Liverpool FC: New stadium back on the agenda for Hicks and Gillett

The delay on building work starting on Liverpool's new stadium - which the club had previously suggested would be put back for a number of years - is likely to be significantly shortened by the belief of the club's American owners that it can secure as much as US$400 million from a naming rights sale.

Tom Hicks and George Gillett promised on taking over the club that work on a new stadium would begin shortly, but the club said earlier this year that a start was not imminent. "Construction on the stadium will begin when the current contraction in the banking industry ends and the global financial markets re-establish their equilibrium," said the club's managing director, Christian Purslow, in September.

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However, buoyed by a number of significant sponsorship deals secured under Purslow's management, Gillett and Hicks are now reported to be confident that a naming rights sale could secure more than half the cost of building the new stadium. 'The American financial services giant paid $20m (£12m) a year over 20 years to have a new stadium, Citi Field, opened by the Mets early in 2009,' reported The Times newspaper. 'Liverpool believe they can outstrip that.'

"Naming rights are a global market," Hicks told the newspaper. "We likely will partner with someone wanting global branding, unlike the US stadiums, which only worry about TV appeal in the States, similar to why Standard Chartered chose to partner with us on our shirts."

Standard Chartered's deal with Liverpool was secured thanks, in large part, to the club's large following in Asia. "From a Standard Chartered perspective, Asia is our home," senior group brand manager Nicola Apostolis told Asia Sponsorship News in September. "We opened our first branches in 1858 in Shanghai and Mumbai; and in Hong Kong and Singapore in 1859. Today, 80 per cent of our business is done in Asia."

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"The Liverpool sponsorship is a perfect match in terms of geographic footprint, as the club has a huge following in many of our markets, particularly across Asia," he added.

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