Hicks wants affordable Liverpool ticket prices

Liverpool's new co-owner Tom Hicks has promised he will not price supporters out of the club's planned new stadium, and believes the increased capacity will enable the Reds to offer a 'broader menu' of ticket prices.

Hicks' family and that of co-owner George Gillett plan to hold talks with Reds boss Rafael Benitez after the club's next match against Arsenal and have promised to help make them a 'dominant' force in the domestic game again.

Increased revenue from the new ground - planned to be built in Stanley Park - would contribute to the Reds' spending power in the transfer market but Hicks insists supporters will not be priced out at the turnstiles.

'As you get into the technology of building a stadium, one of the things you do is have a broader menu of pricing,' Hicks said.

'You have cheaper seats for people that would be attracted to that and so there's a way that they can afford to go.

'And you have special seats and special amenities for people who are able to pay for that. But there won't be a bad seat in the house.'

The new owners have ordered a review of any improvements that could possibly be made to the planned stadium before work gets under way.

'We want to maintain the essential approval but we would like to find ways to improve what has been planned, because it was planned mostly seven years ago and a lot has changed in that seven years,' Hicks added.

'We go through that process to make things better for the fans. There will be some tweaks but I can't really talk about them.

'Our goal is to make Liverpool's the finest football stadium of all.'

Hicks clearly sees Liverpool as a solid investment, with the new stadium, lucrative new television contract and the popularity of the Premier League in Asia all indicative of a bright future, and he sees Benitez and chief executive Rick Parry as key to that progress.

'Our job as owners is to create the right balance of generating as much revenue as the fans want to pay, the sponsors want to pay, the media companies want to pay and giving as much of it to the players as you have to to have a business that can go forward as a business,' he said.

'The key is to have a smart manager like Rafa who will take a long-term view of how we can get better. I know enough from talking to him now that he doesn't want to do what you just described, he wants to build for the long term.

'I'm not saying we won't spend for transfers, that may be what we do. But it's got to be in the context of a plan that makes Liverpool competitive every year for a long time.

'We have budgeted a big number, I'm not going to tell you what it is because it's part of Rafa's plan, but the new stadium is very important to that because with the higher revenues Liverpool have we will be able to compete with anybody.'

Benitez felt it necessary yesterday to dismiss speculation linking him with a return to Spain to manage Real Madrid and reiterated his desire to stay at Liverpool.