Concerns among those in day-to-day control at Liverpool about the club's
American co-owners' ability to deliver a new stadium were compounded
yesterday when Tom Hicks announced that plans for a multi-million dollar
stadium development in Dallas were being ditched because of the credit
crunch.
Hicks quickly moved to state that the abandonment of his £500m "Glorypark"
development in Dallas, which had been due to open in March 2010, had no
relevance to Liverpool's Stanley Park stadium development. He said the
Dallas decision was also taken because of the developer's inability to
anchor retail clients on the development – a significant part of the
finance. But with still no evidence of the finance which Hicks has been
attempting to raise through merchant bankers in London and New York, his
reference to the crunch was a source of concern on Merseyside, where the
stadium is key to Liverpool's development plan and of considerably more
concern to Anfield's non-American hierarchy than funds for players.
Hicks said the credit crunch was "the most difficult... I've seen in the
last 20 years" and that the development adjacent to the Texas Rangers
Ballpark in Arlington, and close to the Dallas Cowboys' new £500m stadium,
had been put on hold because of "extreme conditions" in the country's
financial and retail markets. Hicks owns the Rangers baseball club. The
revelation comes just a week after a Dallas hotel project in which he is
also involved was delayed and will give more hope to prospective buyers of
Liverpool, Dubai International Capital, who have long believed that Hicks
and George Gillett do not have the means to develop the club.
Several sources suggest that Hicks' pursuit of finance in London and New
york has been set back yet further by his public falling out with co-owner
Gillett. Hicks said yesterday: "The stadium plans for Liverpool remain on
track for completion in time for the 2011 season.
"Site work starts in September and the actual construction by late October/
early November. We remain confident re our funding arrangements for the
stadium."
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