Liverpool To Build New Stand At Anfield

Liverpool Football Club has received planning permission for the extension of a stand at their Anfield home, which will add 7,000 to the stadium’s capacity.

The £60 million project will see the Anfield Road stand increasing in size with a much larger upper tier than the one currently in place, taking the venue’s overall capacity to 61,000. This would make it the third largest in the Premier League

It means the existing roof would be replaced, which could involve the provision of new corrugated roofing sheets.

As the stand will, like most modern stadium structures, feature a cantilevered structure, the roof will need to be light in weight. This enables it to be supported from the rear and not need to be held up by posts at the front, something that can obstruct the view in the older grounds where such structures still exist.

Modern roofs also contain a lot of perspex sheeting to allow natural light through to the pitch to help the grass keep growing in the winter months and maintain the quality of the pitch.

The use of cantilevered roofs at British sports stadiums began later than in some other countries, with the first of them being a small stand at Scunthorpe United’s Old Show Ground in 1958, a venue the club left 30 years later. The first large stand of this kind was finished at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough Stadium in 1961.

Many more cantilevered stands followed, including the old Kemlyn Road stand at Anfield, with the gradual transformation of the ground to an all-seater venue - although the club now wants to install rail seating that can be converted to standing – being complemented by new stands and roofs.

The Anfield Road end stands at the opposite end of the stadium to the famous Kop, which was once one of the most famous terraces in the world.  

Anfield is not the only major sporting venue in the north of England to gain planning permission for a new stand in recent days.

Lancashire County Cricket Club’s Old Trafford ground is to see an increased capacity and an extension to its existing hotel as part of the venue’s redevelopment.

The newly-approved plan replaces a previous scheme to construct a larger new stand without expanding the hotel.