Business With Blain: It Takes A Blue Village
Everton's new stadium can be a catalyst for growth in Liverpool, but local authorities must step up.
By JohnB
Seven days ago, Everton Football Club successfully completed the second of three planned test events for the magnificent Everton Stadium, located on the former Bramley-Moore Dock on the world-famous Liverpool Waterfront.
The first test event had 10,000 Evertonians on the South Stand, the second largest home end in English football. But for the second test event, Everton upped their game, with over 25,000 fans enjoying unrestricted views from all four corners of the ground.
Everton won the U21 game against Bolton Wanderers 1-0 with a late goal from 20-year-old Kingsford Boakye, who became the first Everton player to score a goal from open play at the stadium, but the truth is the game was secondary. The testing of protocols and procedures on the journey to achieving a safety certificate was far more important. Indeed, the game ended after around 70 minutes when an emergency evacuation was performed, with all fans and officials leaving the stadium at the same time.
Interim Everton CEO Colin Chong, who will be replaced by Angus Kinnear of Leeds United in the summer and will be tasked with overseeing the new stadium and the regeneration of its surrounding area, as well as the future of Goodison Park, described the event as “a resounding success”.
But was it?
From an Everton Football Club perspective, it most certainly was; everything that took place within the historic dock wall seemed to go exceptionally well. Digital only ticketing will take some getting used to, as many of the fanbase have in recent years selected to have smartcards for entry in Goodison Park. Food and beverage price-points and increased variety will surely come as part of the full-capacity test planned for the summer.
In short, it is hard to see how the test could have gone better for what Everton had control over. But, outside the dock wall, things did not go so well. Specifically concerning the challenges fans had in getting close to the ground.
The first test event had exposed issues around the parking restrictions imposed by Liverpool City Council and, far more seriously, the challenges faced by Mersey Travel and the nearest train station at Sandhills.
Prior to the low-capacity test event, Everton fans had been left less than impressed by plans highlighted by Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram, including a 'fan zone' at the station.
“We've built this new fan zone here at Sandhills Station with our partners Mersey Rail to ensure that we can get people to and from the platforms as quickly but as safely as possible,” the Mayor said in a short snippet posted to social media, before the camera panned out to show a less-than-impressive cordon of metal fences in what appeared to be the train car park.
Everton fans expressed serious concerns resulting in the Mayor immediately going on the back foot. The consensus among fans was one of huge disappointment. One said: “Embarrassing. Four years and that is the great idea for transporting 53,000 people to and from Bramley-Moore?”
The Mayor did a round of media, including phone-ins, although he avoided speaking with independent fan media, and kept to a simple script that seemed fair at the time. His message appeared to be that this is what test events are for, and that the authorities would learn from them and all will be fine by the time the stadium comes into full use in August 2025.
Sadly, despite lessons having been learned from the first test event, the second — which had all sides of the stadium in use and involved more than twice as many fans — took place on the same day as a half marathon in the city.
And despite the Mayor’s contention that everything had gone well, traffic flows became gridlocked, Soccer Buses were letting fans off so they could walk to the stadium and, post-match, supporters endured significant congestion, be they walking or seeking to go home by train.
Observing from the Control Centre in Liverpool’s city centre, the Mayor later acknowledged on a local radio station that issues were more common before the match but that post-match the train network was “largely impeccable.”
He added: “The average waiting time to get away was 20 minutes, if you could guarantee that at most away grounds, 20 minutes is absolutely nothing.”
However, he went on to say: “For 52,000 it might be half an hour, 40 minutes, but that’s what we need to find out with the next test event.”
To some degree, there appears to have been an overreaction by some fans, because their first visit to this magnificent new stadium was more challenging than they expected. For this writer, the experience was perfectly fine; I parked in the city centre, and I walked to the stadium in under 30 minutes. The return journey was equally painless.
That said, it is very doubtful that parking will be so easy on most matchdays and, certainly, inclement weather would make the walk rather unpleasant.
The Mayor, as he did after the first test event, is already treating the next, and final test, as a learning exercise, rather than in my view what it should be, and that is an opportunity to refine an already well thought through and cohesive plan for transporting home and away fans to the stadium and its surrounds.
My first and personal reaction to the Mayor’s public visit to Sandhills Station prior to the first test event was that he had been let down by his own planning and PR people. It appeared ill-conceived and describing what looked like a car park with some crowd-control barriers as a “fan zone” produced days of ridicule on social media.
Everton submitted their planning application for this stadium more than five years ago, and it is almost four years since the building process started for what was intended to be a catalyst for the regeneration of North Liverpool, an area among the most deprived not just in the city but in the whole country.
The club, under their previous owner Farhad Moshiri, have so far done their bit. For four years, more jobs and positive attention have fallen on the area due to Everton’s £800million investment.
With plans by new owners The Friedkin Group (TFG) to invest even more in the development of the area, possibly by purchasing the adjacent Nelson Dock, they and the citizens of this great city need to see more leadership from the local government.
The Mayor stating that “ownership issues and whether Everton’s new stadium would even be completed added to issues surrounding the development of transport plans for the venue”, was an ill-advised and truly shocking thing for him to say.
What the city needs now is leadership from its elected officials; shifting blame and looking for excuses is simply not good enough. Someone needs to step up, take control and lead from the front because this is not just about a football stadium.
Everton have done their part already and clearly have the appetite to do more, but if I was part of TFG, and their blue-chip financial supporters, I would want assurances that my investment is protected.
I want to see local officials who are as committed, skilled and experienced as my people. I want to see their ambition writ large for the whole of north Liverpool and specifically near my assets at Bramley-Moore and hopefully at the Nelson Dock, too.
The dream of a “Blue Village” in north Liverpool, similar but better and more expansive than the Etihad Campus built by Manchester City, is a tantilising prospect — and it should be exciting not only for those of a blue persuasion, but for anyone with ties to the area.
It is worth remembering, too, that Everton Stadium is already bringing about new opportunities for the city. In November, a Rugby League Ashes match will be hosted there, and the ground has already been confirmed as a host venue for Euro 2028. There will almost certainly be several concerts per year taking place at the stadium from summer 2026 onwards. Yet so far, it does not appear the infrastructure is in place to support non-footballing (or footballing) events, and that lack of foresight or planning is concerning.
A world-class football stadium teamed up by Everton with, say, a world-class indoor arena, would not just regenerate the area — it would be a catalyst for the development of the whole of Liverpool, a city that, through its own failings, has already fallen too far behind its neighbours in Manchester.
In my view, the area around the Everton Stadium, along the dock road towards the City and inland through the 10-streets and beyond needs to be zoned, not to stop parking, but to provide a controlled environment for quality and accelerated development by private sector money supported by public sector delivery of all the necessary infrastructure.
Liverpool City Council, the Liverpool City Region and Everton Football Club can do this. They can collectively walk the talk and deliver upon the promises contained within the planning application for the Everton Stadium and the subsequent approval.
All that is needed now, is leadership.
If I had anything to do with the Council, I’d try to get you on board as a consultant.