Stanley Park Stadium: Liverpool's Anfield alternative plans assessed 15 years on

Liverpool Football Club have played their home games at Anfield Stadium since September 9, 1893.

The stadium just a stones throw from Stanley Park has grown in reputation over the years, to a point where it’s now one of the most iconic in all of world football.

The success it has played host to is near unrivalled and the connection between the arena and its devout fan base is stuff of legend.

Many Kopites see the structure as a church more than a football stadium.

Which makes it even more confusing as to why Liverpool’s previous owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, were so hell bent on taking the Reds to a whole new home within Stanley Park itself.

The idea was to invest £300 million in a 60,000 seater arena. Initial plans were submitted in 2007 with an expected completion date of 2010.

The key selling point to Liverpool fans was the prospect of extending the stadium further once it was built to seat 75,000 spectators.

An 18,000 seat single-tier Kop was also promised so supporters could feel like they were at least keeping some of their heritage in-tact.

Well, as all Liverpool fans will know, the Hicks and Gillette era was a time full of empty promises and unbacked statements.

After Gillette initially said “the spade had to be in the ground within the first 60 days,” unsurprisingly, that didn’t happen and after an abundance of different excuses that in reality all stemmed from a lack of funding, the plans were shelved for another time.

Check out how Liverpool’s home stadium could be looking right now if Hicks and Gillette had in fact managed to pull off their grand scheme.

It's been 15 years to the day since Liverpool announced plans to leave Anfield for this