“Everton committed and they committed to a very difficult site. It wasn’t the easiest thing for them to do. They could have saved a lot of money and built it somewhere else.”
In an exclusive interview that took place in his Third Avenue offices in New York, Dan Meis told Chris Beesley at the Echo:
“The interaction with Evertonians was the surprise in all of this. The sort of light bulb moment that went off for me in the very early meetings was that I was very sceptical that Everton would hire an architect from America, let alone Los Angeles.
“It just didn’t seem that it was going to be easy for an outsider. But in fact, I think that became my superpower.
“I didn’t take anything for granted. When I talked to Robert Elstone (the then chief executive) initially about the history of the club, there were a lot of great points like: ‘We’re not London, we’re not Tottenham, it’s not about fancy, it’s about this cauldron of energy and capturing the magic of Goodison.’
“That is where the lightbulb went off for me and I thought: ‘This is not about a building, it’s about an experience.’ It’s an experience that covers generations of memory and the history of things that have happened at Goodison and how do we capture that?
“In some ways, the architecture wasn’t as important to me, as really understanding what this fanbase was. So, we just dug in, and did a lot of research and immersed ourselves in that notion of what I really did believe that Everton are a little bit different.
“There were times when there was some real pushback about how big the building should be, where the building should be and the shape of the building. I think what we all kind of discovered, we didn’t all have to agree about everything, but the fans thought that they really did have an impact and they did.
“They certainly influenced my thinking and I think they influenced the club’s thinking and I think the club recognised this was an opportunity to feel involved in the design of it. That really was unique, I don’t think we’ve seen anything like that – not just us but across the profession.
“It’s not a shy fanbase. They’re perfectly willing to jump in and share their experience.
“I’ve often said this to clubs — not just limited to the Premier League or English football, owners in general — they may think they own the team but, in reality, there is a whole bunch of fans who feel like they own the team.
“I think the best clubs really recognise that. They’re custodians more than they really are owners, if you can really build that bond.
“One of the reasons it’s so important is that it’s not just for the owners to be popular, how the fans react to the club so affects the play on the pitch. I think there’s a book in there.”