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Liverpool's new main stand at Anfield will be an ‘awesome sight’ once completed in less than two years time, club Chief Executive Ian Ayre declared this afternoon.

The Reds have confirmed work on the near 21,000 seater stand begins at dawn on Monday morning - just four years after American owners the Fenway Sports Group rescued the Reds from the brink of administration after a historic High Court battle.

Bulldozers and JCBs will move onto the site that morning to begin the demolition and preparation work. Liverpool intend to have it all finished and the new stand open in time for the start of 2016/17 season.

The current Main Stand will remain open for the rest of this season and next while the giant new structure emerges behind and eventually above it, then enveloping it and adding two more tiers above.

Naming rights for the giant new stand are likely to be sold to generate more revenue to drive the club forward, confirmed Ayre.

The news comes more than 14 years after Liverpool first announced plans to move out of Anfield – and almost eight years after deposed American co-owner George Gillett famously declared that he and Tom Hicks would have ‘a spade in the ground within sixty days’.

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With planning consent granted this autumn and other legal procedures now finally completed, work can and will now get underway without delay, say the Reds.

Ayre told there ECHO in an exclusive interview today: ‘We’ve pressed the go button.

“Never mind a spade being in the ground in 60 days, we’ll have one in there within six days now.”

He described the news as ‘massive’ for Liverpool Football Club as it bids to up its capacity to just short of 60,00 over time, with the new stand adding an extra 8,500 seats to begin with. That takes Anfield’s capacity to 54,000 plus.

Further plans to rebuild or extend the Anfield Road stand are being considered and progressed but no decisions on that potential second phase have yet been taken and only outline – or in-principle - planning permission for that exists.

Tom Werner, Chairman, Liverpool Football Club, added: “Since Fenway Sports Group took ownership of the Club, we were committed to explore in depth all options for the future of Anfield Stadium. We listened to fans, the community, partners, the Supporters’ Committee and key stakeholders involved in the Club.

Read all our Anfield stadium redevelopment stories by clicking here

“It was just over two years ago that we said our preference was to stay at Anfield and here we are today announcing that the expansion is going ahead. We have made more progress in the past two years than in the last decade.

“Having experience of expanding Fenway Park and being through a similar and very successful project for the Red Sox, everyone at FSG is extremely proud and excited to be part of expanding Anfield Stadium.”

Ayre today stressed his thanks to co-partners Liverpool City Council and the Your Housing Group, as well as others involved with the club, in the redevelopment of the stadium as part of a wider regeneration project for the whole Anfield area.

And he paid particular tribute to residents and businesses, thanking them for their patience and support over years of false dawns and difficult issues for them.

Hundreds of new homes are now being built and other major improvements made to what is one of the most neglected areas of the city.

John Thompson on new Anfield

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Said Ayre: “There is no false dawn here. It’s a very exciting day for the club.

“The new stand will certainly be a sight to be in awe of. It’s absolutely massive.

“I know from our offices in the City Centre you can see the top of the Centenary Stand currently so you’ll certainly be able to see this from the city.

“And that’s not a bad thing.

“I think having one of the most important venues in the city visible from the City centre will be good - and it will nice to be able to look at it every day.”

He added: “People often understandably focus on this ten to 15 year saga that the club has been through with lots of false dawns.

“I think it’s great testament to the owners - and everyone involved really - that we’ve achieved this objective really only within a couple of years."

We'll fill new Anfield says Ayre

Liverpool expect to have no problem filling a bigger capacity Anfield – with thousands of fans having been on a waiting list for season tickets for many years now.

Said Ian Ayre: “It’s interesting.

“We’re very fortunate in that we get fantastic uptake for tickets for our games across the board and we have a huge demand and a huge over-demand currently.

“We’ve picked these phases and these capacities based on what we think is the right number for Liverpool.

“We learned a long time ago that we have a fantastic support and we enjoy full houses a lot of the time.

“But our ticketing team have really good intelligence and work quite hard to set the right price points around the different types of fixtures. So when we have a Capital one Cup fixture on a cold and windy October night or so, we set the prices accordingly.

“And they are much lower than perhaps our bigger Premier League games.

“We do that so we attract people at the right price to fill the stadium.

“I think that is the right way to go because one thing people associate with Liverpool and Anfield is full houses and a great atmosphere.

“It is about that collaboration; about getting the pricing right and the capacity right and therefore getting the atmosphere and the full rate right."