Season › 2021-22 › News Everton secure alternative stadium funding to £30m council loan Monday, 7 March, 2022 10comments | Jump to most recent Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham has provided an update on a £45m local authority funding package, which included a £15m grant and a £30m loan to help with overall costs of Everton's new stadium project at Bramley-Moore Dock. Rotherham revealed today that Everton had already decided not to take up the offer of the £30m loan, informing the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority earlier this year that the club had found alternative sources of funding. Rotheram said this was set to be announced in April, but he has responded now in light of questions arising from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its potential impact on Everton given the sanctions imposed on Alisher Usmanov and his companies, which include USM Holdings who bought a first option on naming rights for the stadium."In September 2021, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) approved funding to Everton Football Club for a £15m grant and £30m loan to support work connected to the new stadium project at Bramley Moore Dock," a statement from Rotherham read. Article continues below video content "As one of the largest construction projects in the North of England, coupled with long-term commitments to regenerate the local area, the LCRCA supported the scheme on the basis that it could be the catalyst for much-needed regeneration of communities across North Liverpool and South Sefton."However, in January 2022, Everton notified the LCRCA that it had found alternative sources of funding from the private sector and would therefore no longer require the £30m loan."I believe the fact that Everton had to go to the private sector to secure better terms is testament to the competitive nature of the deal struck by the LCRCA. Notification of this change was due to be brought to the April meeting of the LCRCA, however, due to public interest in the deal following sanctions on Russian business interests in the UK, we have sought to bring this announcement forward. "The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority remains in contact with Everton about the next steps on the £15m grant, which is intended to preserve the historical assets of the Bramley Dock area, support the wider development of the site, create jobs for local people, and attract visitors to the region."However, as with the loan the applicant for the funding is Everton Football Club (not any parties associated with it) and all funding will be ringfenced solely in support of the activities listed above." Reader Comments (10) Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer Barry Hesketh 1 Posted 07/03/2022 at 12:52:04 Everton will not take up the offer of a £30m loan from Liverpool City Council, but will receive the £15m grant to help with keeping the historic features of the Bramley-Moore Dock site. According to Steve Rotherham via the Liverpool Echo, Everton has found alternative private funding to replace the loan. Alternative Funding Michael Kenrick 2 Posted 07/03/2022 at 14:16:24 This must mean that the club has found funding at a lower interest rate or on better terms than those offered by the council loan?£30M, although quite a sizeable sum, is still less than 6% of the full stadium cost, but the apparent fact that Everton have been able to source this much would perhaps suggest that they have been able to secure funding for a lot more of the estimated £550M stadium cost?Or is that just wishful thinking in these very troubled times? Gary Jones 3 Posted 07/03/2022 at 14:40:38 Council just announced its not giving us the £30m stadium building loan….apparently we weren't planning on taking it anyway but “in light of Russia links†City region mayor has decided to announce it a month early. This is an utterly scumbag move by city regions, desperately trying to score some Ukraine brownie points off the back of blackening our name if needed. Michael Kenrick 4 Posted 07/03/2022 at 15:16:27 Wow, that's quite some take on things there, Gary. Is it them "not giving us†the £30M loan?Or us not now needing the £30M loan?And it looked like the Mayor was responding to questions from the Liberal leader, and bringing forward an announcement in response to those questions for clarity and transparency moving forward. How does any of this constitute "Ukraine brownie points"?How does it "blacken our name"? John Zapa 5 Posted 07/03/2022 at 15:42:59 Michael, the club told them they won't be taking up the offer in January, long before the invasion, because they expected to get the funds from the private sector. Although it's yet unknown who from the private sector was willing to finance this, the high probability of it involved parties linked to Russia. I always felt that it would be near impossible for the club to get the loan from the UK or European Union, as they don't qualify for such a loan based on the large sustained losses the club has incurred over the last year. Michael Kenrick 6 Posted 07/03/2022 at 17:05:45 Thanks, John, for recalling that January detail. Another point Gary conveniently ignores in his rant.My understanding was that the club was looking to raise funds to finance the new stadium through private placements on the American markets, via JP Morgan and Mitsubishi Bank. But that's from long time ago and there's been nothing reported since. It would indeed be extremely interesting if they had in fact gone to Russia back in January in secure funds! That really would put them in a right pickle now!!! Unless they got the funds before Putin flipped, and are now prevented from making any payments back to Russia, probably for a very long time... It's gonna be very interesting to see exactly how long Laing O'Rourke maintain activity levels on site. I have no idea how much of the initial £100M tranche of money from Moshiri they have gotten through already (but it must be a substantial portion), and it's sounded like they have enough in the pipeline to keep them going for a while longer. As Blue Bill once famously said: "Watch this space!" Brian Wilkinson 7 Posted 07/03/2022 at 22:24:07 Take the announcement with a pinch of salt, we announced in January we would not need the loan from the Council.Brownie points yes, but only for the Council, with local elections coming up in May. Paul O'Neill 8 Posted 08/03/2022 at 10:32:48 I'm just about old enough to still get a bit jumpy when the term ‘ring fenced' is used in relation to Everton and new stadia.. Brian Wilkinson 9 Posted 10/03/2022 at 10:22:06 Think we will be fine with the stadium Paul, will cost just over £500 Million, then we will sell it off and rent the stadium back for four times the amount, have a little more faith in Bill.Let us just hope that Moshiri does not do a Roman, but instead of handing over his shares to the club, he hands his 94% over to Bill, until he finds a buyer, to look after.We know we are still trying to locate the Arteta money, god help us with his grubby mitts on 94% shares. Bernie Quinn 10 Posted 26/03/2022 at 02:22:18 Just browsing through the archives and found myself becoming quite sad and nostalgic over the thought of us leaving The Grand Old Lady. I can still remember clearly the 1-1 draw with the Dark Side in September 1948, when I was in the Boys Pen (no sign of 'luvvy' Bill!) and finding out later that I was part of our record crowd of 78,299. Then, the year after, I was in the Main Stand with my Dad (birthday treat) watching Ireland beat England 2-0 (Peter Farrell scoring the 2nd goal) to become the first foreign side to beat England in England - Hungary was the second, 4 years later. Aah Memories... Does anybody else have happy memories of Goodison? Add Your Comments In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site. » Log in now Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site. About these ads