One would assume ? perhaps naively even given the shortening timescale ? that designs/artists' impressions of some sort will be released prior to the vote...?

Spot on again, Peter. Sounds odd but I suspect that the Club is quite relieved to see indicators such as the TW vote (currently 57% against) even though things seem not to working in their favour. I say this because I?m sure that BK and KW see the 43% pro-Kirkby as a solid block on which they can build. Had polls such as the TW vote revealed an 80%-20% anti-Kirkby vote, I?m sure that BK and KW would have seen that as too big a challenge and they would have all but conceded the issue and started to formulate a face-saving exit strategy (eg, ?we only ever said we would explore options?).

However, as it stands, the Club knows that it has almost 50% of the fans already on side. All they need do now is work to convince another 25-30% and they?ve cracked it. And I?m sure the Club know all the right buttons to press. So, I agree with Lyndon?s comment that we will surely be in receipt of further information pre-ballot. Just enough morsels to sway those who are currently wavering. With some cleverly worded, highly nuanced, questions that even the Electoral Reform bods won?t be able to see through.

Like Peter, I predict that there will an overwhelming vote in favour of Kirkby and I forecast 76% v 24% (crucially more than three-quarters of the fan base). I?ve no doubt that very soon we will start to hear, on the drip, just how fantastic this new stadium will be and there will be more than a few placatory nods to tradition (four distinct stands enabling us to name each one after Everton heroes, Dean, Young, Kendall etc; some mention of flavouring the ground with powerful symbols like the Archie Leach criss-crosses etc). I also think the Club has done its demographic homework and knows the general make-up of the 33,000 who are eligible to vote. So the question for those, like me, who are anti-Kirkby is: how resolute is your opposition and why are you opposed?

If you?re prepared to be ?wowed? by the glossy images and the rhetoric that will surely accompany them, then you?re exactly the type of fan that the Club is banking on to bolster the 43% they already seem to have convinced. I personally believe that this new stadium will, in terms of presentation, be really tempting (and the Club won?t be daft enough to issue the type of hang-on-to-your-stetsons graphics that accompanied the 1997 vote to go to the Hamperdome).

But it won?t convince me. It can?t convince me. Because my opposition is not a question of design, aesthetics, revenue-streams etc. As has been discussed ad infinitum during this long-wet-no-news-Everton-summer on forums like TW, the vast majority of Kirkby naysayers hold their view simply because, for them, there is only one issue that matters: the Liver Bird sacrifice and all that goes with it. Pro-Kirkbyites just don?t get this ? and I respect their view.

What I would say, though, to those who currently believe themselves to be Anti-Kirkby is ?are you?? If you are, then as you look at the PR images and you inevitably go through that doubt-filled moment of thought ?actually jer know what....?, just remember the banner on the kop last March (One city, One club, One team, Liverpool) and try to imagine the fest of shite they?ll throw at us from the Bullens come the October derby (?fuck off to Kirkby?, ?small club, small town? etc) and remind yourself why your gut instinct is telling you that moving to the edge of the M57 is a freeway to disaster.

Ultimately, though, I feel that even this posting is futile because, like Peter, I believe it?s a nailed-on cert that the vote will be ?as desired? and I?m equally certain we will be playing in Kirkby within five years and nothing we do or say is going to change that. It?s got to be worth fighting to the end though. So, does your ?no? mean ?no? ... or don?t you know?

Peter, we are going to be done like a kipper.

Unfortunately for you, the Club are releasing plans of the new stadium later this week.

Stadium plans to be released this week, some broad financial figures given today.

Yeah Peter, you told us so didn?t you.....

Nothing quite like going off ?half-cocked? is there ?

Guys,I?m not a red or a blue, so I don?t have any vested interest, except I used to be a regular visitor to the city. I?m a Scot and it don?t matter where I go or where I live I?m still a Scot. Surely thats what being a Blue is, it's a state of mind! and geography doesn't really come into it.