Colm Kavanagh has heard some worrying rumours about where we might be going next...
AFTER THE DOCK...
The dream of the Kings Dock is over
Football, they say, is a cyclical business. Top dog one minute; down in the dumps with those who make up the numbers the next. It comes to us all at some point or other — no one has the divine right to remain at the pinnacle of the game forever. Not even The School of Science, sad to say.
We've enjoyed many highs over the years... whereas, in more recent times, we've endured many low moments. You simply never know what lies around the next corner in football. The best plans can lie in ruins: a club successfully competing in the Champions League one minute can soon be fighting financial disaster and the threat of relegation the next.
It is common for fans to forever question matters at the Club they call their own. If we were in the middle of a struggle for Premiership survival right now, we'd not be looking any further than the end of the season and hopefully remaining in the top flight. As it is, our sights are set higher; the bar has been raised and not only is talk of European football in the air for next season but the possibility of Champions League football coming to Goodison cannot yet be dismissed. We should be happy with our lot, don't you think! However, football being football, nothing is constant, and every possible shortcoming at Everton Football Club seems to have been placed under microscopic inspection in recent weeks!
Our squad isn't good enough (acknowledged by many) but still that very same squad (which isn't good enough!) are giving us our very best — and most enjoyable — season for some time. Work that one out! We've little or no money to strengthen the squad and that inevitably places fear in fans minds, worried that a lack of available funds will see David Moyes grow increasingly frustrated and heading for a more ambitious club. Mark my words: many clubs will covet the services of our manager if he continues to oversee a Goodison revival.
Many clubs will also covet the services of one Wayne Rooney. How devastating a blow would it be to the hopes and dreams of Evertonians? What would the sale of young Rooney in a few seasons time tell us all? Everton are back? Or another false dawn... resigned to continually flogging the family jewels in order to pay for the bricks and mortar?
As many have continually pointed out, football success is based not on how many people you squeeze into a ground or how many corporate suits you cater for on match day. Results are the very lifeblood for a team, its manager and the club itself.
We are continually being told that we need to move from the home we all love dearly in order to survive and compete in the future. Two overwhelming mandates in favour of a move (to a ground that did what it said on the box!) seem to have sealed the fate for our glorious theatre — our home for the past one hundred and eleven years.
Why?
Why can we not even consider the option of redevelopment at Goodison?
The dream of the King's Dock project may be no longer an option but the threat (and that's how I see it) of an identikit Pride Park at an as-yet unnamed location worries me greatly. It's as though we're about to be evicted from Goodison Park without a fight!
Football, as a business, is currently going through a period of turmoil. So many clubs are being forced to tighten their belts as never before — the harsh reality of living and operating way beyond their means has finally come home to roost with dire consequences. We cannot afford to finance the strengthening of our team in a way most fans would like to see; yet we're seemingly hell bent on leaving a home we own and building a new home elsewhere with what little money we do have (presumably the £30M that was "ring-fenced" for the King 's Dock?). Again, one presumes that the cost of any new stadium will spiral above the budget allocated and then we'll have the likely scenario of "Enforced Rooney Sale Secures New Home" being spun. No thanks!
Of course, everyone gets excited about the prospect of moving into a new home. "No more obstructed views," I hear jubilant Evertonians holler! Aye, it would be nice to eradicate those obstructed views which have turned Goodison Park into a ground we simply must get out of — and quickly. People don't really want to be entertained inside a packed ground where the atmosphere created (behind pillars) is buzzing and the Blues on the pitch are giving us reason for celebration. No Sir! They simply want a nice new shiny stadium, as it's apparently the done thing these days, with more corporate boxes than the next club and a smell of fresh paint in the air. Oh, and let's give it a nice new name — in honour of our glorious corporate sponsor: the Kejian Mersey Bowl, anyone? Never mind the ridicule from outside, all that matters is the few quid brought in via naming rights.
Maybe I'm being paranoid but, when I think of clubs who have relocated to newer sites, I can't help but see those clubs all having one thing in common: struggle.
A nice new stadium plus a thriving corporate clientele does not necessarily guarantee success. Only out there, on the pitch, can a club be judged.
What's laughable though, for us, is that we really can't afford to build a new ground elsewhere as our funds are about as thin as the queue for package holidays in downtown Baghdad. We can only applaud the Club with their ambitions to create some growth on and off the field. I just so happen to think that we can only afford such growth by redeveloping our present abode.
In the past, I've made references to the remarkable facelift given to Dublin's Croke Park stadium. Literally, and I truly mean literally, this antiquated relic of a stadium has been transformed into one of Europe's finest stadiums. In doing so, they've actually increased the capacity. Their corporate hospitality has shot through the roof and, to cap it all, they've managed to secure planning permission for the retention and redevelopment of the famous Hill 16 terrace — capable of accommodating more than 13,000 standing patrons. How they secured that in this age of all-seater stadia I will never know. I could be miles off track here but I think it's a pretty significant decision and I wouldn't be one bit surprised to see a leading club in the Premiership, in time to come, apply for the return of limited terracing somewhere in the land.
Everton FC should take note of the resounding success of the Croke Park redevelopment. Most said it couldn't be done on the existing footprint, yet there it is, in all its majesty.
Ditto Goodison Park some day in the future? For the sake of The Old Lady and generations of Blues who have loved the place dearly, I sincerely hope so...
Colm Kavanagh 25 March 2003