Liverpool have been in dialogue with the mayor’s office about how to improve transport links.
CEO Billy Hogan says discussions have been held over how to improve transport to Anfield for match days and concerts.
The redevelopment of the Anfield Road End is set to be completed and open to fans in January, with the £80m project having been hit with delays due to the collapse of former construction partners Buckingham Group into administration back in September.
The completed redevelopment will see capacity at Anfield increased by a further 7,000 seats, helping to better satisfy demand for tickets in taking the capacity up to 61,000.
With the Main Stand having undergone a major revamp in 2016 at a cost of £120m, where an additional 8,500 seats were add, the capacity of Anfield has increased by 34% in the past seven years.
With more fans than ever coming to Anfield, improving connectivity between the city and the stadium is very much on the agenda for the club.
Speaking as part of a panel at the University of Red’s Vice-Chancellor’s Conference at the Liverpool Maritime Museum on the city’s economy on Tuesday, Hogan said, via Business Live:
“Nothing’s a quick or easy win that relates to transport.
“We’ve talked to the mayor and his team about how we improve that connectivity.”
Hogan said the ‘ability to jump on transport’ was vital to a venue like Anfield, and that improved transport would be ‘super important’ on match and concert days, but would also help the wider community in Anfield all week long.
Also speaking at the event Stephen Jones, director at thinktank Core Cities UK, said:
“There are some big public transport things that are hard, like train or metro.”
But he said there are smaller things that could be done more quickly to connect Liverpool’s stadiums to the city centre such as improving walking routes to make them more welcoming.
Earlier this month, in an interview with BBC Radio Merseyside, Liverpool City Region’s metro mayor, Steve Rotheram said that the collaborative nature of the devolved local authority means that the mothballed plan for a tram network could be reintroduced to service the stadiums of Everton and Liverpool.
With more fans heading to Anfield both in and out of the football season, improving connectivity is a priority.
