Liverpool will make more money from corporate boxes than from regular supporters when it eventually moves into a new 60,000-seater stadium in Stanley Park, the club's commercial director said Tuesday.

Ian Ayre said the club estimated that more than 50 percent of game-day income would come from the sale of seats in corporate boxes. The new stadium will increase corporate seating from 3,000 at the club's present home, Anfield, to 10,000 at Stanley Park. Liverpool has 40,000 season-ticket holders, with a waiting list of a further 65,000.

"The new stadium is clearly a business opportunity," said Ayre at a seminar on stadium commercial opportunities at the Soccerex '08 conference and exhibition in Johannesburg, South Africa. "But," he added with a reportedly straight face, "it will be important to maintain the integrity of the Liverpool brand and fan experience at Anfield."

Ayre defended the club's decision to delay the new stadium's construction until the global credit crunch eases. "It's been a strange period but our decision to delay construction was certainly the right one," he said. "We have since seen the costs come down." He did not mention if the cost of reclining padded seats and prawn sandwiches had also come down.

 

 

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