Anger, Apathy and Abandonment

Or Take On Solutions For All

When Black Friday came I, like many, already knew the result the night before despite the official site saying the result would be published at 10:30 in the morning because it was leaked to Sky Sports News. By whom? Does it matter now?

From the offset, when the ballot procedure was declared, many Evertonians shouted out  ?unfair and undemocratic?, especially KEIOC. I myself will never accept that the 12,000 walk-ups who are inundated with mobile phone deals, car loans, etc. direct from Everton or a third party  could not receive a ballot form to that same address. The People?s Club handicapped some of our fans in this vote by their finances.

We all know that if you buy a ticket on a weekly basis the decent people at the box office ask for your postal code, it?s passed on for that new phone but not a life-changing (to many) ballot paper. I wonder why? Is it because most of these fans are local, and have deeper roots to the area than maybe a fan from out of town in Evertonia? I know of Mancs who got ballot forms and, most probably, reds paying the twenty quid to acquire a ticket in our home ends.

The 11,000 non-returned votes were bizarre and stuck out. Evertonians are more passionate and knowledgeable, we're led to believe... so why did this happen? Was it that they did not get the ballot paper or are so fed up of the club's promises and spin that they thought, "why bother, it?s a done deal anyway?" I know loads that didn't get a ballot paper but qualified and when trying to acquire one it was like the Crystal Maze.

One lad made twenty phone-calls plus e.mails to Everton and the ERS to get his family ballot papers (he was told by the Head of Communications at the club that one family was allowed one vote when paying together). Would many fans do the same ? and remember the phones were down for a long period at Everton. He was misinformed that one family gets one vote if paid altogether but others did get multiple votes.

I got two more votes than I should have being a shareholder and one sent to me at another address. Sadly one of my mate's mum got a vote sent for his late Dad of three years despite my mate telling the club on numerous occasions he has passed away. Maybe these are small exceptions but how will we ever know the full magnatude? I?m not suggesting for one minute that the ERS would do anything underhand ? they are too respected ? but can only work on the data given.

I know a friend of mine offered to sort out Everton?s database with his manager of IT free of charge a few months ago. Everton declined at the last minute. The database of our walk-ups was not reliable, we were told.

No one can say the result was a clear mandate to move, it was more worrying to a business built on customers than a victory to march on without real concerns for the future fan base. If the move was right and good enough for all then there would be no need to vote in the first place and cause all the infighting.

More spin than a washing machine

You can?t help but think that many of our fans where misinformed, fed up of empty promises or duped to a large extent (well it must be true, it?s in the local papers). Lord Haw-Haw would have approved the spin that came from the local media and the People's Club. Do you want examples to back this up? Well here goes:

1. Goodison Park is falling down. If we stay here, playing Marine awaits us.
   Do we really want to play in the shadow of LFC?s new stadium?
   We need loads of corporate boxes to compete with the top clubs
   
   Do we really believe the above? ? plus we don?t sell out the corporate now but for two games a season.
2. Goodison Park CANNOT be redeveloped. If it could we would only have a ground capacity of 28,000 to 34,000. Bring all the plans you want but bring your business plan first.
   This is a deal of a lifetime, if we miss this opportunity we're doomed, I tell yer, doomed.
   KSS, the architects for the new Kirby stadium dismissed Tom Hughes's painstaking plans to re-develop Goodison on five counts in five minutes, it seems.
   
   So Terry Ward and Terry Skempton, both renowned architects, don?t know what they are talking about? Tom Hughes made the KSS comment-maker eat humble pie over his remarks. This fellow Evertonian should have been brought in by the club for discussion ? not pilloried in public. For shame.
3. The Loop is just too small and can?t possibly work, it?s a white rabbit pulled out of the hat by that nasty council who have not talked to us in months. The business plan does not stack up. Grosvenor have objected.
   
   Well HOK says it can work (Google HOK engineering) and Grosvenor have not objected (to my knowledge). There was no business plan at the time, like Kirkby
4. Players were wheeled out who are heroes to the eligible voting kids to endorse the new stadium in Kirkby, even Moyes alluding to it.
   
   Hmm.
5. Britain?s premier CEO of Tesco with a front-page banner headline telling us to vote with our head not our heart. Oh, and I?m a Blue to boot.
   
   Is there not a blatant conflict of interest here from Tesco Terry? Was Everton losing the vote war and they had to bring in the big gun?

When you speak to fans who voted yes and giving their reasons when asked why many replied with the following:

• Our debts will be wiped out and Moyes will have at least £10M more a year to spend on players. Remember we only bought Jags at the time. It?s the only way out there?s nothing else. Tesco?s are paying for it, it?s a free stadium big Keith told us!
• It's going to be a new start in a world-class stadium (well Big Keith did tell us that in the beginning) and we can compete with the top four.
• It?s going to be even better than Cologne's stadium. Goodison can?t be developed and that LCC hate us so we're going where we are wanted. I mean the reds got planning permission for the Stanley Park and when we asked we were knocked back by the red council. At Goodison the toilets are crap (no hot water), as is the service at the bar with warm beer and those posts get in our way now.
• Terry Leahy is a boss Evertonian and is using Tesco to make us millions.
  If Terry tells us its good for Everton then it must be ? how can we doubt this man, who lives in Potters Bar? Have you seen Tesco?s profits ?

All the above caused much anger to those who do not want to go to Kirkby but to stay near to the City centre. In fact St Helens town centre is nearer to Kirkby than our city centre now.

Fans who saw a different view from the above felt bullied and frustrated by the amount of coverage the club's spin got and its allies to their own ends. Bringing in star players and the manager to sway the vote was seen to be below the belt. The amount of space for pro-Kirkby information was there for all to see. Like Bill said about Big Keith, he is already on the train to Kirkby, it?s a done deal it seems.

When fans  took the time to look into Big Keith?s background it was found this Aberdonian tried to move even his own club out of town to make way for apartments. The Dons fans rejected this. He never stays more than three years in any job and moves on. But to be fair his task was to get Everton a new ground; where it was to be was not emotional to him, only financial, and there must be a big bonus in getting that move to anywhere for him.

In recent years, we perceive our club as being perennially skint and have to juggle sales and acquisitions. I think up until the Yakubu deal we had only spent something like £3.8M net each year in the last seven years at a time when the Premiership has been awash with money. So this promised £10M extra to spend at Kirkby each season was a big lure to many. But, again, where are the facts on this? Where is anything of hard substance on Kirkby? They were all in the main just promises and even they had the goalposts moved each week when more searching questions where asked.

So to the ?no? voters I ask: Don?t give the ?yes? voters a hard time when challenged, respect their view; but I also ask the same of the yes voters not say to the no voters ?let it go?. They care deeply too much about the long-term future of our club. In a nutshell, if the Yes voters had lost on Black Friday would they have felt the same way as the No voters and the thousands of walk up fans (every game home and away for many) who I bet would have mostly said No? 

I know our hardcore and they will fight back against this move in their own way, for many I know will not go to Kirkby or buy a season ticket again. They feel betrayed by Bill and, to a degree, the LCC.

I ask the 'no' voters to use that anger and frustration and implore the LCC and Everton Board to get a viable, deliverable (I hate that word now along with "exclusivity", "due diligence" and "ring-fenced" ? that?s our custodians for you) alternative to Kirkby before apathy comes in and then the saddest end for an Evertonian: abandonment through the sheer hopelessness of it all and the way football has gone in general outside the top four. (Put that phrase ?top four? also  in the words I hate box now.)

Many that Friday felt that our club had finally gone from them and the fat cats were licking their paws laughing at us at how easy it was with more than a little help from their friends. Terry Leahy wants us at Kirkby for his company's sake first and, if believed, so does Philip Green for BHS and Next stores or whatever else on the retail site. A white elephant stadium in years to come in Kirkby will mean less disruption to their shoppers.

The ?yes? voters are now sadly pigeonholed by many as sheep, lemmings etc. That?s a bit unfair ? like I said before, you can only see and vote on the hype in front of you and the way our club's impending fate was portrayed if we never took the Kirkby way out. We would get left behind was the main message. Scaremongering was not on, Bill, you should not have done this.

But it's the high-profile 'yes' voters are the ones that I can?t stomach. They came across as if they had hidden agendas and preached in a subservient manner. Get the information on their background and you will see what I mean, it was for self gain or their company?s gain. The same with KEIOC. I don?t want them to be perceived as like the justice-for-fathers group in the coming months when all they have done was to ask certain questions, get the main players in this subject be made more accountable and had to go on the street to the fans to get the message across that there could be better options.

Bill from the People's Club would not meet them lately, why? The communications guy from Everton sent the chair of KEIOC nasty texts and shouted down the phone to him. Why? KEIOC's Achilles heel was not being able to show how to fund their alternatives. Now that?s funny when you consider the concrete information on Kirkby. The club should have embraced these ideas, explored them fully not jest at them. Never forget who gets paid for their endeavours in all this...

At a time when we have the best team in many a year with European football beckoning we find a divided fan base like never before. And who did this?

By giving the vote it was a calculated agenda not a gamble. Given the media, high profile acts and selective vote, Bill and Co knew they were onto a winner. KEIOC came across like in the film Zulu, wave after wave of pro-Kirkby media came at them, they tried to shoot back but fired blanks in the space that should have been provided but never was balanced.

I thought more of our local media and, with the exception of Radio Merseyside, they did not disappoint the sceptics. I was told I was foolish to expect anything else.

I?m disappointed in certain journalists of whom I thought better but they have mortgages to pay and families and, after all, business is business. I?ll scratch your back, you scratch mine with scoops, interviews and releases.

I must say that the Red journalist, Tony Barrett, has been a star in the last few weeks on two different counts. It took a good Red to shout out for us about leaving our roots. Let?s face it, we're just fans not long-term business associates. I thought our media had a moral duty to see fair play was to be seen in this Presidential election-type ballot. I also believe in Father Christmas.

But let?s have a truce, eh? Let?s stop the civil war with the fanbase being ripped apart. How about our club promise not to sign any irrevocable documents for Kirkby (in public), for at least twelve months. What?s the hurry? Tesco need us for Kirkby but what I can?t figure is why they don?t do  a similar deal at Project Jennifer or somewhere else nearer the city centre where we all agree on. I even suggested to Terry Leahy to buy the Bestway site and put the Tesco store proposed on there, put Everton?s new stadium on the original site proposed for the store. Ask Louise Ellerman and the LCC for more land around project Jennifer to make it work. Give the Kirkby people a leisure building they want and have an input, in that way Tesco still get the free land and everyone wins Where there?s a will there is a way.

Let's give Bestway a proper chance to come up with a business plan and funding ? its only fair to them and Evertonians. You can?t expect them to stab at figures. Remember we have not seen any figures for Kirkby after 18 months or a detailed plan of the proposed stadium.

Let?s get off Warren Bradley?s back and LCC and help them with suggestions of sites and how to fund them .But give them set deadlines.

And ask for monthly updates. Joe Anderson has been very good in trying for alternatives and will work with Warren for the club's sake. We need these people to stay focused. I still can?t believe they way our CEO basically told LCC to get lost many times. Why? If Kirkby fails we will need the help of LCC. Would you blame LCC now if they told Everton to get lost if Kirkby fails? Our CEO must feel Kirkby is nailed on to be so bullish or foolish.

This move to Evertonians is too important to be rushed; the San Andrean fault line is not directly underneath Goodison ? honest! It won?t fall down just now. If Fratton Park, Fulham, Blackburn and St Andrews in parts can get Health and Safety certificates I?m sure ours can for a while until we do the right thing.

Meanwhile, at Goodison, put adequate staff on our food and drinks bars. Maintain the toilets better and chase Oliver Twist away and get some hot water. We're in Walton not a third world country. Our stadium has been neglected for years like the business side of Everton.

Build the team a bit more then build a suitable cathedral to the faith that is Everton. We had 33,000 at home the other week, why is that? I know we need to do something about the ground issue. I was going to hire a JCB to dig the footings for the Kings Dock so those of us who voted No are not all Luddites.

Anyone who went to the Reebok last Saturday will realise that that?s not Everton ? the setting, the whole match-day experience. I wish I could have taken a large proportion of the fans who voted for Kirkby to this location to see for themselves what could lie ahead for us. We will be the biggest club to prostitute ourselves to a retail park. We're going from a city to a town. Think about it all, please, and get motivated to ask the club for solid commitments to this move. We should ask the following as you would if you were getting your own new house built:

• The true debt will we incur and carry over from Goodison for the Kirkby project and who pays for the over run of the project?
• The spec of the stadium were getting in detail.
• The major transport issues of the location, how will they be resolved?
• The loss of fans predicted and the marketing shown from the satellite towns of the new fans that will come. The same with the corporate, the reason were going apparently, what are the figures of marketing done to date to show the commitment of the new corporate business?
• The business plan that clearly shows how we generate all this extra money promised for transfers. What average attendance gives us that extra ten million?

If the above can?t be answered on record soon then why?

To Bill, consider selling the club to a consortium that will put money in now (£20M would start the Park End re-development. Remember the Holt End was built in one summer in the main), accept the same money as Paul Gregg did and perhaps a bit more. Be remembered in a far more benevolent way. You can?t run Everton this way anymore, Bill borrowing all the time and selling assets. We need an injection of investment for the first time in years. Trevor Birch advised similar. David Moores stepped aside for the injection of monies for a new stadium and signings, why can?t Bill then?

Told you I believe in Father Christmas, Bill won?t let go for the betterment of Everton. The Kings Dock proved this with Paul Gregg?s reverse mortgage deal which truly was the deal of the century.

I know Bill puts on a show called Blood Brothers about a family who moved to Skemersdale but their troubles moved with them. Will the Board carry on taking on debt after debt in Kirkby? Or sell out?

Let's face it, our debt now of approx £45M will be added to the £80M we will need to build this stadium. That?s a hell of a lot of debt to service with half a fanbase unsure that they will prop up this Board with the way they follow Everton now.

Get the Merseyside MP?s around a table with Andy Burnham, Terry Leahy, high ranking LCC officials, John Woods and Bill? This needs doing as soon as possible if not why not?

Let?s get back to enjoying this best team in years instead of worrying after the game's gone, "where will I be in five years and do I follow Everton the same way I do now?" We deserve to see the better football served up with this well-assembled team and players that could give us a brighter exiting future of watching Everton.

Turn your anger into asking for alternatives to Kirkby, don?t let apathy get to you on this subject as it will not go away and don?t abandon our team just yet whilst there is hope to stop the madness (to me) of Kirkby.

If ? and I hope too God it does not happen ? Wyness signs our sentence to Kirkby then it's personal to you to decide what you want to do regarding supporting the club anymore. To many, it won?t be Everton anymore but KFC. I, for one, won?t ever say you were not a true Evertonian for not going to support Everton at Kirkby. I know too many great Evertonians who care too much about the subject and will feel betrayed by leaving this vibrant growing city and will never accept it was for the long term good of Everton, but just for individuals. This vote was life-changing to many.

Go to the meeting at the Casa on Saturday by the Philharmonic pub (12:30pm) and give your support with  ideas and the will to bring the fans together again. We need to find a way of healing these wounds of our ripped-apart fan base. The only recipe for this is a ground that most of the fan base will agree on. See for yourself if Bestway have moved on from their initial plans and images and listen to people who might find a way of bringing us together again.

ps: Do you think our fan base is now battle-weary of off-the-field matters in particular? Like an old boxer after too many fights against relegation, takeovers and ground moves? Saturday?s attendance at the Casa may prove this. Do we really care about the long term future of our club anymore? Or not as much as we would like to think?

Anger, apathy then abandonment of the boxing ring in which Evertonians seem to always find themselves, sadly. Flame away!

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