The Stadium Debate Moshiri puts relocation back on the agenda Bramley-Moore Dock and Stonebridge Cross under examination The arrival on the scene of Farhad Moshiri as a major shareholder in Everton FC in February 2016 signalled the possibility that the club might finally have the financial resources to tackle the long-standing stadium issue. Credited with a personal fortune of around £1.2bn at the time, the British-Iranian businessman sold the 15% holding he had in Arsenal FC in partnership with Alisher Usmanov and acquired a 49.9% stake in the Toffees, buying out Robert Earl completely and part of the holdings of Bill Kenwright and Jon Woods. Within weeks, it emerged that Everton's hierarchy were exploring two very different brownfield sites within the city for a potential relocation of the club from Goodison Park. Stonebridge Cross Situated in Croxteth on the west side of the M57 from Knowsley, the site of Everton's last serious attempt to relocate in 2007 before the Destination Kirkby scheme was called in by the Government, Stonebridge Cross would offer more of an out-of-town experience akin to many of the newer football stadia developments of the past 20 years. The area had long been earmarked for regeneration given it's prime location off the East Lancs road and the nearby motorway and was considered at one time by online retail and distribution giant Amazon for a warehouse complex. Housing developer Cobalt Housing were also weighing up the area for the construction of new housing units while Liverpool City Council were keen to build a new access road to "open up" Stonebridge Cross for future development and investment. As the largest development plot in Liverpool, the site had obvious advantages for the construction of a stadium, not least space, transport links and readiness. Compared with other sites closer to the city, Stonebridge Cross offered a relatively lower cost barrier to entry but it would mean moving Everton more than three miles away from its current location in Walton and five-and-a-half miles from the city centre. Bramley-Moore Dock While Stonebridge Cross was evocative of the 2007 Destination Kirkby proposal in that it promised to move Everton to an industrial estate environment on the outskirts of town, an area selected in Liverpool's north docklands area offered the club a second chance of a home on the banks of the Mersey, a decade a half after the doomed Kings Dock project was first mooted. While it was initally reported that the Board were looking at a site at Trafalgar Dock, it was later confirmed that a more ambitious proposal was being explored three docks up at Bramley-Moore Dock, one which would keep the club closer to the city centre and provide the opportunity to build something special on one of the world's most famous waterfronts. Not surprisingly, it immediately became the option most favoured by supporters and it was largely confirmed at the January 2017 Annual General Meeting that it was the more popular choice among the Board as well. CEO Robert Elstone described the club's progress in making it a reality as "solid" but admitted that it remained a very complex project. In contrast to the Croxteth site, the docks option would require significantly more preparation work and cost, requiring a that a deal be struck with landowner, the Peel Group, and that the dock itself be filled in to create the footprint for the stadium.