Featured Article Summary #237

Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, England, and it has been home to Liverpool FC since the club formed in 1892. The stadium can seat 61,276 people and is the fifth-largest football ground in England. It was originally Everton’s home from 1884 to 1891, until they moved to Goodison Park after a dispute with Liverpool’s club president. Anfield has four stands, including the Spion Kop and the Main Stand, and its record attendance of 61,905 was set in 1952. The stadium became all-seated in 1994, and it features gates and statues honoring Liverpool managers Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. After plans to expand instead of relocating, Liverpool opened major redevelopment work in 2016, with further Anfield Road Stand updates in 2024 that brought capacity back to over 61,000. Anfield takes its name from the surrounding area, which has been linked to the name “field on a slope” since at least 1642. Opened in 1884 for Everton, the ground later became Liverpool’s in 1892 after a dispute led Everton to move to Goodison Park, and Liverpool built up the stadium with new stands including the Spion Kop in 1906. Major changes followed over the years, such as floodlights in 1957, redevelopment in the 1970s, and converting stands to all-seating after the Taylor Report, reducing capacity to 12,390 after the Kop was rebuilt in 1994. The stadium has also gained memorials and tributes, including statues of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley and a Hillsborough memorial with an eternal flame, and new redevelopment work continued into the late 1990s and 2020. Anfield has 60,725 seats across four stands: the Anfield Road End, Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand, the Kop, and the Main Stand, with different numbers of tiers (two, two, one, and three respectively). Entry uses RFID smart cards across all 80 turnstiles. The Kop is the famous single-tier stand where Liverpool’s most vocal supporters gather, while the Main Stand is the oldest, completed in 2016 with key areas like the players’ tunnel and managers’ technical area at pitch level. The Sir Kenny Dalglish Stand is two-tiered and includes directors’ boxes, plus the ground’s police station. The Anfield Road End holds away fans, has been rebuilt and expanded over time, and was further extended in 2024 to add 7,000 seats. There are wheelchair and visually impaired facilities across several stands, including spaces for personal assistants and full commentary via headset, and the stadium also features tributes such as the Paisley Gateway and the Shankly Gates. Liverpool first planned to replace Anfield in 2002, originally proposing a 55,000-seat stadium that was later adjusted to 61,000, with planning permission granted in 2004 and a long lease agreed in 2006. After new owners took over in 2007, the design was revised and construction was expected to start in 2008 on a new Stanley Park Stadium that would have opened around 2011, ending the Anfield site as it stood. The project stalled after the 2008 financial crisis and financing problems, and the plan was ultimately cancelled by Fenway Sports Group, which preferred redeveloping Anfield instead. After Fenway Sports Group bought Liverpool in 2010, people wondered if the club would move away from Anfield. John W. Henry said he wanted to stay and expand, praising the “Kop” atmosphere, and the council later announced plans to regenerate the area with a £25m grant. Anfield was listed as an Asset of Community Value in 2013, and after the council and housing plans were agreed, Liverpool signed redevelopment agreements in 2014 for a project worth about £260 million.