New Everton Stadium - Hill Dickinson Stadium

[Infernus]

I personally wish fans would knock this 'best stadium in the country' on the head when it's clear (as it should be given they spent more than double and this was before the price of materials went up during the war) the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is superior in every single way

I shall not, and I never will. Spurs is a Yankee egg ball stadium. If they want to live in one of those, then that’s fine. Ours is a football stadium, and the best in the land by a country mile. I can’t wait to cross the oceans and sample it for myself, and I am so glad the terminally online idiots who would rather we remained in a cursed shed are in the minority. What a glorious home we have. I can’t wait for the Brighton game, I am sure it will be absolutely electric.

 

[14_dollars]

The stadium is clearly head and shoulders above Goodison in every imaginable way. Comsidering we've been on the verge of going bust in recent years, it's a miracle to even be moving into a new place—let alone one that is so unique and future fit. Clearly it's a stadium and home to be proud of.

We can also criticise things though when they are obviously not up to standard. It seems there were many issues yesterday from turnstiles not working to fans being unaware of escalators' location or even escalators not working, to food kiosks being overwhelmed and people having difficulty navigating through the concourses as they feel the toilets are located completely wrongly opposite to the kiosks.

We can also be disappointed that the 'wall' behind the goal for some reason never came to fruition, and I personally don't understand the extreme size of the accessibility areas at the front of the stands. We can also be disappointed that there is little branding inside of the stadium, and the the club hasn't yet bothered to paint lots of the grey concrete which stands out like a sore thumb.

These are things to nit-pick at and we shouldn't lose sight that yesterday was a test event, fully intended on having such issues like in my second paragraph stand out so that they can be fixed ahead of the Brighton game.

I personally wish fans would knock this 'best stadium in the country' on the head when it's clear (as it should be given they spent more than double and this was before the price of materials went up during the war) the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is superior in every single way—perhaps only not by location. For Everton, in 2025, with all that's happened with us and us being crap for three straight decades, it's a great stadium and one we should be delighted with.

In terms of the success of yesterday, I'd say it was pretty much perfect, because now the issues are crystal clear and most of them can very easily and quickly be rectified ahead of our opening home game.

Goodison Park 3/10
Hill Dickinson Stadium 9/10

‘Best stadium in the country ‘ shouts are a bit silly, as are those moans about the stadium being a ‘disgrace’ because they had to queue for 5 minutes on its grand opening.

It’s just a reflection of the general public - sensationalist idiots mostly.

 

[Simo]

I thought the amount coming out from the posh seats 20 mins into the second half a bit jarring for our club too. Something you see Wembley but not what you expect every week at our club I wouldn’t say

Sounds like spurs stadium to me. Last visited there couple seasons ago, lots of empty seats where you'd expect hospitality be sat, and the atmosphere was kak.
My fear would be this stadium ending up like that place

 

[18efc78]

It was great to see some familiar faces and catch up with toffees old and new in our new home. It will take us all some time getting used to it before it feels like home, and we know she has some big shoes to fill following Goodison.

BMD easily the best ground I’ve been in to watch a football match, without question - the exterior is incredible, it feels like it’s been there forever in a brilliant way, the club shop is great (needs more gear), and the interior pitch side is immaculate for the match, not a bad seat anywhere, as has been said before. It will be very loud once we get going in there, and the sirens and z cars before the games felt ear splitting.

Hopefully the issues, of which there were a few, are just teething troubles and get ironed out fairly quickly.

They need to address the turnstile issues on the west side, the queue for 2 was a joke with no stewards. We ended up walking past it to get in or we would have been frigged.

Definitely needs more Everton-ing on the concourses to help make us feel home, lots of empty bare walls, posts etc that can and should be done up.

Not enough places to put drinks and food down - shelves etc ( north west area at least) - plenty of areas that these can be added.

There was clearly an issue with the bars where we were (block 247). Queueing for 30 mins before the game before we got our stuff, looked the same issue at half time so didn’t bother.

The beers were poured on one stand so each of the till operators had to walk to one or two staff to get the pints, so there was quite a queue the wrong side of the counter! Also ran out of tea before the game started on one bar….

I thought we would have had those fast pour pints systems behind the bars (like Wembley and the spurs stadium), we had the cups at Goodison but not the kit, seems at BMD we don’t have the cups or the kit!?

Went down after the first game, when clearly there were less people. The chicken stand was closed (ran out of everything I was told). The dockyard bar was open and fairly quiet - asked for a couple of San Miguel’s, was told the machine had broken but bud was available. Asked for those instead, only for another member of staff to find two San Miguel’s from somewhere all the staff were sound and clearly some were very green, so we need to cut them some slack.

A few fellas near us were getting a little peed off with them before the game and it’s not a good look, but you can understand their frustration when we’re waiting 30 mins to get served in our brand new ground - it was actually slower and worse than Goodison.

Dont think the friedkins will tolerate what was going on with the food and drinks today and hopefully they will get it sorted out, or fans will be taking there custom elsewhere. All Needs resolving asap.

Transport and the parking restrictions were still a mess as far as I could tell - even when we left near the end of the legends game, the roads were grid locked all around.

Overall, it’s an incredible stadium for watching footy, that has a few teething troubles to sort out for the F&B provision. Fingers crossed they get sorted out quickly.

The chicken place stopped serving food because they ran out of trays, started up again and started selling in hot dog boxes and it ran out of ale before kick off

 

[BullensRoad]

Which people do you mean? The problem areas was in the bars and they will all be new staff I imagine and the stewards can’t do much about the amount of stairs around the place either

As I said I'm seeing it from a wholistic view. It's not the front end staff who are at fault, they've kind of been thrown to the wolves.

The people who were in charge of implementing the transition have done a bad job, they should have been aware of the potential issues. The upper north stand for example had one tap either side and the staff had to battle for the drinks that had been ordered.

The hospitality was also not coping, wrong orders, not knowing what was available, device software not working etc.

It's quite clearly bad project management for what should have been a seamless operation.

 

[GoldenToffee]

The chicken place stopped serving food because they ran out of trays, started up again and started selling in hot dog boxes and it ran out of ale before kick off

All easily fixed though thankfully. Although the test event is intended to fully replicate a real match day, I guess fans should let the club off this one time seeing as there are thousands of games to be played there in the future.

 

[Timbucktoo]

My cousin was in that gate 2 queue. Queued from 2.10 and got in his seat at 3.15. An utter scandal. He was told that the signal for the scanners was at fault. He had a paper ticket and it wasn't picking up the bar code off it.

I had a QR code on my phone and it was taking forever to find the position on the scanner to turn it green, and the stewards there were 'kin useless telling me to stand aside and find a 'ticket officer'. Daft gets.

The stadium being stupendous made-up for it like.

This is the downside for all the high tech ideas to make the operation look more eco friendly. Instead of having people at the turn style that can visually check a persons ticket if the system seem to have a glitch, they might have someone nearby to tell folks to move aside and look for someone else to solve the problem. All the tech advances are to save money but when they don`t work this is the result.

 

[Miked1e]

another observation from yesterday, and this is only family stand, was no TVs on the concourse.

What was it like everywhere else?

 

[UltraVires]

As I said I'm seeing it from a wholistic view. It's not the front end staff who are at fault, they've kind of been thrown to the wolves.

The people who were in charge of implementing the transition have done a bad job, they should have been aware of the potential issues. The upper north stand for example had one tap either side and the staff had to battle for the drinks that had been ordered.

The hospitality was also not coping, wrong orders, not knowing what was available, device software not working etc.

It's quite clearly bad project management for what should have been a seamless operation.

How you can test a stadium at full capacity with anything less than all the food and drink kiosks open is the clearest sign that they were not ready and it’s been rushed for me to make the start of the season.

 

[The binman chronicles]

another observation from yesterday, and this is only family stand, was no TVs on the concourse.

What was it like everywhere else?

There were screens in South and East upper that were showing Southampton v Wrexham when I was walking around.

 

[Barrowjohn]

My first visit on a match day- outside the ground and into the fan zone- A fantastic buzz and sense of excitement. The fan plaza is great and the scale of the stadium compared to Goodison is breathtaking. Stewards, very helpful. Did not venture around to Everton Way as I knew that would be mobbed so have held off finding my stone for now.

Getting in. Ticket was East Stand Club view Block 322 Level 3. Entered via Gate 16 and it’s steps all the way up. I’m not fully knackered yet but the old knees were feeling it on the last flight of steps... Turns out there is a lift at either end of the East stand via gates 15 and 23, Did not see these lifts when i was in the Club View concourse so would be interested if anyone can say if they used them, will be looking for those in future.

I used sit in the Top Balcony when the seats were made for people a lot slimmer in the 70’s, so I was looking forward to a bit more elbow room, which there is, but not much. I don't think there is much difference in the distance between the rows. Not quite as steep as the Top Balcony, but not far off.

View inside the stadium. Absolutely brilliant. Agree with everyone else about the need for more “EFC” but that will surely come. Was looking at the digital advertising banner opposite over on the West Stand which wraps around along the North Stand and I presume the East Stand too. Now that would look amazing with a static Archibald Leitch Criss-Cross replicating the old Goodison Main Stand. This would instantly raise the Everton identity inside the ground.

 

[Jacko93]

There were a few issues yesterday, but I put them down almost entirely to bad luck, and supporters not being settled/know where to go.

At the south stand upper waterfront bar in front of block 208, both the ale machines stopped working and went down to one pint at a time service, clearly not suitable. The crowd stayed 7 deep though and just kept on putting orders in, causing mayhem. They should.have used then screens to get a message out, I don't know.if they have that capability.

Having had the fortune of being in here a few times now, I simply went to the other bar opposite block 210 where there were several empty tills and ordered my pint without any issue. I had finished my pint while others were still arguing with the staff over not having beer.

Other one is, it took me longer to get to a urinal than it ever has at Goodison. Im a prk ender, so my experience may be different to many on here, and maybe it is.down to.settling a bit, but there just didnt seem enough urinals, by a long shot. Also, who thought a one way system in there would ever work, it became every man for himself.

Atmosphere. I wouldn't judge it on yesterday, Im pretty sure that was a fairly subdued crowd. The family behind me spent much of their time talking about their favourite shirt sponsors and not liking when teams don't have them, or how Charly Alcaraz will never be a player. It'll be a weird few months, but it will all settle down soon enough.

Also, for what its worth, I thought the staff did OK in challenging circumstances.

 

[dachshund]

I believe the catering issue should be due to everything being new and staff being new as well.

I go to the games of FK Austria Vienna and experienced the very same thing with them switching in-stadium caterers. Staff was in over their head, with some just standing around while obviously not knowing what they are supposed to do, took them a minute just to pour two beers and made people be late for the second half. By the second time, this was already improved so I think these are just growing pains.

 

[Simo]

Were there any assessor's there to witness this, will it get reported back by FAB or supporters group's? Without the constructive feedback along the correct channels I don't see it be fixed come Brighton

 

[Smurph]

In what it sets out to do - be a footy stadium with 50k fans as close to the pitch as possible it is an absolute triumph.

The acoustics are unreal and even small amounts of singing are deafening. The atmosphere wasn’t there yesterday but the ‘best stadium in the country’ is ours for the taking if we really want it.

Everything else before the match will settle down over time. Half time will always be a mare. Not sure it’s realistic to be able to serve that many people in 15 mins. But that’s true everywhere isn’t it?