Everton FC

Last night Everton's CEO Robert Elstone underwent a cross-examination regarding the proposed move to the new stadium in Kirkby, on behalf of the Liverpool City Council. The cross-examination raised a number of interesting points including, where the money for the proposed development would come from, naming rights for the new stadium, the benefits (or otherwise) to the surrounding area of Kirkby, and the impacts on Everton Football Club as a whole. While I simply can't be arsed going through everything that was discussed, a transcript of the whole thing can be found on the official website:

http://www.evertonfc.com/news/archive/ceo-faces-cross-examination.html?page=full

Understandably the proposal for the new stadium has been one of the most controversial and hotly-contested topics surrounding our club in all the time I have supported them, but by the same token never has a single decision been more important to the future development of Everton as a business both on and off the pitch. While I'm sure the vast majority of Toffee's would love to see us stay at Goodison, it's been clear for the past few seasons, and particularly during last summer's transfer period, that at the moment the club simply isn't financially able to maintain the position we have found ourselves in for the past few seasons. That we have done so well with our limited means has been down to the dilligent efforts of Moyesie, and signing him up for another 5 years was the best thing Bill Kenwright could have done as Chairman.

So what do I think (in case anyone cares)? Well, as much as I would love to see us stay at Goodison, and as much sentiment as I have for the place, if it comes down to the choice of staying there and stagnating or moving to Kirkby and hopefully gaining further investment to compete at the top level, then I don't really see it as being a choice at all. Alot of Everton fans have been calling for Kenwright's head over this matter, saying that he should just plow money into redeveloping Goodison. My issue with this is that there is simply no way of expanding Goodison without a) Massive disruption to the local community due to where it is situated and b) Masively reducing its capacity while it's being redevloped.

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The other issue is more of a sentimental one, with Kirkby being situated outside the Livepool City boundaries. With regards to this, I would point to two examples. One is Manchester United, whose stadium is actually situated in Salford but is still nevertheless within the boundaries of Greater Manchester. The only people who ever bring this up however are Man City fans and I'm sure United fans could give a flying fuck about what they think. The other example would be Arsenal, a club referenced by Mr. Elstone in the discussion, who since moving to the Emirates have become one of the most financially stable clubs in the league with minimal amounts of debt. Not only that, but they are getting (it's estimated) around £90 million over 15 years for the naming rights to the Emirates, and far more than that from the flats they are building at their former ground of Highbury.

This relates to Everton thus; while the Kirkby ground is technically situated outside of Liverpool, it's still within the boundaries of Merseyside. As an out of town supporter myself (I live in Warrington if you must know), this is probably less of an issue for me than it is for most of the local supporters, but nevertheless I'm sure we all have the same goal of wanting to see the club move forward and if this is what it takes, then I can put up with the jibes of a few Gobshite Koppites. In terms of the Arsenal stadium, we are pursuing, it seems, a similar funding strategy with us selling naming rights to the stadium and redeveloping the site of Goodison for further income, which seems a pretty level-headed and financially viable way of going about things. Just please don't let them call it the Tesco stadium Mr. Elstone, I think that would be too much to bear.

Whether you agree with me or not, I think one thing we can all agree on is that Mr Kenwright and Mr Elstone have been very open and honest about what they are doing and why they are doing it (just take a look at the transcript from the EGM on evertonfc.com from a few months ago, it doesn't make for pretty reading). At least they have the clubs best interests at heart, which is more than I can say for some other chairmen, eh Liverpool?

Sorry, I couldn't resist.