New Everton Stadium - Hill Dickinson Stadium

[blulouie]

 

[Exeter_Gently]

Can you provide any evidence to this ludicrous claim?

I've not seen one comment to suggest this is the case.

@davek so zero evidence then

I see today you've opted for the Trump playbook today of making wild and ludicrous claims with one shred of evidence to back your claim..."the rest of the country knows it's a sports facility" shout is abit daft isn't it

 

[PhilM]

Was an absolute nightmare getting out last night. First time I've experienced that tbh. Normally I get out of the gates at a fairly decent time. Have I just been getting lucky? Is it like that all the time for some of you?

The majority of fans in the stadium last night were unfamiliar with the ground, which will have played a part.

This season, the exit times have improved week on week as people become familiar with the exit routes and build their own routines.

 

[blue to the bone]

 

[davek]

Doesn't matter a hoot to what "the rest of the country knows".

And Everton aren't competing for space. You're making yourself look sillier than usual there. When the ground isn't being used by Everton, we are making money by hosting other events, sports and matches. Once we have to shift a fixture, or play in a different ground, to accommodate some other general sporting event then you'll have a valid point.

That's a much easier position to hold if the stadium is established unequivocably as an Everton stadium. That isn't the case. The stadium is anonymous for the most part from the outside and that's been baked into the way that a stadium operations company - handed the remit to sweat it - operates 'the facility': keep the destination a vague multi-use space. Dont define it.

This isn't griping over something minor or turning a nose up at extra cash generated. It's an identity issue...and that is paramount for any football club, otherwise they aren't a football club at all. You're looking at this from a business dominated perspective; I look at a football club mostly from a tribal perspective - and this is no home for any tribe. It'll take a massive shift in policy for that to happen.

Rugby takes over after the next three Everton home games.

What a 'kin palaver.

 

[davek]

The West Ham comparison isn't apt, because that was built for the Olympics. This has been built for football, and is now getting other events sprinkled in. Plus, they weren't even expecting 20k to turn up last night, so getting almost double that is a win-win.

Plenty of Scots last night around us asking how it feels on a normal matchday and saying we've got the best stadium they've been to. It's a jewel.

Also, the amount of times I've heard "Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium" puts to bed any fears that people think it isn't ours

I disagree completely.

This is a stadium where the plan was to build a purpose built football fortress. That was achieved. But the business plan can make that space anything it wants. The business plan - as we've been told umpteen times by the club and their major sponsors - is to emphasise that it isn't just Everton's stadium it's an entertainment space for the region. That plan has triumphed over the original intentions of the club. And it's going to take a hell of an effort for our fans to think of the stadium as their own because of it.

We needed a period of exclusive use and we needed to see the exterior of that stadium plastered with Everton related features to make the tribal transition from Goodison Park to the docks. But we got multi-use straight out of the starting blocks and we've seen nothing other than corporate graffiti on the outside of that stadium and nothing within the pitch side of the stadium that makes you think 'Everton'. That's not a coincidence - it's the plan.

Corporate logic has trumped the function of that stadium as it was originally set out.

 

[davek]

"Major sporting events". Ivory Coast v Scotland friendly.

That's a low bar, Joe.

 

[Toffeelover]

Was there 4 games

Yes, as far as I can recall.

 

[blue to the bone]

Not a wum though lads .

 

[Connor]

I disagree completely.

This is a stadium where the plan was to build a purpose built football fortress. That was achieved. But the business plan can make that space anything it wants. The business plan - as we've been told umpteen times by the club and their major sponsors - is to emphasise that it isn't just Everton's stadium it's an entertainment space for the region. That plan has triumphed over the original intentions of the club. And it's going to take a hell of an effort for our fans to think of the stadium as their own because of it.

We needed a period of exclusive use and we needed to see the exterior of that stadium plastered with Everton related features to make the tribal transition from Goodison Park to the docks. But we got multi-use straight out of the starting blocks and we've seen nothing other than corporate graffiti on the outside of that stadium and nothing within the pitch side of the stadium that makes you think 'Everton'. That's not a coincidence - it's the plan.

Corporate logic has trumped the function of that stadium as it was originally set out.

There's massive EVERTON badges on it, D

 

[GoldenToffee]

Shouldn't this have been done right from the start? They surely haven't just realised now that it would be a good idea?!

 

[b-rad]

Cover everything with 'Everton' and don't let anyone else use or see the stadium. That will make it all better.

 

[Slater582]

35,000 gate.

That's pathetic for a country that's playing it's last British friendly before the World Cup finals.

The Welsh and the Irish fill that stadium under those circumstances.

Wales had just over 15,000 at home against Canada last year and apparently there were empty seats in Cardiff last night.

Ireland had under 40k last night at the Aviva which holds over 50k and last time they were at Wembley in November 2024 they returned some of their away tickets.

Not sure they travel any better than Scotland fans would.

 

[davek]

Wales had just over 15,000 at home against Canada last year and apparently there were empty seats in Cardiff last night.

Ireland had under 40k last night at the Aviva which holds over 50k and last time they were at Wembley in November 2024 they returned some of their away tickets.

Not sure they travel any better than Scotland fans would.

I must say I was a bit disappointed with the Scottish turnout: state of the art stadium in a city that everyone likes to visit - and it was their last game on this island until the World Cup.

Probably less than 30,000 turned up at a stadium like ours that can hold close to 53,000.

That's poor whatever way you cut it. I was expecting an invasion and we got nothing like it.

 

[COYBL25]

I'd have NO sports* there for the foreseeable until that stadium is established as Everton's ground by Evertonising it.

The rest of the country knows this stadium as a sports facility rather than being the home of Everton. West Ham had this haunting them over that place they're in now: most people thought of it for years as that place that the Olympics were held at.

By all means fill it in the summer with music events and the like. But sporting team events - no.




*Not that the horrendous 90 minutes of activity last night can be classified as a 'sport'.

Seek help as a matter of some urgency.