Everton have agreed to buy the land at the Bramley-Moore docks in an effort to build a new stadium on the site
On Thursday it was announced that Everton have agreed on a deal to buy the land at the city’s Bramley Moore Dock to build a brand new stadium.
It looks to be good news for the Toffees and as an Everton fan, it is hard not to get excited about the news.
Although there is a long way to go before the club can start the development, there is much optimism amongst Everton fans that this is a massive step forward in their aim of finding a new home.
Goodison Park is now dated
For the best part of two decades, Everton have been looking to relocate to a new home. The Toffees current stadium is a grand old stadium and holds a lot of fantastic memories for Evertonian’s like me. It’s an old-fashion ground that lots opposition fans have praised for its old-school charm.
However, Goodison is now dated and its facilities are poor compared to most of the teams around them in the Premier League table. Everton have looked into the possibility of renovating Goodison, but it’s just not feasible.
There are just too many complications to renovating the old ground, like a church, primary school and rows of terraced houses in the way. Everton’s home of 125 years is one of the oldest purpose-built grounds in the world, so maybe it is time to move on for everybody’s sake.
The most promising of moves
Everton have had a number of ideas for new grounds in the past. The likes of moves to Kirkby and Walton Hall Park were never going to work out.
There were too many obstacles in their way. The move to Kirkby was never a popular one with the Evertonian’s, although Liverpool fans seemed to like the idea of the Blues being outside the city boundaries. A move to Walton Hall Park never looked like a starter.
The biggest failed move was the one to Liverpool’s iconic waterfront at the Kings Dock in 2003. It seemed the perfect solution to Everton’s problems, but a disagreement between Bill Kenwright and director Paul Gregg over financing scuppered the move.
Those failed moves were before the arrival of the club’s majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri. The Iranian-British billionaire seems to have the drive, business-sense and most of all the will to make this project work.
Moshiri is a business man and knows that a move to a new stadium with more corporate hospitality and modern facilities will move the club forward. Everton have always had a glass ceiling in the fact they could not afford to compete with the teams above them financially.
The building of a new stadium will help them do that. Despite Moshiri being a billionaire, FFP prevented the Toffees going down the same route as Chelsea and Manchester City by buying success with their rich owner’s money.
FFP means that clubs can no longer just splash the cash and have to depend more on revenue. A new stadium will bring in extra revenue and could hold the key to Everton being successful again in the future.
There is still a long way to go and lots of complications to overcome. However, it seems that the Toffees are determined to finally seal the deal for a new home.
Everton improving on the pitch
The arrival of Moshiri a year ago as the club’s majority shareholder gave everybody at the club a lift. Everton chairman Bill Kenwright had been looking to get the Merseyside club fresh investment since his consortium took charge in 1999.
The arrival of Moshiri has brought a fresh impetus on the pitch and led to the appointment of high-profile Dutch boss Ronald Koeman.
The Toffees have seen major improvement of late on the pitch and are currently seventh in the Premier League table. In fact, the Toffees are now odds of 5/1 to finish in the top-six this season. Everton certainly seem to be moving in the right direction under Koeman. It is vital that the Toffees can continue their progress on the pitch over the next few years.
If they can continue that progress both on and off the pitch with the new stadium then the club could have a very bright future indeed. For most Evertonian’s it has been a long time coming too.
Will Everton manage to succeed in finally move grounds in the near future?
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