As I said, it was just the situation Liverpool found themselves in. The circumstances meant that the best solution was to redevelop Anfield. Had we been in London then maybe it would have made more sense to pay £1bn and build a new stadium.
Re Arsenal, the stadium move is an excuse for your decline, not a reason. Increased matchday revenue more than paid for the finance costs of building the stadium and Arsenal have sat on a mountain of cash in the bank for years. I remember reading something a few years back that Arsenal had profited (not just sales revenue) by near £100m from property sales and iinm Arsenal still have an undeveloped plot on the books too. The only negative, from a financial pov, linked to the stadium move was locking yourself into a long deal with Emirates but that was more than made up for by the increase in matchday revenue.
I've speculated before that it's possible that Arsenal's lack of spending is more likely linked to what Kroenke's doing in the US.
