So, the day finally arrived, a day many predicted wouldn’t happen. Everton’s magnificent new stadium on the banks of the Royal Blue Mersey opened its doors for the first time for a test event for 10,000 lucky blues who witnessed Everton U18s play their counterparts from Wigan.
Myself and a couple of mates had been lucky enough to be selected from the ballot back in January for tickets to attend the event with the intimidating South stand being the only stand open for the event. We got tickets for the upper tier.
I met Billy at Hunts Cross station to catch the 16:05 Merseyrail train to Moorfields, where we’d arranged to meet Steve and Paul. I’d suggested earlier in the day that we should go to Murphy’s Gin Distillery, a five-minute walk to the stadium as they were offering discounted prices on drinks. Everyone agreed to this! We arrived at Moorfields Station and met Steve and Paul at 16:25 and made our way towards Murphy’s.
It took about 20-25 minutes to walk down there, not bad considering Billy has had two hip replacements in the last year. As we approached Murphy’s, there was a queue out the door, a queue for the bar!! No chance we were getting in there, so went to The Ten Streets which is next door to Murphy’s. We got in without a problem but once inside, the place was heaving, and the bar looked about five deep. Still, we were in and managed to find gaps in the heaving hordes and got ourselves to the bar. There was a singer on, singing mainly Beatles songs, and a fair few Everton songs, which got the congregation joining in, adding to a great atmosphere.
We left Ten Streets at about 18:15, anticipating queues at the gates in the wall entering the stadium footprint and also queues entering the stadium itself. The walk up to the stadium simply blows you away. It looks absolutely enormous, and all lit up in blue, sending shivers down your spine.
Once at the gates in the wall, we sailed through, scanned our digital tickets, and we were in!! We’d heard, and also seen, that there were escalators up to the upper tier, but all we could see were steps up. We later found out that the turnstiles we used did not have access to the escalators which seems strange, as you’d think all turnstiles would lead to escalators? As we were in Block 213 last night, we had to use turnstiles number 13, so hopefully next season when we are in Block 209 we can use a different turnstile and have access to the escalators. Thinking more about Billy with his two replacement hips here!
Anyway, the climb wasn’t that bad, and nowhere near as bad as that away end at Newcastle. We got up and wow… the difference between this concourse and the Upper Gwladys one is something else. The refreshment bars run almost the entire length of the concourse, and as it runs down the middle, you can get served on either side of it. There are breaks in the bars every now and then for access from one side of the concourse to the other. We decided to go and locate our seats for next season in block 209.
Again, upon entering the vomitories, it’s the wow factor, seeing the pitch, the giant screens and all those thousands of blue seats reminds me of the first time I stepped inside Goodison. We’re on row 36, but only about five or six rows from the front. We found our seats which were occupied by a lady with her son. We explained that we’d come to look at our seats, so she very kindly let us stand at them while she took pictures for us. After taking a few photos ourselves, we made our way to our seats for the game.
We were on Row 56, a bit of a climb up to our seats. Even though we were that far up, the view was absolutely amazing. Scanning around the rest of the stadium just knocks you sideways. I’m thinking could we do without the white lettering that we have at Goodison, and leave it all blue? The big screens were showing the construction of the stadium from the outset. Over 3½ years ago, something that some were saying would never happen, and now here we were, sitting in it!
18:55, and then it began – the siren, followed by Z-Cars, again, sending shivers down your spine, as the two teams came out. What a fantastic moment for both teams, to be playing the first-ever game at Everton Stadium. I’m going to ditch calling it BMD from now on. Wigan were the better team, looking far more physical than ours, but also maybe the occasion got to our kids. A two-goal lead at half-time for Wigan, followed by an early dart for literally hundreds of fans, us included.
It had always been our intention to leave at half-time. Like us, I guess most people only wanted to see inside the stadium, and if they have a season ticket in the South Stand, try and locate their seat, and get tons of photos. We made our way down to the concourse, and before leaving, had a look out the windows which look back towards the city centre. Truly awe-inspiring views!
We managed to find the escalators down and out, right by the Everton Way. More photos outside the stadium, followed by the walk back to the city centre for a couple more pints. The walk back was probably no more than thirty minutes. We were sat in Ma Boyles, for anyone that knows it, at 20:40, so the game would still have been going on.
Just a final thought though. If anyone is thinking of going to Murphy’s or The Ten Streets over the next two test events, make sure you get there really early. Hopefully, one of two more bars will shortly be opening around the stadium, and even around the fan zone on the East side, which is absolutely huge.
For next season, we will probably stick around the city centre for a pint or two, then walk down to the stadium. I know the capacity was only 10k last night, so a further 40k next season could slow the walk down, there and back, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
So there you have it. Our first experience of the new Everton Stadium!