New Everton Stadium Discussion

[TheSpaniard]

Really not a fan of the disabled seats behind the goals in the south stand, they’ve been moved from the mid way up the stand in the corners. While understandable that it probably makes the stand cheaper to build and improves disabled access as there’s no levels to change, it means the opening is now directly at pitch level which reduces some intimidation factor, and it also means we lose approx. 300 fans from directly behind the goal for what should be our home end. Really poor imo.

 

[maccavennie]

Really not a fan of the disabled seats behind the goals in the south stand, they’ve been moved from the mid way up the stand in the corners. While understandable that it probably makes the stand cheaper to build and improves disabled access as there’s no levels to change, it means the opening is now directly at pitch level which reduces some intimidation factor, and it also means we lose approx. 300 fans from directly behind the goal for what should be our home end. Really poor imo.

Not just that but the sight likes for wheelchair users I would imagine are miles better where they were planned to be. Certainly on the peoples project app they were anyway.

 

[TheSpaniard]

Not just that but the sight likes for wheelchair users I would imagine are miles better where they were planned to be. Certainly on the peoples project app they were anyway.

In fairness, it’s good that there’s a selection of choice for where to sit for disabled supporters. Personally I much prefer sitting further up than at pitchside, but there are other pitchside disabled options (south and east stands). I can’t help but think we’re shooting ourselves in the foot by reducing the impact of what should be one of the biggest things the stadium has going for it, the large home end.

 

[ashwuk76]

In fairness, it’s good that there’s a selection of choice for where to sit for disabled supporters. Personally I much prefer sitting further up than at pitchside, but there are other pitchside disabled options (south and east stands). I can’t help but think we’re shooting ourselves in the foot by reducing the impact of what should be one of the biggest things the stadium has going for it, the large home end.

So disabled fans are forbidden from being in the big home end just because they are disabled and we lose a few seats?

 

[YouCanCallMeAllan]

So disabled fans are forbidden from being in the big home end just because they are disabled and we lose a few seats?

He's not saying that, the wheelchair tribunes in the original bowl design were still in the home end but on the corner bits. Where they've been moved to in the amended designs, whilst probably cheaper by reducing the number of lifts needed, doesn't pay homage to the 'closeness' of the gwladys street as much as the original designs.

 

[TheSpaniard]

So disabled fans are forbidden from being in the big home end just because they are disabled and we lose a few seats?

Yeah you’ve got me, massive ablist here.

I haven’t explained myself that well - the previous position I thought was fine and that was in the big home end. My position is purely thinking about atmosphere - 280 ish fans (4 rows x 35 seats x 2 blocks) generate more noise than 50 fans, as well as the lost “wall” because of the pitchside accesses being lowered. This is exacerbated if we ever do switch to standing and increased capacity.

I’m not disabled though and won’t pretend to understand the difficulties of attending a game and the day to prejudices faced. Apologies if I’ve given the impression that I’m against the disabled community. I think Everton have done a good job in making sure that anyone that wants to come to a game and sit where they want to can.

 

[ashwuk76]

Yeah you’ve got me, massive ablist here.

I haven’t explained myself that well - the previous position I thought was fine and that was in the big home end. My position is purely thinking about atmosphere - 280 ish fans (4 rows x 35 seats x 2 blocks) generate more noise than 50 fans, as well as the lost “wall” because of the pitchside accesses being lowered. This is exacerbated if we ever do switch to standing and increased capacity.

I’m not disabled though and won’t pretend to understand the difficulties of attending a game and the day to prejudices faced. Apologies if I’ve given the impression that I’m against the disabled community. I think Everton have done a good job in making sure that anyone that wants to come to a game and sit where they want to can.

That's ok maybe I misunderstood what you were trying to say. Its all good. My dad is disabled and until recently had a season ticket for over 10 years. Getting to the game and getting the right seating is always a challenge I admit.

Its always been one of my bugbears that people in wheelchairs usually get lumped pitchside and imo its not as good as being in with the crowd so to speak. We miss out on the atmosphere being right amongst the fans brings. Its why I love the Wembley design. Its flat for wheelchair users and you don't need a lift or anything and the seats and right in the middle of the crowd. I do hope Everton don't take this away and keep the spaces mixed in with the crown and especially the big home end.

All good mate

 

[TheSpaniard]

That's ok maybe I misunderstood what you were trying to say. Its all good. My dad is disabled and until recently had a season ticket for over 10 years. Getting to the game and getting the right seating is always a challenge I admit.

Its always been one of my bugbears that people in wheelchairs usually get lumped pitchside and imo its not as good as being in with the crowd so to speak. We miss out on the atmosphere being right amongst the fans brings. Its why I love the Wembley design. Its flat for wheelchair users and you don't need a lift or anything and the seats and right in the middle of the crowd. I do hope Everton don't take this away and keep the spaces mixed in with the crown and especially the big home end.

All good mate

Thanks for your insight, always good to hear about other people’s experiences! I suppose that’s one of the issues of the site being right by the water, we can’t lower the bowl or raise the surrounding ground so the entrances are always going to be at pitch level.

 

[NeilA1878]

If you read the updated design and access statements, we’re really hammering home the “creating a civic space” aspect of the updates and the western plaza. I assume this is to give us another weapon against these plebs from Historic England and the likes, proving that putting a stadium there is a net benefit to the area and the city.

Yeah... Have a read of the Economic analysis as well. That will be what is weighed up against the damaged to the cultural heritage assets. It's very cleverly done... The economists that did it have a really good reputation.

 

[AsiaAsia82]

I personally think it’s dangerous to sit disabled fans around the goal area, many times balls fly into the fans at a high pace. In safety terms an abled bodied person would be able to react better.
In my view, for that factor they should not be behind/alongside goal area but to the side or higher into the stand.

 

[paulbefc]

Yeah you’ve got me, massive ablist here.

I haven’t explained myself that well - the previous position I thought was fine and that was in the big home end. My position is purely thinking about atmosphere - 280 ish fans (4 rows x 35 seats x 2 blocks) generate more noise than 50 fans, as well as the lost “wall” because of the pitchside accesses being lowered. This is exacerbated if we ever do switch to standing and increased capacity.

I’m not disabled though and won’t pretend to understand the difficulties of attending a game and the day to prejudices faced. Apologies if I’ve given the impression that I’m against the disabled community. I think Everton have done a good job in making sure that anyone that wants to come to a game and sit where they want to can.

this is brilliant.

 

[Pienaar'sdisciple]

I'd like to see us take an economical stance to building a stadium. Let me put it like this. The wanda metropolitano took 300 million euros to build while the new spurs stadium took a billion. Would prefer we went the Atletico way, it's even bigger than the spurs stadium and football fans aren't fancy people anyways.

 

[Davideeyore]

Why when looking at the north stand, is it not basically designed like the Park End, with another tier on - because the principle point is that the disabled viewing platform at the Park End must be one of the best things to come out of modern Goodison. Why on earth are they just randomly using the corners like this? It's a strange one.

 

[TheSpaniard]

this is brilliant.

What do you mean buddy? The internet would be a far better place if everyone explained their point of view a little bit. I’m trying to do this, but do appreciate I’m not the most eloquent person so I do struggle to write what I’m trying to explain.

 

[H.H.]

I'd like to see us take an economical stance to building a stadium. Let me put it like this. The wanda metropolitano took 300 million euros to build while the new spurs stadium took a billion. Would prefer we went the Atletico way, it's even bigger than the spurs stadium and football fans aren't fancy people anyways.

I read here that it's costing £80 million just to fill in the dock etc so it's never going to be cheap.
I'm guessing that part of the reason the Athletico stadium was cheaper to build is because it was built on empty wasteland near an airport and the land was cheap (and I guess labour is also cheaper out there?)
The stadium exterior is mainly bland concrete and no matter how good it looks on tv, inside it has next to no facilities for supporters and isn't very close to to pitch, with the upper tiers behind the goals having about a 30 foot empty gap to the lower tiers, all the seats in the top tier were a long distance from the pitch and the lower tier isn't that close to the pitch anyway.
Even though it holds about 68,000, the size of the bowl site is big, I'm guessing near to the same size as Wembley and the whole site it's built on is massive.
Wasn't impressed by it to be honest.