Why Liverpool FC’s Stadium Delay Is Strange

Liverpool Football Club has paused its Anfield stadium expansion plans for a year. 

The announcement of the decision and reasons given by the Premier League
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leaders means one of two things: Either the soccer season will soon be returning or they’ve gone cold on the idea.

Why? because the construction-related explanations provided by the club do not match with what is happening in the stadium sector. 

The top bullet point on Liverpool’s website announcement said it was “due to the impact coronavirus lockdown delays are having on the construction and build programme.”

Someone should have switched on Good Morning Britain in the past month, because the biggest issue for construction hasn’t been lockdown. 

Problems have centred around most projects continuing work.

A few lockdown challenges have emerged in the past couple of weeks. Building materials shortages did hit jobs, as did the reluctance of some subcontractors to work. 

But these issues are being resolved and most of the sites that did close are now reopening, or have plans to.

Lockdown, if anything, represents an opportunity to fast-track stadium work. Indeed, some clubs have done this. 

Two weeks after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced restrictions on movement, Portsmouth FC decided to take a “calculated risk” and carry out work on its Fratton Park home.

“Even if football does come back in the short-medium term, there is an assumption that it will be some time before supporters will be allowed to congregate in large numbers in stadiums.” said Portsmouth chief executive Mark Catlin.

Liverpool planned to begin construction in late 2020 which, even before coronavirus, was very much part of the regular season, in fact, it’s one of the busiest periods.

Insiders informed me, shortly before lockdown, that the process to choose the company to build the expansion was in its final stages. 

The contract winner expected to be informed days before the national restrictions were imposed. 

All of which begs the question, why delay?

Stadium redevelopment projects, like the one planned at Anfield, are the construction equivalent of keyhole surgery. 

Integrating a new tier of seating above a 136-year-old functioning mass capacity arena is an engineering achievement. 

Work must also take place with minimal disruption to fixtures, which is also no mean feat.

This type of job requires careful and lengthy planning, it is not abandoned lightly.

Of course, the possibility does exist that Liverpool have changed their mind about the whole thing. 

But considering its main stand expansion earned the club an extra $15.14m (£12m) in its first year alone, that seems unlikely. 

The undercurrent of the statement, which rings far truer than claims about “uncertainty in construction” is the hint the clubs expects to play there. 

Or as the statement described it, the “time-sensitive variable” which is the “football calendar.”

The words of LFC chief operating officer Andy Hughes also suggested summer fixtures were on the cards.

He described the “need [for] two clear summer closed season windows in order for [the stadium expansion] to be successful.” 

The delay indicates he’s planning for 2020 to be a summer of disruption.