New Everton stadium plans on owners’ agenda as sites are priced

Goodison Park

August 18 – Everton’s long-held ambitions for a new stadium away from their iconic but creaking Goodison Park are still very much on the club owner’s agenda with two sites in Liverpool being considered.

The club is benefitting from the influx of funding and energy from new majority investor Farhad Moshiri whose first priority was to stabilise the team with the replacement of manager Roberto Martinez with Ronald Koeman. But the new stadium plans may not be too far behind in terms of priority and two sites have been identified in Liverpool’s North Docks area and to the west of the city in the Croxteth’s Stonebridge Cross area.

Local newspaper The Liverpool Echo polled local fans who majority voted for a move to the Docklands. Liverpool’s Docklands have undergone a number of regeneration schemes and the site identified by Everton would likely cost about £20 million to buy.

Everton would require 15 hectares of the 60-hectare area of the £5.5 billion Liverpool Waters scheme that The Peel Group is proposing to develop.

Although the club are remaining tight-lipped about stadium plans, director Sasha Ryazantsev told the Liverpool Echo: “I don’t know if project is the right word to use here, it is probably more than that.

“But of course we have the team, the performance on the pitch and with the appointment of Ronald Koeman that was the first step we had to make in that regard.

“But we have other projects, like the stadium, going forward as well and we very much want to win and be successful in whatever we do.”

Local rivals Liverpool complete the redevelopment of Anfield’s Main Stand this month which will increase capacity by around 8,500 seats – taking the overall capacity to around 54,000. This is also coming with a modernisation of facilities throughout the stadium’s footprint and a regeneration of the surrounding areas.

In contrast Everton’s Goodison Park, a stone’s throw away across Stanley Park, will look even more dated.

Liverpool’s City Council has announced that it is preparing a bid for the Commonwealth Games which will come with a significant sports facilities redevelopment plan for the city. In terms of exploring the possibilities of private-public development opportunities, Everton would be choosing the right time to develop their own stadium ambitions.

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