IN-DEPTH NEWS
ToffeeWeb Stadium Survey Results
As the debate over Everton's future home rages, a survey of almost 2,700 Everton fans — a little under half claiming to meet the club's eligibility requirements for this month's ballot on relocating to Kirkby — appears to strengthen the positions of both sides of the argument.
ToffeeWeb's Stadium Survey sought to drill a little deeper than some of the smaller-dimension polls conducted on this site and others in recent weeks and months and we were rewarded with a decent sample — 1,100 eligible voters represents roughly 3% of the estimated 38,000 who will receive voting forms in the coming week — of responses on which to form some general conclusions.
A strong majority reluctantly accept that given the site's limitations and the club's financial situation, Everton have to leave Goodison Park — the club's home for 118 years — and, in a significant pro-Kirkby swing since ToffeeWeb's most recent poll on almost the same question in July, 57% said they would vote in favour of Kirkby over sitting tight at Goodison with no other alternatives on the table for the next five years.
A little under half of respondents believe that staying in Liverpool is desirable but shouldn't be an obstacle to moving grounds, and less than a fifth said that they would negatively change their match attendance habits if the club moved to Kirkby, either on principal or because of other factors like cost and inconvenience of the new location.
They would also vote 6 to 4 in favour or Kirkby if the only other alternative was ground-sharing with Liverpool but were split almost evenly over the prospect of moving to Speke, suggesting that the scepticism of Kirkby is less about arbitrary boundaries than distance from Everton's roots.
Kirkby Project: the artist's impressions were generally well received
The Everton board also got favourable marks for the paramaters set forth for the eligibility requirements, with a healthy majority feeling that the club got it "about right" by restricting the vote to season ticket holders, shareholders and adult Evertonia members.
Furthermore, the artist's impressions of the proposed Kirkby stadium design were generally well-received with only 1/4 of respondents expressing a negative reaction — although the most popular response was "pretty good, but not great."
Where the results got interesting for those trying to predict the results of the vote, and in light of potential alternatives to be presented by Liverpool City Council and the KEIOC group in the coming week, was where respondents were asked about the possibility of a redeveloped Goodison or rival proposals to the Kirkby project.
Nearly 3/4 said that they would vote against Kirkby if a redeveloped Goodison Park was a viable option, while almost the same percentage said they would vote no to the Kirkby option in order to explore any viable opportunities for funding and a location within the city of Liverpool that opened up on the eve of the ballot.
