Everton have been wanting to build a new stadium since before Wayne Rooney was even a twinkle in his old man’s eye.
Dear old Goodison Park is a fantastic arena – and is one of the world’s oldest purpose built football stadia having been in use since 1892 – but its creaking stands and century old architecture are now holding back the development of the club.
There have been false starts in the past: the proposed Kings Dock site came to nothing, while the unpopular Tesco-backed Kirkby option also bit the dust, much to the relief of most Blues fans.
But there is a new option on the table – and the evidence has been building up to suggest a plot at Bramley-Moore Dock could be the real deal.
The waterfront site is just two miles from current home Goodison Park.
Opened in 1848 and in use for 140 years mainly as a coal dock it finally closed in the late 1980s.
It lay unused until 2015 when music festival Liverpool Sound City used the site, but although they were originally scheduled to use it again next year, those plans have now changed, fuelling rumours that the spot may be needed for something else by then…
Sound city moving from Bramley Moore dock to Clarence dock then after 2 successful years from next year…
Wonder why that would be? 🤔
— Ste Kelly (@stekellyefc) November 17, 2016
In August Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson was asked about Everton building a new stadium in a Q and A session.
He said it was “closer now than it was last month”, and “closer now than it’s ever been” – and in a cryptic nod to the possible location for the new ground he added “the Moore the merrier”.
To add even more fuel to this particular fire Everton’s new(ish) majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri was spotted by some intrepid Liverpool Echo snappers visiting Bramley-Moore Dock with club bigwigs Bill Kenwright, director Sasha Ryazantsev, deputy chairman Jon Woods, chief executive Robert Elstone and deputy CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale, along with Mayor Anderson, apparently to scope out a potential plot for a new ground.
Some Everton fans have even had a go at mocking up locations for the stadium.
https://twitter.com/DDom40970517/status/799589445095800832
And a slightly cruder version:
So if Sound City are moving from Bramley-Moore Dock, where does this leave Everton and their proposed new ground? https://t.co/Fc9nHOI3lC pic.twitter.com/VxkcloaRk0
— Peter Guy (@Getintothis) November 17, 2016
And on Sunday The Independent reported that “it is likely an announcement will be made about that [a new stadium] in the next three to four months, with building work on a new site expected to start before the end of 2017.”
So is it really all going to happen? Well judging by past efforts to get a new stadium project going, we really can’t say it’s happening until the building work actually starts, but plenty of fans are getting excited about the club’s next annual general meeting on January 4, in case an announcement is made.
https://twitter.com/footyfeed_efc/status/810495071523131393
Time will tell.
