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.

What were the stadium plans?

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.

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Why didn't it happen?

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.

Images: Stanley Park Stadium

It looks pretty high-tech, you've got to give them that at the bare minimum.

Aside from that, though, we just can't get behind the idea at all.

Anfield is part of Liverpool's identity and, as FSG are proving right now, the original stadium can be extended.

Current redevelopments on the Anfield Road End are set to enhance the stadium's capacity by another 7,000 seats, taking the total for the stadium up to 61,000 in time for the 2023/2024 Premier League season.

And whilst, sure, that won't make it the biggest arena in the country, there's certainly something to be said for keeping stadium designs more compact in order to maximise the potential atmosphere on match days.

Not to mention maintaining that iconic connection between Anfield and its resident.

All we're saying is, thank god we still get to see Liverpool walk out at Anfield on a European night rather than 'Stanley Park Stadium'...