Football
Glenn Price, Liverpool correspondent 7y

Liverpool make 70 changes to Anfield over summer break

Liverpool have used the summer break to make over 70 improvements to Anfield ahead of the start of the 2017-18 season.

Over the summer, Liverpool have installed a new pitch, expanded the Kop stand and will soon open up a bigger retail store.

The construction work in and around the stadium is nearly complete, with Liverpool playing their first home game of the season on Aug. 19 against Crystal Palace.

Sources told ESPN FC in June that Liverpool had invested around £2 million in replacing Anfield's pitch for the first time in well over a decade.

Manager Jurgen Klopp and his predecessor Brendan Rodgers had both complained about the quality of the playing surface.

"The pitch has been completely redeveloped," Liverpool's operations director, Andy Parkinson, said. "The last time that was done was in 1999.

"The players will notice a difference. What you will find is that the first match of the season it will probably compare to the first game of the season last year.

"But it's when you get into the winter months when the pitch, by definition starts to deteriorate that you will notice the difference then. The pitch will be consistent all the time.

"If you remember the last couple of years we've had challenges with some of the corner areas starting to go, but that won't be the case now.

"It will be at its best, I would say, from mid-September and obviously it's so important to the manager. The ball will zip across the surface."

Meanwhile, after Liverpool were one of the Premier League clubs criticised in disabled access compliance report, the Reds say they have now increased the number of wheelchair bays from 195 to "more than 250 positions," also adding over 150 "extra amenity and easy access seats."

To make up for the loss of seating inside the ground, 470 seats have been created in the back of the Kop.

"It wasn't an easy feat but we have managed it," Parkinson added.

Liverpool have built a new retail store, which will be more than twice the size of the current one and should be open for the Palace game.

Parkinson said: "We hope we still have queues, but nothing like the ones we had previously so the fan experience will be much better."

The club have also filled in one of the corners between the Kop and the recently expanded Main Stand to stop the fierce wind blowing on supporters, which then leads to overcrowding in the concourse.

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