The number of seats was only 119, and a mere 0.2% of the structure’s total, but the reduction in capacity at Everton’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium has caused something of a furore. More than six times as many people read on the day the news broke than any other article this correspondent produced on Tuesday, and at the time of writing this piece, there have been no fewer than 263 comments.
The club says factors such as segregation lines between the home and away section and the compliance and provision for media facilities and camera positions have played a part in the original maximum capacity being reduced by 119 seats from 52,888 to 52,769 following a thorough post-construction audit and review of the seating configuration.
The stadium still is, following the first test event in February, “the most striking, ambitious addition to the Liverpool waterfront since the Three Graces were built in the early 1900s (also on an infilled dock, St George’s).”
It is still estimated the stadium will attract 1.4 million visitors to the city annually, create 15,000 jobs and contribute £1.3billion to the UK economy over its lifetime.
In 2023, Mayor of Greater Manchester and lifelong Evertonian Andy Burnham he believed the Blues’ future home would become “the most talked-about, most iconic and superior ground in English football going forward.” That won’t be lost by having 119 fewer seats.
Those who have gazed across the Mersey to take in the panorama in full can be in no doubt that has already taken its place as the new jewel in the crown along Liverpool’s world-famous maritime cityscape, alongside the likes of the aforementioned Three Graces plus the city’s two cathedrals. The revised capacity will still enable Everton to play in front of the biggest regular crowds in the club’s history as the club has only ever enjoyed an average gate of over 50,000 once (51,603 for the 1962/63 title-winning season).
When it comes to having aspirations of becoming a major football force again, the new stadium is Everton’s biggest boost of the Premier League era, and possibly the biggest boost since John Moores took charge of the club. However, while the 119-seat issue might be a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things, some have claimed from the start that the club's new stadium should have been bigger.
A drone photo of Everton Stadium on April 2, 2025 looking south towards the city centre (Image: Mark Seddon/Everton FC Official Photography Library/SmartFrame)
In leaving Goodison Park, which had a 39,572 capacity by the end, a venue that ranked third bottom in the English top flight for generating matchday revenue according to a document cited in the Appeal Board’s full written reasons when club got four of their initial 10 deducted points back last year, the Blues will go from having the 12th largest ground in the Premier League to the seventh largest, given that Hill Dickinson Stadium still has 431 more seats than Newcastle United’s St James’ Park.
However, with Manchester City the latest club to increase their capacity, once their redevelopments at the Etihad Stadium are completed, half a dozen Premier League venues will hold north of 60,000, which is a figure increasingly becoming the new normal for aspirational outfits. While West Ham United’s London Stadium, the converted athletics venue from the 2012 Olympics, has been understandably much maligned as an arena to watch football in given that in contrast to Hill Dickinson Stadium, the spectators are so far from the pitch, the Hammers are now watched by the biggest crowds in the country after Manchester United.
Since moving from the Boleyn Ground, over the past decade, West Ham have now found almost 30,000 additional match-going supporters, a figure similar to the number that Everton revealed last season were now on their season ticket waiting list.
One person who has always passionately defended the capacity of Everton’s new stadium, is the man who designed it, US architect . Back in 2019, : “Sometimes people are pretty aggressive and say ‘it's got to be 70,000 or you don’t have any ambition’ or ‘it’s got to look like this’ but when I pushed back it really has created a dialogue so, in lots of ways, I feel like I've been doing public consultation for a couple of years now.
“I think it is the right number for a lot of reasons. I don't mean this to sound flip, but I've never met anyone that said: ‘God I really hate that stadium – it was too small!’
“When a stadium is loud and full, that experience is great and it doesn't matter if it’s 40,000 like Juventus or 90,000 but it’s got to be full.
“So, to go from where we are at Goodison, to something much larger, would be a mistake and that’s not to say there wouldn't be a lot of demand but I don’t know if that's necessarily better. What I do know, architecturally, those last 10, 15, 20,000 seats they cost the most and they are not generating the (same) kind of revenue because they are furthest away from the pitch.
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“There is a diminishing return, if you will. The revenue of a club is so complicated, it’s not as simple as how many tickets you can sell, it’s TV rights, it’s jerseys, it’s all kinds of things so for me it is about right-sizing.
“So that would be disregarding the site. On this site we’re pretty tight and so there is a physical limit to how much we could build, and I think that's good because it’s part of what has driven us to what we've spoken about already, keeping the pitch tight and seats right on top of the pitch.
“I guess you could argue ‘is 53,000 better than 52,000?’ but I’m certainly an advocate, for now, that smaller – it’s obviously a lot bigger than Goodison – is better.”