David Bartlett reported on Everton's off-field activities during his time with the ECHO - and he was wowed by his first ever visit to the Hill Dickinson Stadium
A general exterior view of Hill Dickinson Stadium ahead of the Premier League match between Everton and Aston Villa at Hill Dickinson Stadium on September 13, 2025
(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Would Everton ever be able to pull off the move to a new stadium? When I covered Everton’s off the field affairs between 2007 and 2013 the prospect of the club moving to a world class new stadium seemed ever distant.
As city editor at the Daily Post and Liverpool ECHO I had the privilege of covering the many ups and downs in the club’s attempt to find a new home.
The biggest story of this time was the ill fated idea to move to Kirkby.
Former council leader Warren Bradley and lifelong Evertonian called it ‘a cowshed in Kirkby’, a devastating label that stuck with the project.
It divided the fan base and even those who supported it, did so through gritted teeth because it seemed like the only option after so many false dawns. And even though season ticket holders and shareholders voted to approve the move it wasn’t met with enthusiasm.
It was the previous Labour government that finally killed off the idea because of the feared impact it would have on surrounding areas - due to the huge amount of shops that would be built with it to help finance the stadium.
In characteristic Bill Kenwright fashion he would tell me he was too devastated to talk about it when we briefly spoke on the phone after the plan was rejected.
And so the search for a new home continued.
During this time the regeneration of Liverpool city centre was also part of my reporting beat. A colleague once quipped that I seemed to spend a lot of time writing about projects with shinny artists' impressions of new buildings that never got built.
Aside from covering Everton’s stadium saga, I also dedicated thousands of words to Peel Holdings' plans for the north Liverpool - Liverpool Waters.
As we now know it is in many ways the perfect location for a new stadium, however, for a time Peel weren’t that keen on the idea of dedicating a large part of the site to a facility that isn’t much used outside of match days.
I’ve supported the club since I was a young child and when I started my career as a journalist I never imagined I’d get to cover the inner machinations of the club. It can be an odd experience to write things the club doesn’t like while at the same time being an avid supporter.
By the time the idea of Everton building here became a realistic prospect I’d moved south to edit the Cambridge News, also owned by the ECHO’s parent company Reach. Since then I’ve followed the club from a distance, going to matches when I get the chance and of course by reading the ECHO online.
Some months before I left the ECHO Farhad Moshiri had started his takeover of Everton, and would be willing to pump hundreds of millions in to get the club a new stadium - which is now the envy of Premier League rivals across the country.
The Hill Dickinson Stadium is a truly astonishing place. Being there for the first time for the Aston Villa match with my two children seemed like a dream at times.
Walking along Old Hall street, across the Strand and down the dock road with thousands of other Evertonians felt natural. I’ve driven across the junction hundreds of times, and it felt as normal as catching the train to Kirkdale and walking to Goodison.
The docks area is coming to life with pubs and bars popping up along the route - this could be part of the catalyst for the regeneration of this part of the city that has been talked about for so long.
Former ECHO journalist David Bartlett at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium
We got to the stadium about an hour and 40 minutes before kick off so we could take it all in. We happened to be walking along the outside concourse under the main stand when part of it was blocked off for the arrival of the Villa players.
While we were waiting Moshiri made his way through (it’s the same entrance for VIPs). My son asked me why he was at the match.
I speculated that having sunk so much money into the stadium, it is his legacy and maybe he wants to enjoy it. Fair enough really.
As an Evertonian I can’t help but wince at the financial and transfer policies under Moshiri’s ownership. The way we came so close to calamity on a number of occasions is painful. I don’t think that should mean Moshiri can’t have the credit for having backed architect Dan Meis’ vision for this modern day pantheon of football.
Having watched the Villa players get booed we then made our way round to our seats in the North East corner. And we marvelled at how fabulous our new home is.
Despite being near the back on row 60 the pitch felt so much closer because of how steep the stands have been built. I spotted numerous people out of breath by the time they’d climbed the steps. Yes, it really is that steep.
The rain falling during the warm up looked poetic from our perch. And by the time the crowd roared when Z-cars started to play we were already smitten with the place.
Much has already been said about the thought Meis went to in order to get the acoustics right. Hearing It’s A Grand Old Team be sung around the ground is as spine tingling as it was at Goodison.
Sadly we didn’t get to enjoy the full experience with it having been 0-0. We were desperate to feel that explosive noise when the Blues score - it wasn’t to be.
If you’d have asked me when I was reporting on the stadium saga to give odds on Everton playing at home in one of, if not the best new ground, in the Premier League I would have really struggled. It seemed unimaginable.
The Hill Dickinson Stadium is evidence that in football the story is never complete, it is lived in chapters. And now a future full of hope and optimism is still to be written.