Ian Ayre, Liverpool’s MD, is an honest and refreshing man with a good commercial pedigree and thus far has proved himself to be the ideal man at the helm of Liverpool FC, thank God that clown Purslow is long gone.
In a candid interview he discussed the proposed new stadium, the former disasterous previous owners Hicks and Gillette and he praised current custodians FSG. On the stadium he said:
“If we’d started building in 2007 we’d be in it by now. It could have been brilliant but we’ve probably set ourselves back several years,” he said.
The new owners of Liverpool, Fenway Sports Group, are currently considering whether to build a 60,000 to 72,000 all-seater stadium in Stanley Park or to redevelop Anfield. Ayres said there could not be a greater difference between the previous regime and the current one.
“There was a great opportunity to maximise the value of the club and they [Hicks and Gillett] were right, it needed a new stadium and new people,” Ayre told the Liverpool Daily Post’s Business Magazine.
“What they got fundamentally wrong was using leveraged finance to run the business and try to develop the business. Without the significant increase in revenues God knows how much of a mess we would have been in.
“What we have now is people who really understand how to own, operate and run a sports business.”
It is reassuring to hear these kind of views expressed by our Managing Director, we are moving in the right direction, at last.
Submitted by Friends of Liverpool
