VIEW FROM THE BLUE

'The Loop' — It Can Be Done

How to keep Everton in the city

Envision, if you will, a home for Everton in the district where the club was formed 129 years ago and in which the old Roundhouse in the centre of its famous crest still stands. The floodlights of the stadium are visible as you exit LIme Street Station or walk down Scotland Road from the direction of Walton. As you drive out of the Wallasey tunnel, the home of Everton FC is the first thing you see. The roar of 50,000 fans is audible from the city centre.

Everton back home in Everton at the heart of Liverpool.

It's been derided as the "reddest of red herrings" and a desperate, eleventh-hour bid by Liverpool City Council to save face, while being seized upon by those who want to keep Everton in the city as the answer to their prayers. There is no question, however, that as fans prepare to make arguably the most important decision of their Everton-supporting lives, the "Loop" off Scotland Road deserves to be explored as the potentially viable alternative to Kirkby so glaringly lacking on the upcoming ballot of fans.

The whys, hows and wherefores of how we got to this point — there's probably more than enough blame to go around all parties — are largely irrelevant to any examination of the possibilities that exist at the Tunnel Loop location. What is important is demonstrating that the site is, by Keith Wyness' definition, "deliverable" in both logistics and funding.

Of course, the former is the easy part; the latter is where, again, possibilities can be presented but it will be up to LCC leader, Warren Bradley, and the local authority over which he presides to prove that they can assemble the right package of property and commercial partners to rival what is on offer in Kirkby from Knowsley Borough Council and Tesco.

It's worthwhile prefacing a fuller examination by addressing the common assumption and potential misconception that we are talking about a mirror of the Kirkby project with the "Loop" alternative. In other words, it's highly unlikely to be a case of simply exchanging one retail giant for another where Bestway would help fund the actual construction of the stadium and a cash and carry would be integral to the final development. What is more likely is a Kings Dock-style scheme — a partnership between the local council, a regeneration agency, Bestway, a host of commercial partners, and Everton FC — where cooperation, mutual benefit and urban renewal for North Liverpool are what drive the funding behind the project as a whole.

Hobson's Choice

When 38,000-odd Everton supporters are given the opportunity in the coming month to vote on the future location of one of English football's oldest clubs, they will be faced with a simple enough question but, in reality, Hobson's Choice. Vote for the Everton Board's Plan A or choose nothing and, the club's Chief Executive, Keith Wyness, will have you believe, face inevitable stagnation and the potential for Goodison Park to be unusable within a decade.

On the face of it, Wyness' logic is straightforward. Goodison is ageing, requires increasing annual maintenance costs, offers far less in the way of corporate facilities than comparable stadia and, with an average attendance that is probably artificially suppressed by the 4,000 obstructed views inside the ground, is not able to provide sufficient revenue to enable the club to compete in the current financial climate of the Premier League.

So, with turnover close to a maximum provided by the current stadium and no wealthy benefactors in the boardroom, Everton Football Club is unable to fund either the redevelopment of Goodson Park or a new stadium development elsewhere without significant assistance from the local authority and commercial partners.

In that sense, the three-way partnership between Knowsley Borough Council, Tesco and Everton FC that would provide Everton with a 50,000-seat stadium is a workable solution but not an attractive proposition to a sizeable chunk of the fanbase: those who believe that the club should do everything to remain in the city of its birth; and those who accuse the current custodians of the club of dereliction of their duty for having brought the club to the point where through their own failure to bring any inward investment ito the club, that one unpalatable option is the only one left on the table.

Since the collapse of the much-heralded Kings Dock stadium project four years ago, Liverpool City Council have put forward a number of alternative sites inside the municipal boundary — from Gillmoss to Speke, Switch Island to Aintree — but without a heavy-hitting commercial partner to share the cost burden, the suggestions were effectively moot.

Facing bitter accusations themselves from Evertonians for appearing to favour Liverpool FC and their own quest to build a new home in their own back yard and then sit on their hands while Everton locked themselves into a long-term exclusivity agreement with Knowsley, LCC, led by another Evertonian, Warren Bradley, have stepped up their action in recent weeks to try and prevent its oldest professional football club from leaving the city.

On the day that Everton confirmed that they would be balloting its core support on the Kirkby Project, Bradley announced that the will was there on the part of the City Council to find a viable alternative within Liverpool and that three sites — four if you include the redevelopment of Goodison — were proposed: one on the main council housing depot in Long Lane, Aintree; one at the new car holding compound next to the New Mersey Retail Park at Speke and the site off Scotland Road in cooperation with Bestway (Holdings Ltd).

The last option was the one Bradley felt was the most promising, not least because of its location actually in Everton ward and the presence of Bestway as willing partners in a wider urban regeneration and commercial development scheme.

A "Loop-hole" in the "no alternative" argument

The proposed site inside the tunnel loop off Scotland Road is currently owned by the Bestway Group, the second largest cash and carry operator in the UK with annual turnover in excess of £1.7bn, and houses the Liverpool depot of Batley's which the company acquired in January 2005.

While the location currently serves Bestway well, sitting as it does at the mouth of the Wallasey tunnel and near the main arteries leading into the city, as urban regeneration projects transform Liverpool's inner city, it's open to question whether it would make sense to have a retail depot in such proximity to Liverpool city centre in 10, 20, 50 years' time.

The area immediately to the north will undergo complete transformation in the next few years as part of "Project Jennifer", a mixed-use retail, residential and commercial regeneration project, while a large tract to the south on the other side of the Kingsway is part-owned by Liverpool City Council and has been earmarked for regeneration.

So, while Bestway's retail division had no requirement to leave the site, the approach by the LCC offered the opportunity to become part of a large-scale commercial development — one that might leverage capabilities in the Bestway Group beyond their retail operation — that would augment the Project Jennifer development and transform a gateway to the city has obvious attractions.

In terms of size, Bestway's Head of Property, Malcolm Carter, is confident that the "Loop" site would accommodate a 50,000-seat stadium and he says that his firm is already in discussions with a stadium contractor to work up designs and a proposal that would confirm that the location is viable.

Initial reaction to the possibiity of the Scotland Road site has ranged from unbridled enthusiasm to outright derision, the latter mostly as a result of the dimensions of the area in question. Much has been made of the fact that Goodison Park fits only snugly inside the "Loop" — albeit with room to spare on either side for the kind of open walkways and plazas depicted in Everton's proposed designs for the Kirkby stadium — but the viability of the site is not dependent on how much space is around the stadium and the structure's own dimensions at its widest are not hidebound to the size of its footpint.

Consider the following:

• The stands could quite feasibly extend over the surrounding roadways by a few feet, either by horizontal extension, gradually at and angle, or by natural curvature in a dome-like structure
• Alterations to the existing thoroughfares around the loop have been considered as part of the plan but may not be necessary
• There is the potential to tunnelise one or more of the roads by building over them entirely — Grand Prix fans, think of the roadway that runs under the Loewes Hotel in Monte Carlo — but, again, may only be necessary if Everton decide or require at some point in the future to significantly increase the capacity of the stadium
• An underground car park could be built under the stadium itself
• A series of pedestrian bridges could provide access by foot over Scotland Road to the west, the loop to the north and Great Homer Street to the east
• A wide concourse similar to "Wembley Way" could replace the existing walkway that links the area south of the Kingsway at St Anne's Street with the loop site, linking new commercial properties to the stadium.

In other words, imagine a scenario whereby the boxes of footprint, parking and access are all ticked. You have a stadium 10 minutes' walk from Lime Street Station linked directly to a brand-new commercial development that could house bars, restaurants — Planet Hollywood, Mr Earl? — a cinema, a hotel and apartments... basically all the extra-football revenue generators that made the Kings Dock such a wonderful opportunity.

Not only that, it could be argued that the stadium itself would attract far more in the way of year-round use than would one located on the edge of a retail park next to the M57 in Kirkby. From concerts and conventions to wedding receptions — if you live in Liverpool, get married in Liverpool and just have to have your reception at the home of the Blues, would you want to travel to Knowsley for your reception? — and corporate parties, it would all be there in close proximity to the beating heart of Liverpool, part of the Liverpool City Centre experience.

The "retail/business park experience" provided by the new crop of purpose-built stadia like Derby's Pride Park and Reading's Madjeski Stadium is soulless by comparison, the latter sitting adjacent to B&Q and junk food outlets and surrounded by corporate buildings and industrial properties.

With the match-going experience so woven into the fabric of many fans' lives, the idea of pausing to contemplate for what they would be trading their Goodison rituals by voting in favour of the Kirkby option is not something to be casually dismissed.

Well connected

One of the chief arguments put forward in favour of the proposed relocation to Kirkby is access, the natural assumption being that because it is right next to the M57 and within 10 minutes' walk of Kirkby rail station, the stadium would be ideally situated.

It's certainly true that given the high proportion of fans who reside within a walk, cab or bus ride from Goodison Park, it's conceivable that thousands of fans will elect to take the train to Kirkby on match days. In reality, it's hard to speculate how many would opt for the train over the bus or a cab from the city but there is some question whether the single rail line that serves Kirkby would be able to cope with the potential demand.

Assuming it can, the bigger problem may be those fans arriving by car, especially when you throw Saturday shoppers at Tesco into the mix.

Paradoxically, in the case of motorway access with few tributaries, it's often close proximity to a major artery that causes the most problems because cars leaving the slip road often hit upon congestion immediately, potentially causing the backlog to extend back onto the motorway itself.

The Madejski Stadium, similar to that proposed for Everton in Kirkby in that it is a retail/commercial/business-park stadium, is a case in point. The ground is visible from the M4 and fed from that motorway and the town centre by the A33. With it being miles from the core residential areas, the vast majority of match-goers are coming by car, taxi or bus and that can lead to gridlock around the ground on match days.

[My personal experience was one that I fear could become a problem in Kirkby where the stadium and potential attendance would be twice the size of the Madejski even accounting for those fans coming on foot from Kirkby or by rail. The A33 crawled from the M4 all the way to the ground before the game and, with everyone jumping into vehicles at the same time after the final whistle the whole area was gridlocked for what was close to an hour, if I recall correctly.]

By contrast, the tunnel loop location is within easy walking distance of Lime Street as well as Moorfields, James Street, Central and Brunswick stations, multi-story car parks, a ferry terminal, major bus terminals and is effectively served by every major artery that feeds central Liverpool itself.

Critics of the Scotland Road option cite potential traffic congestion as one of the biggest reasons why it's a non-starter, but it's conceivable that conditions on the roads would be little different from the typical experience in Walton — although, granted, the Wallasey Tunnel could bear the brunt of any increased congestion. Goodison Park has one of the fastest dispersal rates of any Premier League ground, owing mostly to the fact that a large majority of fans walk to the ground. In fact, according to a survey a few years ago, more fans walk to Everton's home games than any other top flight club.

With the tunnel loop just 2 miles from Goodison, it's hard to see those habits changing. Throw in the fact that all of Liverpool city centre's pubs and restaurants — plus any that might spring up as part of or as a result of the stadium development — would be just a few minutes' walk away and you could have an overwhelingly high percentage of fans arriving at and leaving the ground on foot.

This is all, of course, speculation and a detailed assessment of the impact on traffic would probably be required to confirm or deny the objections of those who have been quick to write the "Loop" site off as not viable. Naturally, the same goes for Kirkby.

Where's the "sugar daddy" to pay for it?

Head and shoulders above any obstacle to the "Loop" proposal is funding. It's a given that with no liquid capital with which to play and only one major asset remaining — Goodison Park itself — Everton FC cannot even remotely fund the construction of a new stadium by itself... hence the need to use Knowsley Borough Council and Tesco as crutches in order to deliver the Kirkby Project and the absence of a Plan B on the impending ballot.

As already established, Bestway (Holdings Ltd) have now emerged as a potential partner in a large-scale commercial development after Warren Bradley approached the company with a proposition involving a stadium for Everton on the "tunnel trumpet" site. In Bradley's words, the site "fits like a glove," an observation based on much more than just the physical dimensions of the site. Here was the potential to deliver to Everton Plan B.

Unlike the Kirkby Project, which appears to be being driven by Tesco, with Knowsley and Everton the willing beneficiaries, where the "Loop" project is concerned it is the council who want to lead the scheme and funding would likely come from a conglomerate of commercial partners (Everton included), the Council and might — one would guess — attract external funding from the EU or government quangos all working towards a wider regeneration and commercial development.

According to Bestway's Head of Property, Malcolm Carter, Bestway are "participating" rather than driving the proposal but have been central to the initial announcement because they own the proposed site and have taken the lead in opening discussions with a stadium contractor to pull together an appraisal of the viability of the site. LCC have appointed a dedicated internal resource to manage the proposal and the investigations into its viability.

Suggestions that Bestway are in it to make a quick buck with a swift land sale are countered by Carter's vision for how the proposal is likely to work. He uses a "pot" analogy whereby various assets are put in and taken out of the pot to help fund the scheme.

By way of examples: Bestway could give up the "Loop" site in exchange for LCC-owned land somewhere else in the city; Everton ostensibly get the land inside the "Loop" at no cost to the club because Goodison Park itself is likely to be redeveloped at some point, possibly by the very scheme which would provide the stadium at the tunnel loop.

The key to the scheme is this potential urban regeneration and commercial development scheme of which a new stadium for Everton at Scotland Road would be just one component, albeit a major one. There, once again, are the parallels with the Kings Dock which required a relatively small contribution from Everton for what was a wide-ranging project.

And the club would be entering into a partnership not simply focused on the tunnel loop and the area immediately to the south — although that would be the primary focus — but one that could involve new developments elsewhere in North Liverpool, be it half a mile away or two miles away.

Act in haste, repent at leisure

As foreign billionnaires flock to the Premier League looking to capitalise on the boom economy — or at least the impression of one — of the English game and the transfer market inflates to ridiculous levels as a result, Everton's apparent inability to compete with the spending habits of even the likes of Wigan and Fulham this summer has been brought into sharp focus.

It has also served to instill a sense of panic among supporters who fear that the club could be surpassed this coming season by clubs of smaller stature but bigger transfer budgets and eventually left behind in the race to remain on the heels of the "big four".

While the rhetoric emanating from the club in the run up to the vote on the Kirkby Project is seeking to prey on those fears — Keith Wyness has issued warnings that Goodison Park could be unusable within a decade while Mikel Arteta's assertion that the possibility of a new stadium was one of the reasons why he elected to sign a new contract is also being used in the propaganda war — it's tempting for fans to believe that Everton are in a do-or-die, now-or-never situation.

But we act in haste and jump at what bears the hallmarks of a short-term fix rather than an enterprise focused on long-term gain at our peril. Wyness projects that the relocation to Kirkby would bring in an additional £10m revenue per year based on increased attendances and the sale of executive boxes but there has been no in-depth risk analysis on the impact the move would have on attendance levels beyond the typical honeymoon period of the first few years after the stadium opens its doors.

An inner-city stadium at a location like Scotland Road would offer the same potential for a 10,000 more fans per game while potentially proving a bigger draw for corporate sponsorship and the sale of executive boxes. More importantly, by remaining part of one of Europe's biggest urban renewal projects and anchoring itself at the heart of a thriving city, the club stand to reap far bigger rewards in the longer term. At a time when, on the back of the award of European Capital of Culture status, Liverpool is undergoing unprecedented transformation and funding initiatives are flooding into the city, it seems unthinkable that one of its oldest and most famous institutions could be leaving to set up home in the next-door borough.

With the club's exclusivity agreement with Tesco and Knowsley, LCC have been able to suggest alternative sites within Liverpool but have not been able to bring potential commercial partners to the negotiating table. Now, with time running out and the stakes as high as they could possibly be, Warren Bradley has demonstrated that the will to keep Everton in the city is there and has promised the fans that an alternative to Kirkby will be put forward by the time it comes to vote.

Evertonians owe it to themselves — and the club owes it to the supporters — to give any plan for the Scotland Road site full consideration before condemning Everton FC to a lock, stock and barrel departure for Knowsley. Logistically, the site is viable. And if between LCC and Bestway a workable funding initiative can be proposed then the brakes need to be applied on the "Kirkby Express" with immediate effect. If the Everton Board won't do it, it behooves the fans to do it for them by voting an emphatic no when it comes time to cast their vote.

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