Everton Football Club and its new American owners want to accelerate development around the Liverpool-based team’s new waterfront stadium, in a call to politicians and investors to help revive a neglected stretch of the city.
With months to go until the Premier League side moves from
Goodison Park, its home since 1892, to Bramley-Moore Dock, the latest addition
to the north Liverpool skyline stands out in an area that has not kept pace.
The stadium is the foundation of fans’ hopes for a brighter
future under the Texas-headquartered Friedkin Group, which became the latest US
company to buy into the top flight of English football last year. Marc Watts,
Everton executive chair and Friedkin Group president, told the Financial Times it would be “such a
shame” and a “missed opportunity” not to use the stadium as a “catalyst to lift
up that whole area of the northern docks and the development of the whole
Liverpool area”.
Overlooking the river Mersey, the 52,888-capacity venue is
capped by a barrel roof that is the futuristic foil to the history invoked by
the columns of brick below. The plaza outside can accommodate up to 17,000
fans.
But the local area is lacking the full range of pubs,
restaurants and facilities that football fans and concert goers would expect.
The Titanic Hotel, a repurposed warehouse opened in 2014 on the nearby Stanley
Dock, hints at the potential. As Everton has held test events at the new
stadium, small stalls have started to pop up.
As Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, seeks more
than £200mn in government funding for the regeneration of Old Trafford, where
Manchester United plans to build a new stadium, interim chief executive Colin Chong
pointed out that Everton had a head start on its Premier League rival.
Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said the
stadium would become a “hugely important landmark” for regeneration and that he
expected housing developments, boosted by a £56mn grant from agency Homes
England, to increase footfall and spur talks with investors. Wider development
could justify improved transport links to complement the Sandhills train
station that serves the football ground, Rotheram said.
Everton’s new home is not just critical to regeneration. The
club has lost £566mn in seven seasons since its last profit in the 2016-17
financial year, weighed down by spending on players, infrastructure investment
and debt.
The stadium, bolstered by bigger capacity and modern
hospitality facilities, could boost revenues by at least £60mn a year, one person
close to the club told the Pink ‘Un — vital firepower in the fight for top
players and qualification for European competitions. It will be one of the
venues hosting the Euro 2028 international men’s tournament and the Ashes rugby
league series between England and Australia in November, as well as competing
for top music concerts and business conferences.
The Friedkin Group, which spans sport, entertainment, travel
and Toyota dealership, stepped in and completed a takeover in December. New
ownership facilitated Everton’s £350mn infrastructure refinancing arranged by
US bank JPMorgan, cutting interest costs.
The Everton men’s team has not won a major trophy since the FA Cup in 1995, and
the last of the club’s nine league titles came in 1987. Under the new owners
the goal is to return to winning ways by focusing on fans, the economics of the
team and making effective use of the stadium.
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