A few excerpts from Laurence Thompson’s article at The Post that you can read in full for free online by following this link: Hello, Bramley-Moore Dock
In August, Everton’s new stadium (so far, simply called “Everton Stadium”) will become the club’s full-time home.
To find out whether this enormous structure — the eighth-largest football stadium in the country — will benefit the city beyond simple bragging rights, I attended the second test event alongside 25,000 other fans. But before we get to all that, a bit of history…
Everton’s house move was a long time coming. In 1990, the Taylor Report cut Goodison Park’s once-near-80,000 capacity in half. Six years later, then-chairman Peter Johnson mentioned the possibility of moving. But it wasn’t until 2021 that ground was finally broken.
Dan Meis has decades of experience building innovative, unique stadiums include Los Angeles’ multi-purpose Staples Center, and the transformable Saitama Super Arena in Japan. Everton Stadium is bigger than both: a 52,888-seater behemoth.
Unlike the Staples or the Saitama, Merseyside’s new arena has been designed primarily for Premier League matches. That said, the club have already announced non-football events.
Considering its stated purpose, what about non-sports occasions? “While the stadium is first and foremost a football stadium,” the club says, “there will be an opportunity to host other events”, with outdoor concerts and large conferences mentioned on the ground’s official website.
“For concerts, we’ll be able to host between 45,000 and 48,000 fans,” Suzie Parker‑Myers, Everton’s head of events, has previously said. And while that revenue can go towards signing footballers to new contracts, it may also profit the city as a whole.
Getting into the vast plaza in the stadium’s shadow is a breeze. While I can’t say I’m a fan of the irregular brick strips that form the building’s façade, there’s lots to admire from the outside.
But it’s the interior that really matters. It’s only by climbing to the very top of the South Stand that Meis’ architectural achievement becomes clear. This impossibly steep terrace — at a 35-degree gradient, the sharpest permissible under UK law — was allegedly inspired by the “Gelbe Wand” effect of Borussia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion, where opposition players are met with an implacable tidal wave of yellow-clad home supporters bearing down on them.
Everton Stadium is the most significant development in the north Liverpool dockland in a century. Considered as a potential music or events venue, it dwarfs the M&S Arena to its south. It may well be the largest new structure built since the city’s imperial heyday.
In an age where “managed decline” is never far from people’s conscious thoughts, Everton Football Club has chosen to dream big on Bramley-Moore Dock.