ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Goodison

Going to away games always makes me proud to be an Evertonian. The huge number of fans, the noise, and the banter. Win or lose. Great days.

Going to Goodison is a day at home, go with your mate, take your kids, take you wife. Shout, sing and basically wait for your heart to resume its normal tick of life. Going to Goodison is beyond my attempt of literature and my inability to convey words that would only begin to tell you what I feel.

A scouser I am not but Goodison is my home. So, regarding Kirkby and our CEO talking about no plan B, I feel cold. My identity, my footprint, my home is not for him to play a hand of cards with Tesco, with LCC or with Knowlsey. He must understand that to lose Goodison maybe a ground upgrade for him but for me...

If he needs money to repair Goodison, why does he not ask? Every single Everton fan I have spoken to would put cash towards this project. If we stay at the 40,000 limit, who cares? Not the fans that?s for sure ? and my view, teams hate coming to Goodison.

Finally, I cannot believe that Everton FC cannot find financial assistance by staying at Goodison. Companies and investors love loyalty, they absolutely love it. Goodison Park, the home of Everton Football Club.

Please, be real, understand what you say when you talk about Everton Football Club leaving Goodison park. Understand your identity.
Mike Gwyer, Wales Posted 24/07/2007 at 20:50:19

back Return to the Mail Bag

Comments

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

Karl Jones
1 Posted 24/07/2007 at 21:40:42

Mike, I completely understand your sentiments and if I let my heart rule my head I would agree with you, but I want Everton to be challenging for the top four and cups again.
We had a glimmer last season with Fernandes and how another couple of signings like him could really push Everton upwards.We could not even afford to sign him. Spurs are pushing upwards by investing 25-30 million and even with an average manager they are starting to regularly compete with the top four and play exciting football.Thats the challenge we face.
We have to move to attract corporate investment on a regular basis Exec boxes etc..
It just isnt going to happen if we remain at Goodison.

David Barks
2 Posted 24/07/2007 at 21:52:27

That is very sentimental and all but I would have to ask you to read the beginning of your last paragraph and apply that to yourself: "Please, be real"

We have to have a new stadium to be able to compete, there is no other way around that. Think if you were going to buy a baseball team in America. (I’m using baseball because you probably know as much about that sport as all these investors know about football and Everton, and for that I don’t blame you at all) You would be investing to make money on that team, so you are going to look around for the best option. One team has a brand new stadium with a capacity of 50-55,000 and state of the art corporate suites. The other team has a stadium that is very old and outdated with only 40,000 seats and hardly any corporate boxes. Which one are you going to pick? Any smart investor who has the money needed to buy a club would not look at the history of the club or the loyalty in staying in the same stadium for so long as their most important factor. They are going to look at which one provides them with the best option to make the most amount of money.

Gavin Ramejkis
3 Posted 24/07/2007 at 22:07:46

David you are correct in saying an investor performs due dilligence to assess various components before they buy, but any investor looking at the club would see from the club’s own figures that the majority of it’s attending support are local to the current stadium, they also look at performance in terms of this entertainment brandin it’s market i.e. league placing and trophy hauls. Everton is crying out for investment and in the city of Liverpool offers a unique opportunity of one of the most successful footballing cities in the world. Creating a new shiny stadia with no guarantees beyond the so called extra 4.5m potential customers (I worked for a car dealership that used those type of rules but the reasons behind buying a car and attending a football match are light years apart) the formulae just doesn’t make sense. I don’t doubt the footfall would not drop significantly at first but to claim a sudden demand for seats and corporates lining up is beyond optomistic, corporates want to be associated with success, in concentrating on a new stadia BK and KW are putting the cart before the horse.

I agree we need a new stadium just to match the middle tier sides but the claims of GP is falling down and attendances will need to be reduced is scaremongering and false, I’d prefer to hear alternatives in the city and some home truths on the true state of the club, the new stadia has gone from free to adding little to our debt; if we can’t afford new players to add to the tiniest squad out there how can we afford more debt?

Brett
4 Posted 24/07/2007 at 22:14:53

If the reason of buying a new stadium is 10,000-15,000 more seats, corporate boxes and to attract outside investiment.

Surely giving Goodison a hard earned make-over should not bed over-looked? Filling in the empty corners would be a starting point, and for a fraction of the cost!

Long live Goodison Park!

David Barks
5 Posted 24/07/2007 at 22:49:59

Gavin, I agree that they would also do that research into the fan base. But they would see that this proposed move would only be 4 miles. They would also see the potential that those numbers within a 45 minute drive that Wyness spoke of. I know that all those people aren’t going to become Evertonians all of a sudden, but I think that there is the potential for the fan base to grow in an area that is going to be massively renovated. I also think that what was meant by those numbers was that it would bring more people within a 45 minutes drive to the stadium, therefore drawing more fans to the games from that area that are already Evertonians.

Dick Fearon
6 Posted 24/07/2007 at 22:59:31

Mike, thousands emphasise with your feelings about Goodison but it all comes down to money and its getting of. You are probably correct that investers love loyalty but most of all they love profit plus the prestige and glamour of a dynamic succesful institution. Is there anyone out there with a few hundred million going spare and is prepared to use most of it on building a new stadium? Your guess is as good as mine as to whether such a saviour might turn up. If we stay at Goodison every passing day sees a deterioration in its structure. Increasing cost of maintenance will take a bigger slice of the income that otherwise would be used to improve the playing side.

Marc R
7 Posted 24/07/2007 at 23:57:57

Listen Barks,
I meant no offence by my last message to you, but you just keep digging yourself new holes..

You may have been to Goodison a few times but you obviously understand nothing about the people of Liverpool and our game of football. We are not some American fucking franchise club you can ship around looking for a few more manc fans- you have been watching too much US sports mate so of course you think nothing of it but this is English FOOTBALL and we are EVERTONFC. If you are coming on here simply to repeat all the shite that Wyness has been spouting lately, then I think it is only fair that you mention at the bottom of your posts where you come from and whether it is a place where people are more than likely to believe any glitzy bullshit they are fed in the media. This will allow people to take your views with a bucket of salt.
You may also want to admit if you have links to some of the thickest poliiticians the world has ever known, else people may be offended by your ability to state something which comes across entirely in the opposite sense from which you mean to say it.
Hope that doesnt sound too ’racist (which it probably does?), but rest assured Ive got a cousin lives in Springfield Illinois, who may have a mullet and a gun but he is not as dumb as his nationality portrays.

David Barks
8 Posted 25/07/2007 at 02:02:56

Mark, What the fuck are you talking about and just who the fuck do you think you are? You don’t know a fucking thing about me or my politics, but I’ll tell ya just for the hell of it. I’m a socialist, think Bush and his entire government should be thrown in jail, along with Englands former poodle of a prime minister, and don’t have a mullet and a gun like your inbred cousin from Illinois, which I have no idea why you even bring up. But as always you don’t address any of my arguement, but instead choose to call me a stupid Yank just because I am currently making a living in the U.S. AND TRY TO GET THIS THROUGH YOUR SKULL, MY ENTIRE FAMILY IS FROM LIVERPOOL!!!!!!! I was on my way to do my post-graduate work at the University of Liverpool and spend the rest of my life around my family in Liverpool until I met my wife and got married. I’m not some all-American kid as you seem to believe for some reason. SO LETS TRY AGAIN, I’M ENGLISH!!!!! I see posts coming in from Spain, Holland, Mexico, all with English names and I can figure out that a guy named Mike Jones posting a message from Mexico, is probably not Mexican. But here I have told you about mine and my families nationality but you still can’t seem to understand it. AND IT’S A 4 FUCKING MILE MOVE, THAT’S NOT EXACTLY SHIPPING ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!!!!!

Michael Kenrick
9 Posted 25/07/2007 at 05:38:51

Okay, you two (Marc & David), pack it in. This forum is not the place for you to indulge in personal attacks. Back off or you?ll both be banned.

Comments on this thread are now closed.