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.
Labels
Everton FC Goodison Park
After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...
West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
I recently saw an amusing video online in which a group of Everton fans were rebuked in jest for being hopeful. Football fans in general tend to swing between excessive optimism and excessive pessimism, but for many it seems that moaning is in their bloodstream (Spurs fans probably take the trophy). However, Everton fans have had plenty to moan about on and off the pitch. Let’s hope that a new era is about to begin for this grand old club. Everton’s 2023/24 financial results covered a fairly momentous season, when they ended up 15th in the Premier League, though they would finished three places higher if they had not received an 8-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR). It was a worrying time for Everton fans, as the club faced a “perfect storm” of issues, including large financial losses, an ever increasing debt burden, a challenging stadium build and the tortuous sale of the club. There were eve...