Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas on the symbolic timing of Everton's first new arrival this summer
Hayden Hackney has signed on the dotted line for Everton
Hayden Hackney has signed on the dotted line for Everton
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There was a poignancy to Hayden Hackney’s first visit to Hill Dickinson Stadium as an Everton player.
As he saw his name in lights this week he did so on a pitch marked out for rugby league, not football. The goalposts at either end towered into the sky ahead of the Magic Weekend spectacle, where for once those choosing to kick will be aiming over the bar.
Hackney is the first new arrival of the summer for the Blues and his introduction comes ahead of a spectacle on the Liverpool waterfront that is part of a calendar of events that will, in time, help to fund many more transfers over the coming years.
That is very much the plan - and always has been - for Hill Dickinson. Goodison Park held our hearts and our memories but, as someone who is fortunate enough to travel home and away to watch the Blues, it was clearly a venue that undermined efforts to progress.
The Grand Old Lady, for all of its value to Everton and Evertonians, was essentially fit to hold football alone and that is not enough in this day and age. The club’s new home, however, is a sparkling arena that in its first year has already attracted a swathe of landmark events that will enable Everton to keep making money even when its football operation is on holiday.
We have already seen rugby league drawn to the Liverpool waterfront and we will do so again today and tomorrow, with the Super League’s major set piece landing on the banks of the Mersey.
Six games across two days will showcase Everton’s new home to some of the best players in the world and to supporters of clubs from across England. It should be an incredible weekend - one that has captured the imagination of fans by fuelling record breaking ticket sales.
It won’t stop there, either. While David Moyes takes his side to Scotland, Germany and around the north west in pre-season, Hill Dickinson will host rugby union, with Fiji playing England in the first home England international to be held outside of Allianz Twickenham in a decade. There will also be golf, with the opportunity to tee off for the first Upper Deck Golf event in Europe to coincide with The Open at Birkdale.
The stadium lends itself to other events too, with former boxing world champions Joe Calzaghe and Tony Bellew hosting a Q&A on July 18 and with the new Domingo’s Bar and Grill having opened there this summer.
These non-football events serve a wider purpose for the club, as Everton’s chief revenue officer Aaron Duckmanton told me last month: “The changing rules in the way revenues for clubs can be spent on players is well documented, so diversifying the way that we bring in revenue outside of just our 19 home games, or outside of our player trading, is really important.
“We've seen the success of Tottenham and Arsenal and West Ham and Aston Villa who've been able to add events to their calendar and that allows them to grow their revenues. If we can grow our revenues indirectly that allows us to spend more on the pitch. The whole football events, commercial, revenue, cycle and ecosystem works really well together. So the more we can put in that stadium, the more our revenues grow.”
The impact of Everton’s new home goes beyond being able to support the arrival of more talents like Hayden Hackney, too, it extends into a massive uplift for Liverpool and the surrounding region. The stadium was projected to deliver a £1.3billion boost to the city and attract 1.4million visitors annually - a significant injection of money and interest into the area at a time when, just like it does in football, every penny counts.