What if the Tesco offer hadn't happened?

couldn’t of put it better myself

I do not personally get to many games any more as i live in Canada. But when i come home to Merseyside i do look forwad to getting to Goodison Park as often as i can. I used to be a season ticket holder in the early seventies. I follow EVERTON very closely on the internet and as many games as i can on TV. I know only too well how delapidated Goodison Park is becoming and how important it is for us to improve these conditions. My personel feelings are that if the present board cannot find a way to rebiuld Goodison Park were she stands! then lets find a new board of diectors that can. I believe it is there job to make this happen . I do not know if when i come home and there is no Goodison Park i will bother to make the effort to go out side of Liverpool to whatch EVERTON play football. There will be too much left behind if we leave Goodison Park. Do we really want to move the Dixie Dean statue, i for one would not like to see that particular land mark moved.

Paul B.

Propoganda article.

I have read loads and loads of articles saying we should embrace change and move but to me goodison park and liverpool is the home of everton football club and to leave would be the worst thing we would ever do. bill(kenwright) & keith(wyness) think about it seriously. A BIG NO to kirkby.

Very good point Louisa.

The Board have known for a long time that we need a new ground but don’t appear to have made any positive steps to do something about it and have left it up to others (Tesco, GFE/KEIOC, and now BestWay)to sort out their mess for them.

interesting point of view... but the situation we are in can’t now be changed.

Have you considered what would happen if the board did tell Tesco and Knowsley that they needed more time to consider potential competitive alternatives? This is a business decision; would it be realistic for Tesco and Knowsley to sit around waiting whilst EFC assess what the competition has to offer? What if this opportunity evaporates because EFC delay the decision? And what if we end up relying on LCC to come up with alternatives which are not viable - back to the Kings Dock fiasco!

The fact of the matter is, this is simply too good an opportunity to miss:
+ Land provided FOC by Knowsley
+ Stadium built for two thirds of the development cost by Tesco contractors
+ EFC fund the stadium fixtures and fittings

I also think it is about time people started getting behind BW - you don’t have too look to far back to the state of the club before he arrived. For me his track record has been pretty sound to date:
+ delivered Fincham
+ invested in the team, which is significantly better than at anytime during the last 5 years (albeit a bit small)

Without revenue, this great club will stand still... and on the basis of the opportunity before us, it really is a no brainer - vote YES!

COYB

Colin who is BW? Is he the bastard child of the liar and the thief?

It really is getting desperate when your posting this sort of stuff as main articles

the way i see it is.
it is happening its costing us next to nothing
and we’ll be better of financially
and most of all be able to compete
for players

Compete for players??
WAKE UP!!
This board has a proven track record of wasting opportunites and most of all money.
DOES ANYONE REALLY BELIEVE THAT THEY WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO BALLS IT ALL UP IN KIRKBY?
They have also proven that they are willing to say anything to deflect from their shortcomings.
What about saying that they bid £10m for Michael Owen, when everyone knew that the price was £17m? £4m for Baines when the price has already been set at £6M? I think that we will add Gonzalez to that list also.
I have said this before, Everton as a business are a joke from top to bottom.That is down to BK and the board.NO-ONE ELSE>
If we move to Kirkby, they will cock that up or will sell us on at the first opportunity.
VOTE NO TO KIRKBY

This site is starting to show its true colours now
it seems that every anti-move letter is a main article
very disappointing

Couldn’t agree more Louisa. If the ballot question was put differently i.e A -should we move to Kirkby or B- Investigate other sites within the city, it would be no contest. The fact that the club aren’t offering an alternative and have effectively prevented any alternatives being discussed due to the exclusivety agreement has panicked most fans. We can investigate the alternatives and still keep the Kirkby option open imo, there is no bloody rush and Knowsley / Tesco will have to wait, and they will because the success of their project hinges on EFC not the other way round.
A No vote is the sensible choice on the basis that the club has not fully explored all the options. WE have 3 votes in my family across all generations and we all say NO.

What if there was no Tesco/KBC? Simple, there would be no move, leastways not anywhere this side of 2050+. LCC would be happy to leave us to stew as they have done so far. Look at the calibre of who’s leading that outfit ffs and how they’re responding to all this. Happy to talk of cow sheds but rule out any possibility of us building on anywhere viable such as Walton Hall Park. Commercial partners would be falling over themselves to help us build on that site. Yet LFC are allowed to build on Stanley Park. LCC would rather big up some god forsaken roundabout we could barely squeeze into and its myriad of problems. Bestway see it as a chance to escape to some other better commercial site eg GP? that’s why they’ve expressed interest. BUT NOTE they are not committing to fund any construction. This and other non-starters are being bandied about simply so LCC can save face. C’mon people get real there is no plan B simply because without the partners we have now any talk of a move is simply a dream. The inescapable facts are we’re skint we can’t afford to invest, even our operating finances are flakey, GP is slowly decaying and taking more each year simply to maintain. I’d wish we could stay closer to our roots who wouldn’t. Nobody I know thinks the move won’t be a wrench. But the real choice is either we get out or we get nowt. Then think about the futures associated with those alternatives. Vote YES.

just read colin hodgsons reply with mouth wide open!!kenwrights track record pretty sound!!
1.kings dock debacle.
2.n.t.l debacle.
3.the fortress sport fund fiasco,which i still cant believe he got away with!
4.trevor birch!.
5.the fact everyone he does business with is his best mate!
6.i could go on.
i dont doubt kenwright is a big evertonian,but so am i,but i know i couldnt run everton and neither can he!

I’ve heard that some Kirkby residents have already received letters telling them they have to vacate their properties, doesn’t that worry people. Vote NO just to see how far ’the done deal’ has progressed. We are from Liverpool not Kirkby , Bolton or any other town. We are a City club with a proud tradition. One city TWO clubs. Why not move to Dublin or Chester? It’s not about distance it’s about geography, Kirkby is not and never will be Liverpool. By the way Merseyside only became a common phrase when Everton became successful in the mid 80s prior to that Liverpool the team and city was the phrase used. As far as I’m concerned Everton win for Everton and not Merseyside. But Everton do and alwasys have represented the City of Liverpool(apart from the very early years).

If I owned a huge stake in a business and I could pay anywhere between £15 - £50m to get something worth circa £150m then of course I would be pushing for that to happen. I don’t - I’m a season ticket holder of 20 years and EFC belong in the City of Liverpool. Say no to Kirkby and lets move somehwere where people don’t need to vote on.

What if the Tesco offer had not happened..? To be honest i can’t even be bothered to even read the article..it HAS happened..end of story.

VOTE NO! VOTE NO!

A ’NO to Kirkby’ reply from Evertonians united against this disastrous Kenwright will force change at the club - even if it is the axe of the fall guy Wyness.

The club will have to look for alternatives then.

Vote No... Kenwright Out..

Vote no and add Everton’s name to the list of now defunct companies that includes Liverpool docks and Cammell Lairds,stand still and die

When did everyone get so Bitter on this site! Why cant we have a plan B, Why cant we have 300 million be build a ground in the the city. KEIOC have you got 200-300 million for a new ground? If you have, buy the club, if not Zip it!

Spot on. Kirkby’s only merits are negatives. It’s not as bad as Goodison, better than nothing etc. I haven’t seen a single post of anybody geting excited about Kirkby!

The only argument anybody can give is that we’ll be better off financially, which is unproven in many respects. There is no credible Market Research to even back this up! It’s all supposiion and guesswork.

You Pro-movers seem to have given up the ghost at the first hurdle. Fat lot of good you’d be in a crisis. You have to fight for what you believe in. If you believe Everton FC belongs in Liverpool the city you have to Vote No. Stop being panicked into thinking there is no alternative. Even if there wasn’t one now ( and there may well be ) times change, things happen. Everton’s fortunes have ebbed and flowed over the years... isn’t believing that we will win something some day what keeps you going to the match? And I would say we have a better chance of finding a Stadium solution within the city in the next 5 years than winning a cup!

Think about it and stop letting BK & KW panic you into an IRREVERSIBLE decision...

Forget the Kirkby issue for a moment. If Bestway/LCC had come up with their proposal for a ground move to the loop with all of its apparant lack of funding etc, how many of us would even have given it a second glance?
Would there be a protest saying how we should not move from Goodison to such a poor site?
If we have to move, I have just spent all of 10 minutes looking at the OS map of Liverpool and have found at least half a dozen sites that look large enonough to accomodate a stadium of the required size. No doubt there are problems with each site, but one difficulty raises its ugly head above all the others, nobody is willing to part-fund any of them (at least not to my knowledge).
To everybody who doesn’t want to move out of Liverpool; go find somewhere that’s available, make a business proposal to somebody re funding etc and get it sorted, then published and read by those eligible to vote, and, may I suggest, you get it done pretty damned quickly.
To misinterpret Edmund Burke "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing."

I’ve been pro-Kirby for a long time, but I’m going to vote ’NO’. I’m fed up of being pushed into a ’YES’ vote with the no-choice argument.
The board have supplied little evidence that they have fully investigated other alternatives, Instead of vigorously looking at the Bestway proposal they are ignoring it.
Tesco and Kirby smacks of a done-deal.
Ignore the panic mongering, which face it I’ve fallen for, and vote ’NO’ and make the board look at alternatives.

Louisa, my sentiments exactly...well done. What is the problem in waiting until the end of next week to hear why LCC and Bestway believe that the Scotland Road site is a VIABLE option. If they can prove that there are private sector funds available to finance the construction of a new stadium, nothwithstanding the offer of a prime piece of real estate on the edge of a vibrant city centre free of charge, the Kirby option will be confined to the bin where it belongs. Let’s wait and see what they have to offer next week.

"1.kings dock debacle.
2.n.t.l debacle.
3.the fortress sport fund fiasco,which i still cant believe he got away with!
4.trevor birch!.
5.the fact everyone he does business with is his best mate!
6.i could go on."

Go on then mate, tell me some more...

No John what you have fallen for is the pie in the sky alternative dreamt up by people who only have there own interests at heart
probably the same people who oppossed the kings dock

Will you piss off with your ’what if’ scenarios. It’s all pie in the sky bullshit. A rather churlish and quite frankly idiotic attempt at detracting from the attractive, and very real, Tesco offer.

So dissapointed that I share the same name as the foul mouthed potherb, Ryan Crest...are you a porn star by any chance?

I read articles like this and then heave a huge sigh of relief we’re all voting in the comfort of our own homes with the clubs brochure on our laps - and no ’net twaddle to confuse and distort things.:)

The very fact that this issue is proving so divisive amongst us is good enough reason to vote No. We’re talking about building a home for the next 100+ years here so it has to feel right for the vast majority of Evertonians. Kirkby just doesn’t feel right for me and evidently many others. I don’t trust the board and their motives and I don’t like the sneaky tactics the club employ e.g pushing the likes of Arteta and Cahill out in front of the press to tell us how Kirkby is the only option and the main reason they signed long term contracts. So I take it they’ve signed a guarantee to still be at the club when the Tescodome opens for business in 4 years ?!! Utter bollocks.

In retort to Frank MacGregor, I don’t think you can compare EFC to Cammell Lairds or Liverpool Docks mate. Last time I checked, shipbuilding was an industry in decline, if not almost completely finished in the UK. Football, especially the English Premier League, is not exactly an industry in decline. Rather, it’s a booming business.

Business. Now that says to me, making money. Is that not the real reason Bully Wyness and Bill Kenwright are looking for the quick fix Kirkby option? Would certainly explain the scaremongering no?

If Kenwright was as blue as he claims he’d do one and let someone who CAN take the club forward without Tesco as a crutch come in and take the reigns. Or at least do some bloody work kicking some arses on the board and looking into alternatives that he knows his fellow fans want so badly.

COYB

Hey Colin to quote you "And what if we end up relying on LCC to come up with alternatives which are not viable - back to the Kings Dock fiasco!"

It wasn’t LCC that made Kings Docka fiasco,it was the Board that have committed numerous fiascos in the past (see ian demo above) and now they are trying to promulgate another one WITH NO PLAN B??

But as we now know there is a Plan B AND C.

Why did they tell us that GP cannot be redeveloped when it has been proven that it so obviously can?

If the reason is they don’t have the money (it’s not "deliverable")then say so and not give us bullshit about a "Deal of the Century" (which ws King’s Dock by the way)


Delivered Fincham? We don’t own it!

Invested in the team? Now just where did that AJ money come from again?

Land provided freeo f charge by Knowsley? -Land provided FOC by Bestway.

So what was your point again????

Dan,

On no posters being excited about Kirkby. There have been before it’s just gets boring saying the same thing over and over and dealing with the persistant pessimism many people have particularly on this site about the board and club.

Just to cheer you up though I’m excited about Kirkby. I like the ground design and think the transport options are way better than Walton. I know this will annoy many but I think it’s really good deal and am astonishingly sceptical about redeveloping Goodison and only slightly less about the Loop which has popped up almost by magic.


*whistles optomistically*

And um if anyone can explain the logic of "because it’s so divisive we should vote no" I’d be delighted to know.

Congratulations Loisa;

There are more and more people seeing through this crappy deal.

People like yourself will be remembered for a long time if as I believe the fans are changing their mind and are going to VOTE NO.

I have been harping on about this all summer to all and sundry and now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel(sic).

Vote No, support our beloved team as the season gets under way and watch the alternatives come to the front speedily.

Chris Roberts: good deals scarcely if ever come out of exclusivity. Exclusivity means the party demanding it dictates the terms. That’s the Tesco way in all kinds of business and that’s why they are able to reap huge profits.

Good deals come from competition (compare the exclusive Sky telly deal to the present one) and I see no competing alternatives here.

Kirkby might easily be our only option and the transportation might be good, the stadium design might be astonishing but you can be assured that we’re being ripped off in the process.

Chris,
The logic behind my statement is that had Tesco offered to provide the same stadium in say Everton or Walton you can be sure support would be almost unanimous amongst those fans who, like yourself believe that redeveloping Goodison is a non-starter. The rest of us would probably eventually accept the move with some regret. The fact that so many are against the Kirkby option should tell you that the club is in danger of alienating itself from a sizeable portion of its fanbase, not to mention the potential support of future generations of scousers. Kirkby is a fine town and its residents are mainly from pure scouse stock but the club belongs closer to its roots.

can i still use my vouchers from the kings dock!!!!!!!!!

I demand we get rid of the Z Cars theme! Apparently, the programme was about coppers based in a town outside the city boundary. Kirkby I think it was called. What next? First team players that aren’t scousers?

Everton FC = Tight fisted, poor boys! Get to Kirkby and get a free stadium before Goodison collapses on all you bitters!

EFC have no money to support a stadium anywhere else, thats why you need investment and the only major invester is....yes you guessed it TESCO!

The most important decision in Evertons’history is being overseen by the most inept board ever. The fact that we apparently have no other workeable option is down to another failure of this board. For Everton to move forward we must force Kenwright to give up his dream before it rapidly turns into a nightmare. We need a new stadium and we need new direction but that means new management.It’s our duty to get this right.Please vote no to Kirkby but also vote no to this board.

For weeks and weeks and months I have been battling with way to to go on the relocation vote.

I have the same sentiments as everyone of course. Yes I want us to have a better ground, better facilities, better income, but hate the thought of leaving the city and all the ammunition that will give the shite in future.

But this last few weeks has made my mind up. I do not want to go into such an enormous venture with the current board. Kenright and Co just dont seem capable of tying their own shoelaces at the moment let alone a project of this scale and importance.

If we had people in place with the business sense, experience and leadership required I would be swung to a yes vote ....just. The way the summer’s transfers (and nontransfers) have been handled has reminded me of who exactly would be running this show and I have absolutely zero faith left in Kenright, very little in the rest of the crew, and I am now actually seeing/predicting a complete cock up costing us millions if not something worse. If this is mishandled it has the potential to completely crush the club. And I can think of no more likely people to mishandle it than our board unfortunately.

I am voting No. That doesnt mean never... it just means not with this bunch of clowns running the show. More like a vote of confidence to be honest and that has made my mind up very easily.

How many times - there is no better deal for the club. There might be other options but they would cost far too many millions. Hello, any investors out there? Er, no.

If you vote no then expect to stay in the decrepit hole that is Goodison for ever and witness a slow, terminal decline into oblivion.

Also, I’d rather play in a stadium backed by Tesco. Who the hell are Bestway? Are they like Farmfoods? Wow, real quality commercial partners then.

KILL BILL III

We can’t even fill Goodison so why will we fill a 50k seater in the north pole, out of the way? I think Kenwright has reached his ceiling. Im sick of these, "he’s a loyal blue, we dont want to do a Leeds, we can make steady progress" comments. Kenwrights best bit of business was signing Moyes (his saviour) and now he needs to go FOR THE GOOD OF HIS BELOVED EFC. We dont want an arse to fleece us but the RIGHT investment. I want to see how BK has aggressively marketed this club to potential backers....I dont believe he has AT ALL.

Liverpoo get away with a lot of stuff like building on Stanley Park because a. they are called ’Liverpool’ and b. they have money. Its sickening.

Say No to Kirkby, Kill Bill

Quote "If we vote No then the board will be forced to look at the alternatives, but it’s just ridiculous that they haven?t done this properly earlier"

If we vote no, the board will ignore that and we will still move to kirkby.

If we go to Kirkby at least we’ll have a new song to sing.

So fare thee well, my own true love
When I return united we will be
It’s not the leaving of Liverpool that’s grieving me
But my lady when I think of thee

It’s all very well referring to Nil Satis Nisi Optimum, or (as another T’web article has) to say we are the fouth most successful English club.

The problem is neither Latin mottoes nor historical success are going to buy us a stadium we can’t afford!

Great article. No plan B ? If we all said no that shower of S***e that supposedly run our club would have to come up with something, or even better get out!! Ian Demo, were do these BK lovers come from ? How many times do we have to explain to them the man (and his fat arse sidekick) are bungling fools who only ever come out of the woodwork when something goes right (not very often then)And dont forget, when PJ the spy took his chums on the bus to be chased off Kirkby golf course by the members (remember?)well good old uncle Bill was on board then!!Maybe he’s got some sort of affinity with Kirkby, who knows ? It all smells a bit fishy to me so lets tell the board to find alternatives or get out NOW.

It’s purely down to the board that we have no investors looking at us.
There are more multi millionaires now than ever all over the globe, selling to a rich arab or yank who knows nothing about ’soccer’ doesn’t worry me in the slightest..EFC is a business with very good prospects...don’t tell me it’s not possible to get an investor..it’s because the board (Bill) do not want outsiders coming in.
Bill is a very emotional evertonian and will always be held in high regard with most blues but he simply can’t afford to take us to the next level..shame but that’s the way it is.
Come on Bill, get the investment or move on.

I’m not so much against moving, as I am about being given bullshit scare stories of not being able to get into poor old dilapidated GP within the next decade because it’s falling to bits. Now, call me cynical, but does that seem likely to you?

Yes, we need more corporate boxes, however much I despise these jumpers onto the trendy football bandwagon (a generalisation, I know, but not too far removed from the truth). Yes, we need new investment to help us take us to the next level, because there’s no such thing as standing still in football; What you’re really doing is going backwards. It’s not even moving to Kirkby that galls me so much, even though I have massive reservations about it. What pissed me off the most is being taken for a bleeding idiot by the current board. If we are after more seats, why not simply put a top tier on the Park End? That’s another 6-7,000 seats right there, with a minimum increase in revenue of over 0?5200,000 per match just from your league games. Add in a couple of matches from a half decent cup run, and there’s your extra millions for players right there.

However, here is a point that nobody seems to have raised yet; Again, call my cynical, but with a new stadium having been built largely as a result of other people’s largesse, and this meaning the club is relatively debt free, would it surprise anybody to find that within, say, 3 years of moving to Kirkby those overseas buyers are actually very interested in buying Everton after all, and that Uncle Bill’s shares in Everton have sky-rocketed in value?

And how come is it that every time we have had a real opportunity to progress where it really matters, on the pitch, we’ve let it slip away, 95, 03, 05, NOW, and have failed to give our manager good funds to go out and really improve the squad, yet whenever the board want something off us, more money, a ’yes’ vote, renew our season tickets, etc, it always comes with a promise of having more money to spend on new players?

It’s a f**king disgrace that this season has seen our money from Sky double, and yet, before we actually sign Baines, we have bought one player for 0?54 million and sold two for over 5 million (Beats & Naysmith), and have released Pistone & Wright whose combined wages were reported to have been somewhere near 0?535-40K a week. I’ll vote for a move when the club offers a clear and open result from a feasibility study from 2 or 3 sites,and can actually prove the redevelopment of GP is too expensive. When that’s done they can willingly have my vote.

Ok listen up, Ive just found i site its in north Liverpool, and amazingly it already has a 40,000 seat stadium in place, and yes KW it has four sides i counted them twice, and this 40,000 capacity is achieved with 2 stands built in the 1920s and one in 1970. just imagine using modern construction practices you could do with that!!

with apparantly £80 million debt, who would want to buy this club and the build a new stadium. tescos help is great so the new stadium will be built , new players will be interested to a premiership club with prospects not one that lives in the past on the 1995 fa cup final !! then hopefully a new takeover bid will emerge and did what kenwright did to johnson. kenwright hasnt got the money to make efc a top 4 club in the premiership so get out while the goings good (stick to acting in coronation street)