Hangleton
Player Valuation: £25m
yeah - I noticed that happening already.
Mikey O
Player Valuation: £8m
Just bought two of the premium priced tickets for the Man Utd game and I'm hoping to take my grandson to his first ever game (travelling up from London). Fully expect the game to be moved from the Saturday, just hoping it's to the Sunday and not to the Monday. Fingers crossed that I'm allowed to take him to the game.
Frenk
Player Valuation: £35m
I’m sure it will get cleaned every once in a while, it has been sealed so it shouldn’t be an issue.
Early kick off on Saturday is the slot I tend to associate with us playing United.
windymiller
Player Valuation: £60m
Graham Stuart Stand, the Barry Horne End, The Gareth Farrely Terrace and the Abdoulaye Doucoure Blue Wall. Sorted.
CrustySack
Player Valuation: £0.99p
Just heard on the news that they could hear the PA system from the International Space Station.
Decent write up in The Times today
Inside Everton’s new stadium: VIP seats, blue aioli and a built-in pub
The club’s subtle nods to history at their new home may not be noticed by all but these efforts show that no stone was left unturned
‘I would have broken every bone in my body for any club I played for, but I would have died for Everton.” This is a quote emblazoned on the wall that players will pass when walking towards the pitch at Everton’s new stadium.
It is an arresting quote but what is significant is that these words were spoken by Dave Hickson, a star of the 1950s — a striker known as the “Cannonball Kid”, which, with his blonde quiff, marks him as a dated icon. That this former hero from Ellesmere Port is given prime billing on the wall is significant. Everton have bent over backwards to forge a thread between the history and emotion of Goodison Park and Hill Dickinson Stadium.
At first glance this would appear an impossible task. The two stadiums could not be more different. This is no rebuild, it is an uprooting. Where Goodison was adored, confined, claustrophobic and atmospheric, Hill Dickinson — estimated to have cost £750million — is airy, space age and imposing.
There is no seat without an excellent view of the pitch; at Goodison, even in the posh seats, you had to peer around an obstruction. Where you may have been a bit worried at the exposed wiring and crumbling concrete at Goodison, here the main concern is whether the steepness of the stands will cause you to faint. The legal limit of a stand’s incline is 35 degrees — the rake of the South Stand is 34.99 degrees.
The new stadium is already a tourist attraction. I walked along the waterfront, past the new Isle of Man ferry terminal and the beautiful old brick warehouses, and then it came into view. If you had no interest in or knowledge of football you would think a UFO had landed, and looking to your right, seeing a road called Vulcan Street, you may think you have accidentally entered a Star Trek theme park.
This was the problem Everton had to solve. Yes, the stadium would be magnificent, but how could it be home? As old grounds have been ripped up so have supporters’ memories. It is nine years since West Ham moved into the London Stadium and still the club’s fans look slightly tearful that match days are not what they used to be.
Everton, acknowledging the potential for alienation, commissioned surveys and focus groups asking supporters what they wanted and more than 60,000 engaged in two public consultations. The conclusion was a need for authenticity and to embrace the club’s history, and the most obvious example of this is the level called Village Street, which is less like a football stadium concourse and instead more akin to one of those Victorian community replicas I used to visit on school trips. They have even recreated the Queen’s Head, the pub where it was decided in 1879 that St Domingo’s Church Football Team would branch out and change their name to Everton.
Each stand’s concourse reflects the theme of “The New Authentic; Being a Blue” devised by Populous, the architecture and design firm that specialises in arenas and stadiums. It is fairly subtle stuff and I doubt a fan beered up and ready to cheer his side on against a rival team would notice the way you can walk from the West Stand concourse, which is all about the “pulse of the Mersey”, to the South Stand’s emphasis on “working-class roots”.
This matters not one jot, though, because at some point a fan will walk up the stairs, perhaps looking for the blue ketchup that was rumoured to exist but doesn’t — it’s blue aioli, silly — and be hit by one of the most remarkable views from any football stadium anywhere in the world.
Honestly, it made me emotional. I was born in Liverpool and have always loved the docks and their history but I never thought I would be able to sit on the water staring at the Liver Building and the sparkling River Mersey for a few minutes before sitting down to watch Everton v Mansfield in the Carabao Cup.
Ferries drift past the imposing six-sided maritime clock that allows those on board to see the time no matter if docked or setting sail, and in an instant you are transported to a bygone age when Bramley-Moore Dock was used to load coal and merchants were wealthy. The first building that visitors on cruise ships will see now is the new stadium where the posh seats have heating controls and a TV screen, and are sold out with a waiting list. They cost between £36,000 and £48,000 per season for a block of four seats, which includes a dining package.
The home dressing room is a rotunda of high tech. Soon to be installed will be an LED ribbon screen bearing messages from fans, or recording a player’s birthday, or simply displaying the manager’s best motivational slogan of the day. The overall vibe is one of how incongruous it would be for Everton to ever lose at this carefully crafted home, let alone against League One’s Mansfield.
“Very bouncy seats,” a Mansfield fan sitting next to me said, and one suspects that most away supporters — even in the face of defeat — will think of their visit as wondrous.
Inside Everton’s new stadium: VIP seats, blue aioli and a built-in pub
The club’s subtle nods to history at their new home may not be noticed by all but these efforts show that no stone was left unturned
‘I would have broken every bone in my body for any club I played for, but I would have died for Everton.” This is a quote emblazoned on the wall that players will pass when walking towards the pitch at Everton’s new stadium.
It is an arresting quote but what is significant is that these words were spoken by Dave Hickson, a star of the 1950s — a striker known as the “Cannonball Kid”, which, with his blonde quiff, marks him as a dated icon. That this former hero from Ellesmere Port is given prime billing on the wall is significant. Everton have bent over backwards to forge a thread between the history and emotion of Goodison Park and Hill Dickinson Stadium.
At first glance this would appear an impossible task. The two stadiums could not be more different. This is no rebuild, it is an uprooting. Where Goodison was adored, confined, claustrophobic and atmospheric, Hill Dickinson — estimated to have cost £750million — is airy, space age and imposing.
There is no seat without an excellent view of the pitch; at Goodison, even in the posh seats, you had to peer around an obstruction. Where you may have been a bit worried at the exposed wiring and crumbling concrete at Goodison, here the main concern is whether the steepness of the stands will cause you to faint. The legal limit of a stand’s incline is 35 degrees — the rake of the South Stand is 34.99 degrees.
The new stadium is already a tourist attraction. I walked along the waterfront, past the new Isle of Man ferry terminal and the beautiful old brick warehouses, and then it came into view. If you had no interest in or knowledge of football you would think a UFO had landed, and looking to your right, seeing a road called Vulcan Street, you may think you have accidentally entered a Star Trek theme park.
This was the problem Everton had to solve. Yes, the stadium would be magnificent, but how could it be home? As old grounds have been ripped up so have supporters’ memories. It is nine years since West Ham moved into the London Stadium and still the club’s fans look slightly tearful that match days are not what they used to be.
Everton, acknowledging the potential for alienation, commissioned surveys and focus groups asking supporters what they wanted and more than 60,000 engaged in two public consultations. The conclusion was a need for authenticity and to embrace the club’s history, and the most obvious example of this is the level called Village Street, which is less like a football stadium concourse and instead more akin to one of those Victorian community replicas I used to visit on school trips. They have even recreated the Queen’s Head, the pub where it was decided in 1879 that St Domingo’s Church Football Team would branch out and change their name to Everton.
Each stand’s concourse reflects the theme of “The New Authentic; Being a Blue” devised by Populous, the architecture and design firm that specialises in arenas and stadiums. It is fairly subtle stuff and I doubt a fan beered up and ready to cheer his side on against a rival team would notice the way you can walk from the West Stand concourse, which is all about the “pulse of the Mersey”, to the South Stand’s emphasis on “working-class roots”.
This matters not one jot, though, because at some point a fan will walk up the stairs, perhaps looking for the blue ketchup that was rumoured to exist but doesn’t — it’s blue aioli, silly — and be hit by one of the most remarkable views from any football stadium anywhere in the world.
Honestly, it made me emotional. I was born in Liverpool and have always loved the docks and their history but I never thought I would be able to sit on the water staring at the Liver Building and the sparkling River Mersey for a few minutes before sitting down to watch Everton v Mansfield in the Carabao Cup.
Ferries drift past the imposing six-sided maritime clock that allows those on board to see the time no matter if docked or setting sail, and in an instant you are transported to a bygone age when Bramley-Moore Dock was used to load coal and merchants were wealthy. The first building that visitors on cruise ships will see now is the new stadium where the posh seats have heating controls and a TV screen, and are sold out with a waiting list. They cost between £36,000 and £48,000 per season for a block of four seats, which includes a dining package.
The home dressing room is a rotunda of high tech. Soon to be installed will be an LED ribbon screen bearing messages from fans, or recording a player’s birthday, or simply displaying the manager’s best motivational slogan of the day. The overall vibe is one of how incongruous it would be for Everton to ever lose at this carefully crafted home, let alone against League One’s Mansfield.
“Very bouncy seats,” a Mansfield fan sitting next to me said, and one suspects that most away supporters — even in the face of defeat — will think of their visit as wondrous.
Sorry mate, my bollocks comment sounded a bit arrogant when I read it back. No offence meant.
They all seem to say Goodison was a tough place to visit. We've had nothing to shout about for 30 odd years but when it's an important game Goodison was snarling and hostile.
Nice that, great read
I’m intrigued as to how can a law firm that has an annual turnover (not profit) of £145m afford to pay £10m per annum to Everton? I wonder what their previous advertising budget was ?
They are not paying us 10m per annum.
Jacko93
Player Valuation: £35m
Loud, steep, and not a single bad view in the house: FourFourTwo was at the Hill Dickinson Stadium for Everton's house warming party | FourFourTwo https://share.google/OQwAVkeJyrBVUli1U
Root66
Player Valuation: £1m
Does the league only consist of the 'big 6'? Who even is that anymore?
City deffo did, plus more in the top half. It hasn't been a tough place to come in years, just a media narrative Pat on the head
millow1878
Player Valuation: £950k
I’m sure I read somewhere that it’s not meant to be permanent. That they’ll be replaced in 10-15 years. Can’t remember where though.
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