STADIUM DEBATE | MEDIA ARTICLE

Blues choose Kirkby site

A MULTI-MILLION pound plan to build a new Everton FC stadium in Kirkby is revealed today.

The club is in talks with Tesco and Knowsley council to build a 55,000-seater ground as the centre-piece of a massive development just outside the town centre.

The move would create hundreds of jobs and almost double the size of Kirkby town centre.

As well as the new stadium it would include:

• A Tesco supermarket
• A hotel
• A range of high street shops
• Extensive car parking

Everton chief executive Keith Wyness has already said the club would decide this summer whether to stay at Goodison Park or move to anew ground.

And the ECHO understands the Kirkby plan is by far the most viable since the much-vaunted Kings Dock stadium project collapsed in 2003.

The involvement of cash-rich Tesco - whose chief executive Sir Terry Leahy is an Evertonian and an advisor to the Blues board puts it way ahead of other suggested sites in places such as Central Docks and Switch Island.

An injection of private money would immediately ease the inevitable financial headache that the club faces if it tries to build a £150m ground by itself.

But discussions are still at a very early stage, and sources stress there are a number of hurdles to be cleared - including how much the development would cost and how exactly it would be paid for.

But the plan does tick a number of important boxes for Everton, such as excellent transport links to the M57 and Merseyrail network, and its location, which is just four miles from Goodison.

The only criteria it does not meet is that it is outside the Liverpool city boundary.

© Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales Limited 2007