute to the £160m venue. Now the club is talking about another bargain deal with Knowsley and Tesco for a new ground at Kirkby, but Everton's share of the costs of the project is close to £80m. Where will that cash come from?

When Liverpool first started talking about a new ground at Stanley Park eight years ago, the price tag was just £80m. Since then costs, particularly steel, have risen sharply. The latest figure for the cost of building at Stanley Park ground is £350m.

The fear has to be that the window of opportunity for building any new football ground has passed. Even if Everton and Liverpool agree to share the costs of building a single shared stadium it's questionable that they could find sufficient resources between them to complete the project.

While the clubs have hummed and hawed, redrawn their plans, haggled with public authorities over grants, the Chinese have got on with building their country, whether that be skyscrapers in Shanghai, rapid rail connections, new airports or Olympic venues. In this era of global markets, the Chinese have moved with alacrity, pushing up the price of steel and making the ambitions of our clubs unviable.

It is a pity for both teams. They needed their new venues. The revenues from larger grounds would generate the cash essential in the drive to match the spending of rivals.

Implicit in yesterday's statement is an admission that the the search for a big brand to pay huge bucks for the Stanley Park stadium naming rights has failed. This is no surprise, given the tough economic conditions at present. And if Liverpool can't find a naming rights sponsor, then the likelihood Everton can is also pretty thin, a fact which adds to the sense that their plans for Kirkby are unrealistic.

The only hope is that the owners of both clubs show tenacity and seek out new investors. For Liverpool, this could mean selling the club to the Dubai royal family, while for Everton, there are persistent rumours that retail entrepreneur Philip Green is lurking in the background.

With banks refusing to back football, fresh cash investment by club owners is the only way new grounds will be built.