ToffeeWeb - Season 2008-09

The Mail Bag

Facility led?

At the EGM Mr Elstone said ?As it stands today, our option is to be a facility-led club?. I would question the wisdom in that. Just take a look at some other facility led clubs:

Derby County and Pride Park
Bolton and the Reebok Stadium
Southampton and St Mary?s
Leicester and The Walkers Bowl
Coventry and the Ricoh Arena

Okay so these clubs aren?t as big as Everton, but they?ve all tried to go down the so called facility led path, building new stadiums hoping to bring in success (via more fans etc). But where has it got them? Are they any better off? Will we be any better off?

The only one that springs to mind that has worked is Man City (Arsenal were successful before they moved). Man City only worked because their stadium is a world class facility. Kirkby is not. New facility-led based approach is WRONG.

The board have mis-managed Goodison for ages now ? always looking to move. If clubs like Villa and Spurs can attract investment with their stadiums then we should have been able too. Poor stadium management and a poor new facility. Two wrongs don?t make a right. If the board can?t look after Goodison properly how are they going to look after a new stadium?

Sorry Mr Elstone, your prescribed facility-led approach just isn?t strong enough to revive Everton.
Jip Foster, Reading Posted 04/09/2008 at 19:59:01

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Steve Linden
1 Posted 05/09/2008 at 08:23:50

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Just one point, Man City do not own their ground the council does and, as far as I?m aware, get 50% of matchday takings and all of the non matchday money.

That?s why they have a "world class facility".

Everton do not have a council to build a stadium for them. Maybe Liverpool should go fo the commonwealth games and build a stadium for us.

Trevor Skempton
2 Posted 05/09/2008 at 08:35:13

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Nothing wrong with ’facility-led’ if its the right long-term partner. I think its potentially far better than the prospect of the People’s Club being taken over by a Sheikh or an Oligarch.

The trouble is that out-of-town shopping is the wrong facility. It only offers a short-term fix. And the loopholes which seem to allow an apparent cheap planning permission are being closed, leaving Kirkby very unlikely to go ahead.

However, there ARE opportunities for long-term partnerships in and around the City Centre, with organisations putting on major events, with hotels and leisure uses. Offices are also compatible with football, as long as games are outside office hours, leaving capacity in the infrastructure. And there is also the possibility of sharing, which could allow both EFC and LFC to compete with the richest competition. The City Council could broker a deal similar to that which brought in Grosvenor eight years ago. A shared stadium, coupled with an events facility, could be provided free of capital cost to either club. But everyone needs to be at the table.

Everton have locked themselves into an agreement with Tesco which has precluded them from serious consideration of other options. Robert Elstone’s presentation on redeveloping Goodison made no mention of enabling development, just because Tesco were not interested.

There are ways out of this other than standing on a street corner trying to catch the eye of a sugar daddy.

Richard Harris
3 Posted 05/09/2008 at 11:16:43

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Manchester City gained a stadium that was build for the Commonwealth Games and rather than leaving an underused facility, the council made it available to the club. Once the club had spent money to upgrade the stadium to suit football then they had a UEFA rated stadium that hosted the UEFA cup final in 2008. Would the facilities at Kirkby (recently downgraded from world-class facilites !) be given a top UEFA rating ? I doubt it....