A Good Move?

Assuming Bramley Moore goes ahead, we don't have to repeat the mistakes Arsenal made. They have a great new stadium, but it's not a football stadium. Meis does at least seem intent on maintaining the intensity of the atmosphere common to both Goodison & Highbury. Arsenal didn't really buy the right new house for their needs.

As for the capacity at Bramley Moore, we should go for the maximum the site can handle which seems to be about 60k. We're only going to build it once so let's not skimp on the job. Whether we'll fill it regularly, nobody knows either way, but the way attendances & season ticket sales have held up of recent times, despite the footballing fare & the poor facilities, would indicate it's a reasonable possibility.

Sorry lads, we have to go.

I had three mates who were all ST holders right in the middle of the North Bank, the home end which all the singing started and created the atmosphere, which they had held for around ten years.

Now, as excited as they were to be moving grounds, they all had to buy a 'share' at around a grand to be able to apply for a season ticket ( i'm guessing at the cost as I can't remember exactly how much ) but then they were put into a draw and allocated seats in various parts of the stadium.

Only one of them ended up behind the goal, and he ended up right in the front row. Another ended up on the second tier above where the players came out and apparently was surrounded by people who just moaned constantly and would never attempt to sing/chant or try and create any sort of atmosphere. The third ended up sitting with his seat looking right along the goal line at the away end, and hated the view.

So Arsenal had moved all the main singing section and placed them around the new ground, maybe hoping that the usual atmosphere would be created all around the ground, but it didn't happen.

The Emirates was a soulless bowl when it opened and it took a good few seasons for that to change when all they had to do was give people like-for-like seats, big mistake by Arsenal.

Can you imagine if Everton disband the St. End and those that normally sit there end up all over the ground ?

I think we will avoid the worst problems because we have less corporate fans, this not being London, and hopefully by keeping a tight grip on our relatively very low season ticket prices. If we can build to a more traditional shape, and put the crowd and atmosphere totally at the heart of the project, we'll be fine.

In order to retain Goodison as our home, we'd have to do a complete rebuild, so it still wouldn't be the Goodison we have now. Which is simply not fit for purpose any more.

I can't wait to go - I never thought I'd be saying that, but a new ground is a hugely exciting prospect to me. The fans are the club, and we have a great fan base - mostly local people who have passed the love down through the generations, who know their history, and see Everton as a community not just a football club.

Liverpool and London are very different cities, with very different offerings, different cultures, different economies. London now is a world city, the growth is all coming from outside the UK, with young Londoners moving out because they can't afford to live there anymore, going to places like Manchester and Leeds and, yes, Liverpool. We don't have that drain of young people any more, like we did in the 80s, they're staying as the City has recovered.

Can anyone shed any light on what this is, and why are we building if we're leaving in a few years?

I'm all for moving to a state of art stadium, but not based on any false premise about GP. Furthermore I can state without fear of contradiction that GP can be readily upgraded to 55k+ for a fraction of the £500m quoted for the dock. The qiestion is: At what point does the cost:benefit equation tip towards that option?

And what's a relatively small landtake? The school?

Without the proposal to rotate the pitch and to develop onto what is now Bullens Rd and part of the school, ie using the present land owned by the club, what's realistic capacity for a re-developed GP?

Just by bridging the Bullens Road and infringing on the school land by a few metres, would readily add 5k+ on this side – all to modern regulations in terms of tread depths and aisle widths.

Secondly, the Park End doesn't need any new land to add 5-10k if required. Joint venture with the council for a new school perhaps. This could be simple extensions of existing tiers or whole new upper stands.

Alternatively, a slightly larger land take on the Bullens Road side could facilitate a 10k extension on this side alone. With existing lower tiers reprofiled and back-of-house facilities added on all levels.

The Park End could become the new blue wall with the added obvious benefit that it half already exists. This wouldn't cost anywhere near 𧺬M.

Liverpool had the sense to redevelop and Goodison has a far better site than Anfield.

We just have a short-sighted board with eyes on a pot of gold that doesn't exist. If there is a right or wrong decision to be made, you can trust our board to make the wrong move.

Wenger for manager. A wise man!