Anfield vs Hill Dickinson Stadium compared

Two very different stadiums, 1.5 miles apart

Liverpool’s two Premier League clubs now play in stadiums that couldn’t be more different in character despite sitting close together geographically. Anfield is a 132-year-old ground shaped by decades of incremental expansion, sitting in a residential pocket of north Liverpool. The Hill Dickinson Stadium is a purpose-built, single-phase construction that opened for the 2025-26 season on a regenerated dock basin, built from scratch rather than adapted. If you only have time to visit one, the right choice depends heavily on what you’re actually after — history and atmosphere, or modern design and waterfront setting.

Capacity and scale

Anfield holds around 61,000 following the 2023-2025 Anfield Road End rebuild, making it comfortably the larger of the two grounds and one of the biggest in English football outside Old Trafford and the London “big six” grounds. The Hill Dickinson Stadium holds around 52,888 — still a significant capacity, notably larger than Goodison Park’s old roughly 39,000, but around 8,000 seats short of Anfield’s current size.

History and pedigree

This is where Anfield wins decisively for most visitors. Six European Cups, multiple League titles, the 2005 Istanbul comeback, the Shankly and Klopp eras, and a stadium that’s hosted top-level football since 1884 give Anfield a weight of history the new Everton ground simply hasn’t had time to build yet. That’s not a knock on Everton, whose own history stretches back to 1878 and includes genuine trophy success through the mid-20th century — but that history lives at Goodison Park (see our Goodison Park legacy guide), not yet at the new stadium, which is still writing its own story from scratch.

Atmosphere

Anfield’s reputation for atmosphere, particularly the Kop end and pre-kick-off renditions of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, is well established and part of why it regularly ranks among the most atmospheric grounds in world football, not just English football. The Hill Dickinson Stadium’s atmosphere is still developing — modern stadiums with more generous concourses and better sightlines sometimes trade some of the closeness and noise density that older, tighter grounds like Goodison Park (and Anfield) are known for. Early reports from the 2025-26 season have been positive but it’s genuinely too soon to make a definitive comparison; give it a few more seasons before treating any verdict here as settled.

Stadium tours compared

Both offer structured non-match-day tours covering the tunnel, changing rooms and pitch-side access. The Anfield stadium and museum tour benefits from an established route and a museum built up over years, covered fully in our Anfield stadium tour guide and LFC Museum guide. The Hill Dickinson tour, by contrast, leans on the story of the build itself — the docks regeneration, the engineering of a stadium built partly over water — alongside Everton’s history, detailed in our Everton Hill Dickinson Stadium guide.

Setting and views

Anfield sits in a tight residential area with limited surrounding views — Stanley Park separates it from Goodison Park’s old site, but there’s no dramatic backdrop to the ground itself. The Hill Dickinson Stadium’s dockside setting is the clear differentiator: approaching along the waterfront gives views back toward the Royal Albert Dock, Pier Head and the Three Graces that no other Premier League ground in the country can match. For photography alone, the new stadium has the edge.

Transport and getting there

Anfield benefits from decades of established transport infrastructure — the Soccerbus from Sandhills, bus routes 26 and 27, and well-understood matchday parking patterns, all covered in our getting to Anfield guide. The Hill Dickinson Stadium’s transport links are still maturing; shuttle services and bus provision have been adjusted more than once since the 2025-26 season opened, so check current guidance close to your visit date rather than relying on opening-season information.

Pre-match food and drink

Anfield has a long-established pub scene within walking distance — The Sandon, The Park and Arkles are all covered in our pre-match pubs at Anfield guide — built up over decades of matchday trade. The area around Bramley-Moore Dock is still developing this kind of infrastructure; most visitors currently plan food and drink in the city centre before heading up to the new ground rather than expecting a dense pre-match pub cluster right outside.

Tickets and access

Both clubs’ general sale allocations skew toward season ticket holders and members with purchase history, meaning visiting fans without existing club ties typically go through hospitality packages at either ground. See our Liverpool football tickets guide for the fuller breakdown of routes and pricing bands, most of which apply in similar form to Everton fixtures at the Hill Dickinson Stadium .

Doing both in one trip

Given the roughly 1.5-mile distance, visiting both in a single day is realistic for anyone building a football-focused Liverpool trip. The Liverpool football stadiums e-bike tour is designed exactly for this, linking Anfield, the former Goodison Park site and the new stadium with guided commentary on how the city’s football geography has changed since 2025. If you’d rather plan it independently, allow half a day minimum — tours, travel between the two sites, and any time exploring Stanley Park in between add up faster than the direct distance suggests.

Which to prioritise if you can only pick one

If you’re a neutral visitor with limited time and want the single most historically significant, atmospheric football experience in the city, Anfield remains the stronger choice — it’s the more internationally recognised name, has the deeper trophy history, and the tour infrastructure is more polished after years of operation. If you’re specifically drawn to modern stadium architecture, waterfront settings, or want to see what a fresh multi-hundred-million-pound stadium project looks like from the inside, the Hill Dickinson Stadium is the more novel experience. LFC fans and Evertonians, naturally, will already know which one they’re heading to — this comparison is really aimed at neutral visitors deciding where to spend limited time. Either way, our Merseyside derby guide is worth reading for the fuller context on why this rivalry runs as deep as it does across both sides of Stanley Park.

Architecture and design philosophy compared

Anfield’s current form is the product of piecemeal expansion across more than a century — the Kop, Main Stand, Kenny Dalglish Stand and the more recently rebuilt Anfield Road End were each built or redeveloped in different eras with different design languages, giving the ground a slightly patchwork character up close even as the whole reads as a coherent, famous stadium from a distance. The Hill Dickinson Stadium, by contrast, was designed and built as a single coherent project, with a consistent modern design vocabulary throughout and none of the stitched-together feel that comes from decades of incremental redevelopment. Some visitors find Anfield’s patchwork history part of its charm; others find the Hill Dickinson Stadium’s architectural consistency more visually satisfying. Neither is objectively better — they represent genuinely different eras of stadium design philosophy.

Sightlines and seating comfort

Because the Hill Dickinson Stadium was built from scratch with modern engineering standards, seating and sightlines are more consistently good throughout the ground than at Anfield, where some older sections carry restricted-view compromises inherited from a much earlier design era. If seat comfort and unobstructed views matter more to you than historical weight, this is a genuine practical point in the new stadium’s favour, particularly for older visitors or anyone with mobility considerations who might find the newer ground’s more generous concourses and modern facilities meaningfully easier to navigate.

Noise and acoustics

Stadium engineers and acousticians who’ve studied Anfield’s Kop have pointed to specific factors — the stand’s steep rake, its relatively enclosed roof structure, and generations of ingrained matchday singing culture — as contributing to its famous noise levels beyond just crowd size. Whether the Hill Dickinson Stadium’s more modern, open design will ever generate a comparable acoustic effect is genuinely unknown this early in its life; some new stadiums elsewhere in football have managed to build strong atmospheres despite more open designs, others have struggled. This is one of the more interesting open questions for anyone tracking how Everton’s new home develops over its first several seasons.

Cost of a visit, roughly compared

Stadium tour pricing at both grounds sits in a broadly comparable range, so cost isn’t a major differentiator when choosing between them for a tour visit. Match ticket access differs more meaningfully — Liverpool’s global profile and recent trophy success generally push hospitality and resale pricing at Anfield higher than the equivalent product at Everton’s ground, particularly for marquee fixtures, though both remain expensive relative to a standard European football ticket by international standards.

The verdict for different types of visitor

Beatles-and-football combination trip visitors with only half a day for stadiums should lean Anfield, given its stronger name recognition and deeper connection to the city’s most famous football export, LFC’s European success. Architecture and design enthusiasts, photographers, and anyone drawn to modern regeneration stories should lean toward the Hill Dickinson Stadium instead. Genuine football history buffs with time for both should do exactly that — the short distance between the two makes it one of the more efficient “two major stadiums in one trip” options anywhere in European football.

Side-by-side quick comparison

Capacity: Anfield roughly 61,000; Hill Dickinson Stadium roughly 52,888.

Opened/current form: Anfield’s current configuration dates mainly from the 2016 Main Stand expansion and 2023-2025 Anfield Road End rebuild, on a ground first used in 1884; Hill Dickinson Stadium opened complete for the 2025-26 season.

Trophies associated with the ground: Anfield has hosted the club through six European Cup wins and multiple League titles; Everton’s major trophy history (League titles, an FA Cup Winners’ Cup) belongs to Goodison Park, not yet the new stadium.

Setting: Anfield sits in a residential north Liverpool neighbourhood; Hill Dickinson Stadium sits directly on the regenerated Bramley-Moore Dock waterfront.

Transport maturity: Anfield’s routes (Soccerbus, buses 26/27) are decades-established; Hill Dickinson Stadium’s routes are still being refined season to season.

Pre-match pub scene: Well-established at Anfield (The Sandon, The Park, Arkles); still developing around Bramley-Moore Dock.

Tour infrastructure: Anfield’s tour has run in broadly its current form for years; the Hill Dickinson tour is newer and still bedding in as an operation.

What neither stadium can currently offer

It’s worth noting what’s missing at each. Anfield’s tour, for all its polish, can’t offer the sheer novelty of walking through a stadium still generating national curiosity for being brand new — that’s a specific, time-limited appeal the Hill Dickinson Stadium currently has that will fade as the ground becomes a normal, established part of the football landscape over the coming years. Conversely, the Hill Dickinson Stadium can’t yet offer what Anfield has by simple virtue of time: generations of shared matchday memory, a trophy history genuinely built inside its own walls, and the accumulated weight of moments (Istanbul 2005, the 2019 semi-final comeback against Barcelona, the “This Is Anfield” sign itself) that only come from decades of top-level football actually happening at that specific site.