As someone who is passionate about stadium design, as well as my beloved Blues, there’s been something that I thought could be a bit of fun (remember that?) for us all to discuss: How do we maximise the advantage of our new home?
We know that there will be financial advantages to our new gaff (hopefully) and that it will be more comfortable (certainly) than the Grand Old Lady, but what little tricks should we be pulling to give the team out on the pitch the biggest advantage that we can? What I’m talking about here, and some may find this distasteful, but what shithousery can we use to make the new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock as horrible as possible for visiting teams?
Most of us will be aware of the sorts of things that went on in years gone by, such as not having hot water in the visiting changing rooms, not having the heating on, but most of this sort of thing is now frowned upon in elite football, even if it still goes on at amateur levels. So what could we learn from other sports?
Leicester Tigers, one of English rugby’s most decorated sides, have/had the doors from the home and visiting dressing rooms open across the hallway from each other. What they did was make sure that the home dressing room door was a couple of inches narrower and shorter than the away dressing room door. This obviously made the players look bigger than they were when emerging from the dressing rooms. Having played at Welford Road during an Under-18s match (105 years ago), I can attest that the effect is striking and does get in your head. They also had a little trick whereby the floor was slightly higher on the home side of the tunnel. Sneaky stuff.
Now that I live in Sweden, ice hockey is a big thing. The entrances at the local, elite ice hockey club’s arena (6,500 capacity) are strikingly effective. The home team enters the ice to fireworks, a light show, the roar of the home crowd, and the motivation to cause bloody havoc. The away team enters the ice from an entirely different, crappier entrance, to no fanfare and an extremely loud chorus of boos.
We don’t want to turn the new stadium into an American sports experience, and I would never want to get rid of Z-Cars, Grand Old Team, Spirit of the Blues etc, but how American teams use music to motivate and intimidate could be learnt from. Just look at the Enter Sandman entrance that the Virginia Tech American football team come out to on YouTube FB: Enter Sandman (ODU) (youtube.com)
(Disclaimer: this video is painfully American. Side effects of watching it can include the overwhelming desire to invade some oil-rich country to bring their people “freedom”).
I’m certainly not saying we should do this, or that it would work, but, you have to admit, those players and the crowd are seriously pumped up and it must feel massively intimidating for the opposition.
The small, psychological, advantages are part of what we are missing. Yes, we want visiting fans to come and enjoy the legroom and the fancy pints at Bramley-Moore Dock, but we also want them leaving with zero points and thinking that Everton away is an absolute fucking nightmare.
My question to you, fellow Blues, is what little tricks like these have you known through your own supporting and playing experiences? What would you like to see at the new stadium that will help the Blues by unsettling the opposition?