In a flash poll held last today on this website, an average of 66% of 1250 voters expressed the desire that FSG should opt to redevelop Anfield rather than go for a new stadium at Stanley Park as had been initially planned under the dreaded H&G era.
While I am sure that the poll was conditioned by more of an emotional rather than rationale way of thinking, many of the comments from either train of thought were very linear with each other and both made strong arguments even though most were without substantial evidence of what they were expressing.
The majority of voters took the redevelopment route, and the main argument here was that they wanted the Anfield legacy to continue and felt that loosing this heritage would be too costly from an emotional standpoint, and that a new stadium at Stanley Park would not have the same feel about it. On the other hand those asking to do away with the past and go for a new build feel that this would be the best way forward, both in terms of stadium capacity as well as from a financial perspective.
While those wanting a redeveloped Anfield mostly claimed that an increase to 60,000 in spectator capacity would be more than enough, those wanting a new stadium pushed this limit up to 70,000 even 80,000 capacity. Both sides failed to quote any figures as far as costs are concerned. While the conservative ignored the financial aspect, those with a progressive though claim that a new stadium would be cheaper to construct than a refurbished Anfield, however they failed to come up with any form of figure to substantiate this claim.
I feel that the final obstacle on which option will be taken will be the City of Liverpool. A redevelopment project would be a totally different scenario from what was approved under the H&G regime. FSG need to come up with some very convincing arguments to get the City to approve their plans, should their conclusions point to confirm that redevelopment is the way forward.