Merseyside giants could never share a stadium

Everton received the news that they will not be able to build a new stadium in Kirkby on the outskirts of Liverpool. It’s hardly a surprise as a lot of people in Liverpool expected the move to fail.

Everton Chief Executive Robert Elstone seemed to be surprised by the news but for me it wasn’t a great shock. Its fair to say that Kirkby is a rundown area and the proposed building of the stadium and a Tesco mega-store was supposed to regenerate the area.

Somehow the council decided that it would be bad for the local businesses in Kirkby. The building of Tesco that is not the presence of Everton Football Club.

Not in favour

I didn’t favour the move to kirkby, it wasnt motivated by my love for Goodison Park, which ! really do love but it was location of Kirkby. A move to Kirkby would mean lots of the fans that currently go the game simple won’t go anymore. The point of putting a Tesco and Everton in the area was to help the area become more prosperous but Knowsley Council will have to come up with another idea for regeneration.

Ground share idea

The failure of Everton’s bid to move outside the city boundaries to Kirkby has raised the idea of ground sharing with Liverpool. This idea has been mooted before but has never really taken off due to the fact that the fans simply don’t want it. I don’t know anybody who is a Blue or a Red that likes the idea of sharing a ground.

There have been many arguments such as what would the ground be called? Would half of the seats be Red and half be Blue? How would it work? And those are being questions being asked by people who are even thinking about the possibility. Most fans won’t even consider it at the moment. I am one of them.

Financial benefits

Now there has been lots of talk about the fact that one stadium will cost less money than two. That makes good financial sense I suppose. Most neutrals would say the stadium share is the best idea but I don’t think they would want to share their ground with their fierce rivals.

Would Manchester United and City fans want to share a stadium? Would Arsenal and Tottenham fans welcome a ground share? The answer to both those is probably a unanimous no! Obviously that won’t happen because City and Arsenal both have brand new stadiums but if the idea was put forward then I don’t many of their fans would be in favour.

Liverpool’s financial problems have caused the building of their new stadium on Stanley Park to be delayed. Everything has been put back due to the perilous state of the club finances under Hicks and Gillette. The early exit from the Champions League on Tuesday is not going to help the clubs finances.

If they fail to qualify for next years Champions League it could be catastrophic for the club and the new stadium could be the least of their problems. Even if they are struggling for cash I cant see them looking to share grounds with Everton. Its just not something that they would even consider.

New site

Everton have now asked the council to find the club a new site to build their new ground. It could take years for the council to find another suitable site. Lots of sites had already been considered before Everton decided that the Kirkby site would be the most suitable. They will now have to look at the other sites available and decide if they can fulfil the clubs need. It looks like my beloved Everton are going nowhere fast at the moment both on and off the field.