Call me a Dock-tor!

If, like me, you just don't want to go to Kirkby for whatever reasons (mine primarily being the loss of matchday experience and it's economically suicidal to be on the periphery) you may be wondering just where else we could go.

I'm not a resident of Liverpool, but I have spent a fair bit of time there and have always been fascinated by the local history and unique urban landscape of the city. So, when I have had a bit of spare time, I have driven round and had a good look. Thinking back, it has changed a fair bit since I first visited in 1981. I vividly remember all the empty spaces post demolition with in many cases just the Pub, chippie and bookies still standing like lighthouses. I recall thinking that it would take my lifetime to rebuild what had to be cleared where tired old buildings had seen their day or Hitler's bombs had scarred the landscape. An absolutely massive job, which at the time nobody seemed to have much money for although the Tory Govt seemed very keen on planting trees for some reason.

A generation on and things have improved, but there is still work to be done and the one large area still requiring a lot of work is the area to the North of the Pier Head running up along the Dock Road and encompassing Vauxhall, Bootle, Kirkdale, Everton and accross to Walton. Therefore, I just find it amazing that nobody can seemingly find a location that would suit a football stadium. There is loads of potential space especially near the Docks, much of which appears to be derelict or burnt out and ripe for redevelopment.

As I understand it, Peel Holdings owns a lot of this land and has some very grand ideas for developing it over the next couple of decades. Would Peel not welcome a world famous football Club as part of their plans? Obviously, the deal would have to suit them too, but with support from the Council and private investors something must surely be possible.

Currently, we are led to believe that the only business on this planet prepared to aide our Club is Tesco. That is because the Kirkby development helps them. With the right scheme and the right partners who can say that Everton FC cannot have a stadium in the Docklands?

I just don't feel that the Club have explored possible opportunities like this at all. Maybe they have, but exclusivity periods, deafening silence etc only make you think otherwise. And revealing that their only research of the fanbase's views on Kirkby is to looka at a Toffeeweb poll and and talk with a few shareholers, makes you wonder whether any other businesses would take them seriously!

Of course, the doubters out there immediately shout that we have no money. We have no pot to piss in they cry. But, hang on a minute. Let's just examine a few facts here. Our income is about to go from £60m p.a. to around £80m p.a. due to the extra TV money. This will put Everton FC back in the World Top 20 Rich List. Obviously, we all want to see the Team strengthened etc, but if 'only' £5m of that £80m was used to pay off a mortgage on a stadium for the next 25 years, the Club could expect to raise maybe £50 m right now.

And then, there's us the fans. Rumoured by the Club to number 900,000 worldwide. What would you be prepared to pay as a one off towards a Stadium? £10, £100, £1000, maybe more. it would depend what you got back wouldn't it. A debenture on your Season ticket, your name on a plaque on your seat, your name listed on a wall of fans that would flow round the stadium? The possibilities are endless, but lets's say 50000 averaged £100 ( I know a lot who would pay more by the way)that would be another £5m. And that's without a share issue of course. That would have a lot more to do with a 'People's Club'.

Add on say £10m for Goodison itself, naming rights ( I see Bolton have agreed another 9 years with Reebok today ) for say another £10 million and the Club have £75m to bring to the table. I just don't buy this Skint nonsense even if wages are sky high. Chuck in some assistance from the loveable LCC,European aid for 'one of the most deprived parts of Europe ( according to Brussels )North West Development Agency assistance, Lottery funding, support from associated Retail partners on the site and you are climbing towards the £90m, maybe £100m mark.

Of course, this may seem impossible to some, but only to those with no vision. Other Clubs do it, don't they? For an outstanding Dockside stadium development, just check out Portsmouth's plans for their new Stadium. A groundbreaking wave shaped stadium incorporating 700 riverside apartments close to Portsmouth city centre. Get on their website or the local council's if you're in any doubt. It's even more central than Fratton Park. You see, they have realised that it has to be to support associated development.

Peel Holdings. Well, yes, they are an unknown quantity in some respects. It may not even be necessary to involve them if another site came up, but there is an example of them offering land to a football club in 2007. Gillingham may not set your pulse racing, but they actually occupy a location in Kent with a catchment area of 250,000 in the Medway towns alone and over 350,000 people within half an hour's drive of the Town in a booming county with no other League Club. The nearest rival being Charlton, 30 miles away.

For those that don't know the area, it has many similarities to Merseyside, being unlike the rest of Kent having supported heavy industry including the massive Chatham naval dockyard until the recent past. The potential is enormous, but the Clubhave been held back by a stadium holding only about 12000 hemmed in by Victorain terraces with no real parking and no room to expand ( sound familiar? ). Anyway, Peel Ports own a large chunk of the unused docklands and are now in advanced negotiations to sell some of this to Gillingham to build a stadium on. So, this would suggest they may be interested in doing business.

This is all conjecture, but I can't get excited about Kirkby at all. It's in the wrong place for me. Too far out of the way and no cultural interest like the city of Liverpool. I accept we must either move or find ways of expanding Goodison with a viable business partner. As the latter seems unlikely ( although again I wonder how hard BK & co have really tried ) it seems we must move.

But Kirkby seems to me the epitomy of the easy option, short term fix. Regardless of the Stadium design ( and that's another bg subject on its own! ) it's in the wrong place. Any Estate Agent will tell you, Location, Location. It's like moving to that new housing estate on the edge of town and wondering why you can't walk to the shops anymore, always have to get a taxi for a night out, and eventually realising you'd rather have a smaller house in the right location where all the action is. So you move again. That's ok for you, but not so easy for a football club.

So, we have to get this move right and I don't think this is right and I just fear that in 10 years time we'll all realise that and wish the Club had tried a bit harder to make it work in the Docklands. I suspect that the Club have their doubts too, hence the silence, but nobody is pretending this is an easy subject, Bill. If you opened this subject up to wider debate locally and nationally, who knows who might step out of the shadows with ideas and money?

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