The Mail Bag
Plan for All
Comments (23)
Following the Destination Kirkby decision today and the aftermath that will undoubtedly begin from both camps, it is in my opinion that it is now time for both sides of the debate to now officially join together to stop the opportunity for the plans B, C, D to be worked upon without achieving a united front — after all, it's the future of this once great club that is at risk both on and off the pitch.
Both sides have worked extremely hard to put forward strong arguments for and against, with the against perceived to be the victors. There are no real winners and losers long term if we do not have an agreed solution. The real work starts now on coming up with the best solution for this club, therefore I urge the KEIOC team to realise that humility and understanding of the position Everton are now in, with no real tangible Plan B should be at the forefront of whatever else they want to involve themselves in.
I was a supporter of the KEOIC and I have been very impressed with the quality of their debate and presentation. I believe now that their ability and intelligence should be put to best use by working with and helping Everton move on.
Bill Kenwright and his team will be very disappointed for various reasons; financially, this has an impact on the club and no doubt the directors personally but they will come out fighting and good luck to them, any good businessman would do the same. It would now be fantastic to see that their own beliefs can be matched with all of the supporters' beliefs to achieve a mutual goal whatever that may be.
The start of that process begins on Sunday with all behind the team and the board on a united front to beat Liverpool and show the world we can be as one.
Bill Kenwright is the owner of this club and, despite anyone's thoughts on what is currently happening at Everton, I would not doubt for one minute he is not doing his best. That may not be good enough based on financial contraints but he still deserves support until there is an alternative.
One point of irony after reading the government paper: "A stadium in Kirkby severely impacting on a similar retail development in Skelmersdale."
Who would have thought that a town that is predominately made up of exiled Scousers, who chose not to live in Merseyside, would have such a sway on whether a stadium was in Liverpool or not?
Paul Niklas, Posted 26/11/2009 at 10:09:02
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Now is not the time to be taking your ball home!
Who are your labour party buddies anyway?
We could change the discussion to debating their expenses? what you think?
It was also made abundantly clear that there are essentially two chances of an appeal succeeding (1. Dog’s, 2, No) as he (Denham) has followed the details recommendations presented to him, it fails on almost every count and there are far too many negatives that outweigh the few positives.
Say hello to Plan B. Now just needs someone to state what it is. What I do wish is that Robert Elstone would keep his counsel to himself for a few days. His musings today on the idea of a joint stadium (however desirable they may be, and it’s what I would want) just sound desperate.
It’s kind of hard to imagine that,given the extent of the objections and the detailed reasoning given by the planning officer for recommending rejection, that this has come as a complete surprise to Everton (and Tesco). if it has then I would seriously question their acumen on such matters.
One final point. I suggest it would be the ultimate ignominy and irony if two dopey Yanks, who havent put a foot right since borrowing a fortune to "buy" Liverpool and made the club pay for it, were to be the ultimate arbiters on the possibility of a world class Merseyside super stadium. Now that really would stick in the craw.
I’m left wondering who, if anyone, is big enough, smart enough and strong enough to bang all the relevant heads together, stop the fucking about, and get this show on the road to the benefit of both clubs and, just as importantly, to a great city of two great clubs. Will that man, or woman, now please present yourself.
My Labour Party buddies include 3 MPs whose constituencies border Liverpool - beat that!
I can’t repeat what they think of other, local Labour MPs embroiled in the fiasco
You, sir, have the credibility of an empty ballsack; I firmly believe you are an obsessive crank who should be sectioned - in God’s name, pack it in, man, and go and campaign to bring the voles home
For that to happen, it would require Everton to ’lower’ themselves and listen to their supporters!
They’re professionals you know!!
Holy good fuck....Dodd, the highest court in the land doesn’t evaluate facts...It does points of law you muppet.
There are no points of law at contest...This decision probably wouldn’t even get leave to apply for judicial appeal, nevermind get to an appeal..
Give it a fuckin rest.
Have to laugh at this sentence.
Don’t you realise that the reason that their IS NO alternative is BECAUSE of Kenwright, therefore he deserves no support at all.
HE got us into this position with an exclusivity agreement and no Plan B so it’s time he did the decent thing and fell on his sword.
How is it that you get so much "day release time" from Ashworth hospital? Something to do with your Labour party "buddies" ?
We have one option, if that plan fials, we go back to the drawing board and start again, exactly as what happened with Kings Dock (which for all those who see this as some sort of utopia and then complain about parking provision at Kirkby is fairly laughable)
However, on another point, even BK says that Kirkby is now dead and not going to happen. There was only one option left - to appeal but this was advised as being very unlikely to be succesful.
The only option for success at DK is to wait until May and hope for a Tory win as they plan to abolish the RSS meaning the plan could no longer controvene RSS policy. However, this is extremely unlikely to happen as it means an even longer period of waiting around, which may or may not prove fruitful.
Whatever your opinion on DK, the end result is a couple of years further down the road to needing a new stadium and no nearer finding one, so a new option needs to be investigated sooner rather than later.
On my travels, I speak to Blues, at home and ex-pats and, without fail, they all mention 2 big regrets as far as Everton goes...
1. Heysel
2. King’s Dock
Kenwright’s legacy will always be the failure to provide a world-class stadium on the 2nd most famous waterfont in the world
No project, in industry, commerce or local/central government will be inititated without a backup, contingency plan or fallback position (aka Plan B) EVER
It is costed in the Project Initiation Document and allocated resources commensurate with the risk involved in Plan A
Without this, the project fails to get the go-ahead
For a football club, the ’plan B’ is always to stay where we are until we think of something else. The fact is it cost money to conduct a feasability study so to do it for more than one location at once is frankly ridiculous.
as has been said on this and many other sites in the past football clubs are not the same as businesses and as we currently already had a stadium (allbeit one that won’t last forever)
I know Gavin that you like to have a go at the board for anything that they may be remotely connected to, but on this (and probably many others) I think you are being distinctly unrealstic.
You can bet your life...
Tesco had/have a plan B
Anyway, I thought the point of this article was that we need to move on now, so can the DK and BIll bashers just give it a rest for once as it’s not actually achieving anything remotely contructive.
One criticism of the move to Kirkby was that it split the fna base, well that split will stay if people insist on going over old ground over and over again.
what Everton needs at the moment is support - that’s support for the WHOLE football club whilst it tries to come up with a way froward.
pays yer money.....
This means cutting out the gardbage spouted (from both sides of the arguement) and concentrating on a positive way forward not negativity and name calling - it’s hardly contructive to keep accusing the chairman of lying and being in it to make money - we’ve heard it numerous times and it doesn’t serve any purpose other than to antagonise the other side of the argument
The CEO intimated some time ago the club have spent in the region of £2m on DK and that the vast amount of consultancy costs were paid for by Tesco which is understandable when you realise the supplier in protecting their interests in supplying advice on their product only. Something similar happened a number of years ago when so called Financial Advisors were proven to be only pushing certain products thus not independent.
I also stand by the board being wholly responsible for DK, it is their project, it is their company. I and many others feel BK’s position is untenable and I have asked other posters on other threads as to how many more chances do you give them with their track record?
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1 Posted 26/11/2009 at 12:37:51
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It may sound as though I am flogging a dead horse but I firmly believe that Destination Kirkby is still deliverable. There is always the opportunity to appeal the Minister`s decision in the Supreme Court and in his rejection, Denham offers an open invitation for the parties to re-submit the application taking into account all the points made by the Inspector in her `reasons to reject`.
As Phil McNulty opines elsewhere, Blue Bill has nowhere else to go. He has banked all his stash on Kirkby and if he cannot deliver in partnership with the likes of Sir Terry Leahey, he`ll never come up with anything on his own. In other words, there is no way the Club could find the money without the Tesco cash — and even then it might be a struggle!
Regardless of the anti-brigade who people these columns, I believe there will continue to be a large number of Evertonians who are in tears over this rejection and will wish Bill to pursue the issue as long as there is the faintest hope of securing the move.
My Labour Party buddies tell me it was `a damn close run thing`, so let`s keep the faith and go for broke on the only chance in sight of saving our beloved Everton for our kids to enjoy!