What does one do with the site of an old stadium when a club moves to a new one? Very often the stadium is demolished and houses or a commercial development takes its place with perhaps a commemorative plaque or a street named after the ground. The trajectory at Everton has been different.
Today Everton Women play their first game at Goodison Park
since it became their permanent home, and the famous stadium symbolises their
exciting yet uncertain future.
Goodison has transformed since Everton’s men side departed
last May. Banners dedicated to Everton Women adorn the Bullens Road stand. The
tunnel has pink-tinted wallpaper featuring phrases such as “A New Era” and “A
History We Own”. Around the venue, displays referencing Everton Women’s past,
present and future are conspicuous.
However, the stadium is unfinished. Thousands of seats are
missing, with the upper tier of the Goodison Road Stand stripped to the bone.
Everton are acutely aware that the 133-year-old ground has too many urinals and
not enough women’s toilets.
Everton have had to co-ordinate two stadium switches this
summer, with the men moving to Hill Dickinson Stadium. This change was
emotional for many supporters and about 20,000 took up the club’s offer of
purchasing their seat at Goodison, hence some sections’ bare appearance. And
Goodison was planned for demolition until last spring.
Indeed, that Everton Women are here illustrates their
encouraging trajectory under The Friedkin Group (TFG), the American owner that
took over the club last December. Goodison is an enormous upgrade from the
team’s previous home, the 2,200-capacity Walton Hall Park.
Under Farhad Moshiri, Everton’s previous owner, Goodison was
earmarked for a post-demolition renovation project that included housing,
retail units and a park. Yet TFG, which has invested in Everton boldly and
improved Roma Women since purchasing the Italian club in 2020, scrapped those
plans.
Goodison’s short-term changes will be experiential. A
family-friendly fan zone has face painters, balloon artists and a mobile gaming
vehicle, and the refreshments now include nachos and falafel wraps as well as
sausage rolls and Bovril. Equally, fans can drink alcohol in their seats as
part of a WSL trial, and the bottomless brunch hospitality option targets a
women’s football audience.
The great unknown is financial. The Goodison site could have
been sold for seven figures, and Everton have already budgeted £1million for
redevelopments since the ground became the home of the women’s team.
Goodison can fit 39,572 spectators, but Everton are
aiming for crowds of about 6,000 this season and will move banners to vary
capacity. “The worst thing would be for this to look like a big, empty stadium,”
Forshaw says. “We’re not going to make a financial return from a match day for
a while.”
Still, Goodison represents an economic opportunity. Everton
Women were sold to TFG’s parent company last July and while such transactions
help clubs comply with Premier League financial rules, they also attract funds
specifically for the women’s team.
News around fresh capital — most likely from the US — is expected
in the coming weeks.
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