New Liverpool Arena

John Kelly 04/01/2008 15comments  |  Jump to last
Just took my boy training this evening to the Soccerdome in Wallasey and passed Woodside Ferry on the way. From there I recon you get just about the best view of the Liverpool waterfront from anywhere. Tonight was the dry run for next weeks official opening of the new Liverpool Arena and what a fantastic addition to the waterfront it is. Although it?s only a 10,000 seater stadium it looks well impressive from our side of the water

. Tonight it was bathed in blue light (note NOT crappy red) and looked massive, a truly fantastic sight that fits in perfectly with the Three Graces, Albert Dock, the Cathedrals, Beetham Tower etc. It made me sad to think what a unique opportunity Everton FC had to pass up due to lack of funds.

I stopped for a while to take in the view and imagined a stadium five times the size bathed in the same blue lights and with the famous Everton crest displayed proudly. That stadium would have made us the envy of Britain never mind the North West or even our neighbours, it?s just a bloody shame it never happened.

I?m convinced we need to do something about our ground and my first choice would be to redevelop Goodison; second would be a stadium near our present home/in Liverpool and thirdly as a last resort the Kirkby option. We all have to live in the real world but seeing the Liverpool Arena tonight made me realise what we have missed out on and where we may eventually end up.

I may now be a wool from the Wirral but was still born a blue and will die a blue. KEIOC

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Gavin Ramejkis
1   Posted 04/01/2008 at 23:21:03

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Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the blame for it not happening will always lie at the feet of Bill Kenwright who for whatever reason failed to find investment to make this a reality and plans to take the club to Kirkby instead. No matter how much spin or doctoring he could ever produce that will never change.
Anthony Newell
2   Posted 04/01/2008 at 23:19:27

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Exactly my sentiments John and I will never forget that it was Bill Kenwright who said he would definitely take us there. In fact, my old man was so proud he photocopied and framed the letter from Tony Blair printed in the newspaper that congratulated us on our move there. I hope Kenwright feels exactly what you and I feel everytime we see that missed opportunity and that’s why a second rate move to a retail park away from our roots spurning the commercial opportunities that a vibrant city location offers is not just a wooden spoon but a disposable plastic Tesco one at best
Dave Wilson
3   Posted 05/01/2008 at 07:13:59

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Feel physically sick just reading all above comments, all of you are spot on, we could/would have been the envy of the world
What a fucken open goal BK missed
Jay Campbell
4   Posted 05/01/2008 at 08:20:57

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Dave Wilson exactly mate!!! It make’s my sick that Kenwright wasn’t held accountable for that total f*ck up and another f*ckin bear faced LIE to add to his many over the years. This Kirkby situation has arisen because of all his failings over the last decade or so and he has no option but to take this shite piss poor plastic lego set that Tesco and Terry "Another True Blue" Leahy have offered.

I cannot stand Kenwright in fact i’d go as far to say that I hate him more than what I hated Ian Rush and that’s saying sommit.






tony kelly
5   Posted 05/01/2008 at 08:36:17

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the whole maddening aspect regarding the kings dock fiasco was that the club to this day have never explained why this project floundered.they just got preferred bidder status withdrawn after they were given lots of deadlines it seems to me that barrymores mate and paul gregg behaved like two petulant scoolboys.refusing to give ground to each other regarding other uses for the project they could have asked for other people to come on board to share the 30million shortfall but the pair of schoolboys declined.i was talking to bill gleeson the economic editor from the daily post shortly after preferred bidder status was withdrawn and he told me there was nothing with asking 30 evertonian millionaires to put up 1 million each and have a seat for life.but the pair of pricks didnt have the will or foresight to look into this possiibity the two of them should have hung from the banks of the royal blue mersey
ray
6   Posted 05/01/2008 at 09:41:57

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I just thank the Lord the Red Shite didn’t build there..........that’s the stuff of nightmares.
Phil Wood
7   Posted 05/01/2008 at 10:52:31

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Having spent several hours reading through the justification for stripping our great club of any future stature that is the "Proposed Stadium for EFC pdf" last night and now reading this this morning I simply feel sick at the whole fiasco!
Steve Hogan
8   Posted 05/01/2008 at 11:34:20

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Gavin, Anthony, Jay, I too feel pretty sick when I pass the new arena bathed in blue and floodlit for miles around.

It?s a bit like Jim Bowen saying ? this is what you could have won?. but your pathological hatred of Kenwright is I think unfair.

The problem with the demise of the Kings Dock project was that to my knowledge the club never publicly stated why it fell through, so people were left to second guess as to the real scenario.

As to Kenwright, don?t forget this is the guy who bailed us out from agent Johnson when others would?nt touch us with a bargepole.

He was guilty of mismanagement of the project, not mass murder on a grand scale as some of you state in your letters.

Is this the same guy who is also responsible for sticking with Moyes when 12 months ago all around were calling for his head?

Look over to our friends across the park and see what happens when the wrong people buy a ?franchise? (their words not mine).

Kenwrights not perfect but he ain?t the devil incarnate either.

paul c
9   Posted 05/01/2008 at 13:45:31

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i can help but think that the council had somethin to do with the kings dock failure. Like they already had plans for the echo stadium to be built there.

maybe im just being paranoid!?!
Dave Trudgeon
10   Posted 05/01/2008 at 14:19:17

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From what I remember the Kings Dock project went from £150mil to £350mil by the time the final planning permission and everything went through?
How could we ever bankroll that?
Anthony Newell
11   Posted 05/01/2008 at 21:32:53

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Steve, I wouldn’t say I have a pathological hatred for Kenwright. I just thought he made an arse of himself by promising to the fans that it was a certainty we were moving there. On the basis of a promise like that any fan would be naturally disappointed after it went tits up. A Chairman with a bit more commercial nouse would have been a lot more careful about making promises like that. The same Kenwright who rears his head with things are going well, appearing on Footy Focus and telliing pundits we are going to win the league when we have rattled out a succession of 1-0’s and broken into the top four. The same Kenwright who’s heart tells him Kirkby isn’t right so best leave it to the ’business people’ and a fans vote. I thank Kenwright for putting his arse and house on the line in order wrest the club from the clutches of Agent Johnson but if we aspire to be an ’Arsenal’ of this world then we need someone to have the commercial and business accumen not just the passion for his side. The stadium on the riverside stands as a monument of what could have been and that is why Tesco and Kirkby is definitely a case of blankety blank cheque book and pen
Colin Potter
12   Posted 06/01/2008 at 10:08:58

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Dave Wilson,
He never just missed an open goal he missed it delibretley, because he would have had to share the train set, and as far as Billy Liar putting his house on the line for us, I for one do not believe it, I would have to see it in legal black and white, because I would not trust him one inch.
Gavin Ramejkis
13   Posted 06/01/2008 at 10:47:24

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Colin I agree with you on my level of mistrust for BK and KW, if they ever shook my hand I’d count my fingers afterwards.
Kevin Mitchell
14   Posted 06/01/2008 at 17:28:57

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I too live on the Wirral, and when I drive around Woodside I can't even look at the new arena on Kings Dock. For me it represents a defining moment in our history. It was a lost chance to say to the world "We're here to compete with anyone".
So here we are, 6 or 7 years later on the brink of nothing short of a major disaster if we move to Kirkby.
How did we get to this situation? I for one will never ever forgive BK or the people who voted for this nonsense.
For me the Everton FC I have worshiped for the last 45 years will be no more.
Peter Nickson
15   Posted 06/01/2008 at 17:46:31

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Can we please drop the negativity. I suspect that there is a lot more to the failure of the King?s Dock project than we will ever know as the general public. Why do so many of you turn your negativity inwards and attack your own? Bill Kenwright is one of us. He may not always succeed, he may not always live up to your hopes and dreams, but that?s life and that?s human and that?s all of us.

Like everyone else I dreamt about the Everton blue and crest being on every photograph ever taken of the waterfront, on every image everywhere around the world. The stadium image was my desktop wallpaper. I am sure that BK had those same dreams. But it fell through. Rising costs, politics, mismanagement ? whatever ? I don?t know. I find these hateful remarks completely unpalatable, childish and petulant. There are much more important things to vent anger at if that?s what you need to do. I for one, and I?ve said this before on this website, will continue to support EFC at Kirkby or wherever.

Michael Brien
16   Posted 07/01/2008 at 12:49:44

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I have to agree with Peter Nickson on this ? the negativity and the hatred towards Kenwright is not justified. Perhaps we will never know the real reasons for the failure of the Waterfront bid.Maybe Kenwright made mistakes ? but at least his heart is in the right place. We are paying the penalty for mismanagement ? yes, but not all of it is down to Kenwright.Indeed most of the mismanagement is the fault of previous chairmen.

The hateful comments towards Kenwright don?t help and indeed there are people who have suffered far worse injustices who react in a far more responsible way.


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