Everton Stadium makes the cut for Euro 2028 bid

After all these rumours flying around about it being 3 months behind schedule, and not having the finances to finish it, that is heartening to hear, especially as it's been one of the few positives about our club for years.

Bill's Chair in the Directors box will also be 2nd hand. Charles III has promised him the Coronation chair once he's finished with it.

The Euro venue reports would help push it forward. Casement Park in Belfast is a saga going on years, Everton Stadium is a minor blip in comparison.

USM have now been targeted and, with Farhad having such close ties to Alisdair, then he must be very, very worried right now.

That's always the problem on these Design Build contracts. The owner has a concept of the quality of finishes he wants that is not matched by the budget he has provided the contractor to achieve it.

And as it's the last elements to be completed, it's always the ones that are squeezed.

Get through another turbulent season and have an iconic stadium on a world famous waterfront to look forward to.

I fancy the UK and Ireland to win the bid over Turkey. And the new Goodison on the River wlll host an international tournament.

They can shove their big stand up their arse and foam at the mouth with red bitterness and jealousy. The City will be ours. The Bird is Blue.

First things first, though. Saturday matters.

It's as stupid a look as digging a hole in a third of the outside space and filling it with water, yes, that's what they are doing. Instead of utilizing that space for fans or to make money, they put in a canal. With water on near all sides, we want more to look at? I don't think so. I bet the water tower will be just that, a remake tarted up of the old pumps.

Let's face it, the outside look is pandering to the heritage committee who actually tried to block the stadium being built.

Also, where is the improvement on the roads that was promised? How are 50,000 fans getting to that ground safely? Walking along the dock road is not a safe thing to do. I heard a fans walk way along the docks from the Albert Dock was being built, but when?

When you say "USM have now been targetted" do you mean it literally, as in someone or some entity has made some claim or challenge against them?

Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

Also, who is this 'Alisdair' of who you speak? Or am I again taking that too literally and you are actually speaking not about Alisdair at all but about someone with a quite different and distinctly non-Scottish name?

All in the interests of openness and transparency I'm sure you understand.

The clue is in the first line of Tony's post@(6), Tony's fingers have a Scottish accent, sometimes, when he posts!!

But I think Tony is actually way ahead of me as I have just found the story from earlier today on updated sanctions that indeed names USM Holdings, and this mysterious Scottish-Russian bloke, Alisdair.

I've put it in a new thread here: Usmanov and USM Holdings targeted in latest UK sanctions

I see where you are coming from.

However, the club will be hoping they are back where they belong in the English top flight by the time the international tournament comes around. Source: Goodison News (aka We'll publish anything to get a click or two…)

There you have it, in that last paragraph, we're doomed at some point prior to the International Tournament taking place.

Yes, the schedule seems to have changed. Today's comment by our CEO is the first acknowledgement I have seen from the club that the stadium will be completed ‘during the 2024-25 season' rather than by the summer of 2024.

For the last 12 months, various newspapers have said it will not be completed until after the start of the 2024-25 season which probably means we won't move into it until the start of the 2025-26. So it looks almost certain we will have two more seasons at Goodison.

All media is tainted and always has been but it's just more obvious these days and that's largely due to the advent of social media and “disinformation” which is mostly information outside the controlled media's sphere of influence.

It's a bit like those two ginger fatties on Good Morning, Vietnam who decide what Cronauer can and can't say despite it being true. People have to make their own minds up but most are too lazy and/or feckless to even notice.

Yes, I can see where your concern is. I would not be surprised MSP's reported revival of interest proves to end up as a substantial holding. Moshiri could go from arm's length to recluse status. I doubt he will be seen at Goodison anytime soon.

Pretty slack work if not intentional.

do some research into the globalist plans for investing into "Rebuilding" Ukraine. Not my opinion, find some of the videos boasting of the digital Utopia they have planned, and who's at the party.

Shines a different light on the motivations at play.

Yes, and the club have known for ages that we wouldn't be playing in the new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock for the start of the 2024-25 season as was scheduled. They also have no intention of moving mid-season.

The plan is for the start of the 2025-26 season and has been for some time. I guess they just forgot to mention it.

I've never seen any statement from the club saying we will be moving in during the 2024-25 season. The club generally never say anything about anything, never mind the proposed stadium timeline, and to be fair, neither should they.

The only thing that has changed is the redshite press have been trying to trash the club at every available opportunity with negative made up 'news' stories for months now, even to the point were Evertonians are now quoting this information as fact, not before adding their own misinformation to it.

Anyway, as "glass half-full" type of person, I'm looking forward to seeing Spain, Italy, or maybe Germany playing at the famous new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.

1914, we win the league and the Kaiser kicks off, no footie until we've lost most of our players;

1939, again we win the league, and this time it's WW2 and our ground is bombed, players are thrown in the armed forces, everything goes mammaries up, and we end up getting relegated 5 years after the league resumes.

Fast forward to the 2020s and our main investor, who is finally delivering the stadium Bill Kenwright has promised for 20 years, is caught up in the fallout from another war!

I swear to God, them Red devil worshippers across the park are involved somewhere…

However loads of click bait sites and rumours have put a date on it which is now not only gospel but also being used as a stick to beat the club with.

We are now failing to hit a deadline we didn’t set. Something that feeds into the media narrative around the club.

Important disclaimer here. I’m more than happy for our board to be hit with any stick available. It’s when people start calling out the club on a whole. Yes, the board are incompetent liars. But they are just custodians, a shambles and a disgrace but custodians who are hopefully on their way out. They are not my club.

Let’s not get caught up in the frenzy and feed the negativity.

I know it’s semantics but it’s important to support the club at all times. It’s not mutually exclusive from hating the board of lairs.

Philip Bunting (28), I think I know why they acted in such a shortsighted way. In both expansion projects, the original stands were kept and utilised as part of the new development. The lower tier of the new main stand was the old main stand, and the same with the Annie Rd.
The reason for this is that modern standards demand more space for each individual seat, and had they demolished the existing stands, the final total capacity would have been significantly reduced.

This is one reason why the introduction of safe standing at Bramley Moore will have a significant impact. You often hear the ratio of one seat to one standing fan, which I think is a simplification of how it would work. It would be more likely that each fan would require a minimum amount of square meterage and considering Bramley Moore has more square meterage per seat than most, the uptake will be greater. To put it another way, if we squeezed as many fans into the stadium like the redshite have, it would probably be an 80k seater stadium.

Obviously we're in a dire situation what with the relegation threat & all, but even so, surely the stadium will be completed by hook or by *ahem* crook?

The Veltins Arena can hold over 62,000 for league matches with safe standing in parts of the stadium. This is reduced to around 54,000 when they host international matches, when it reverts to seated only.

I would imagine our figures could be similar; maybe 60,000 with safe standing? I'll admit to not really knowing the club's plans for that though.

By the way, my dodgy 80k estimate was me just taking the opportunity to have a go at the shite.

I remember being outside it when Argentina played in the World Cup in Germany, but it was like a ring of steel, and because we had a few young kids with us we decided not to try and get in.

I went inside the Cologne stadium and thought that it was very impressive, especially behind the goal because it was very, very steep, but that ground in Gelsenkirchen, looked very impressive.

The Germans decided to build stadiums, that replicated the old English stadium’s, that got people closer to the pitch, but most of the newer English grounds, seemed to move away from this. Bramley Moore, looks tight, I just hope it’s got those very steep steps behind the goal, because it definitely helps to keep the noise in.

Entrance is a bit of a nightmare with congestion and despite good transport links, it can be tricky to get away from.

It rates for me. And it was quite iconic at the time with the option for a closed roof like the Millennium / Principality in Cardiff. I believe a contingent from Everton visited Gelsenkirchen in their planning for the Kings Dock. Lets not go there!

I don't think you can look much further than Tottenham's new stadium right now. To say it is impressive is an understatement.

I'll avoid going off pure scale and size. Ajax is fantastic and you have the academy pitches in it's shadow with the kids training. If that isn't incentive, I don't know what is. And like Schalke, you can go and watch them.

I've been to Leverkusen, another ground similar to what you describe. Modern but close into the pitch.

Wembley is up there, but even though similar, I'm not a fan of the Emirates.

I don't know about everyone else, but St James' Park isn't for me. Half of the attendance needs binoculars to see the match. And I'm not a fan of those grounds that sprung up and are carbon copies of each other. Leicester, Sunderland, Middlesborough, Derby and Southampton spring to mind.

I don't like the stadiums that are converted or joint athletic venues. They are without soul and don't lend themselves to football.

Hertha Berlin in the 75,000 capacity Olympic Stadium. Interestingly, they are moving to a 55,000 purpose built football stadium when their current contract runs out.

The Olympico in Rome, home to Roma and Lazio is dreadful and often half empty. Roma were due to move to a purpose built football stadium with a capacity of about 50,000 but it fell through. Juventus did move and downscaled. Again, I think their capacity is about 50,000 now.

Likewise, the London Stadium. Awful and lots of empty seats on a regular basis.

I didn't like the Munich Olympic stadium but the Allianz is impressive. The way it changes colour on the outside is quite unique.

I've always liked Villa Park. Both the old and the new. Here's a surprise for you though, I really enjoyed Brentford, if not the result, when I went last season.

Random one, I once went to watch LA Galaxy play Chicago fire. What stuck in the memory was the people in the hospitality boxes behind the goal to my left. At half time, they were literally having a party with a band on the outdoor patio. Most of them didn't come out for the second half and carried on partying with the band playing.

Very bizarre for someone like me, who was trying to point out movement and shape on the pitch to my wife and son.

Worst ground I've ever been to? A tie between a crumbling Oakwell when we played Barnsley in the FA Cup in 1989. We were minutes away from a catastrophic crush only several weeks before Hillsborough. I don't exaggerate, it could have been us.

Dagenham and Redbridge when I went to watch Hereford with a few friends and colleagues years ago. It was 2005 and the 5th tier of English football at the time. Forget the stadium and football, it was like a throwback to the 80s on the terraces.

My favourite? There can only be one. But she's about to retire and hand the baton over to Bramley Moore for a bright and optimistic future in an iconic stadium.

I really don't know how we're going to walk away from Goodison on that last day. I almost don't want to think about it. It will be tough.

Which brings me back to your point Tony, the Veltins is Schalke's 3rd stadium. What is nice is, as I've alluded to, the academy pitches are in the stadium's shadow. And recently, they renovated the previous stadium (Parkstadion), which is a stones throw from the Veltins also overlooking the academy pitches for more prominent academy fixtures.

A shame that we were not able to do something like that, but I'm still looking forward to Bramley Moore.

I do not know if the figures have changed since but it definitely mentioned it will be just over 62,000 with safe standing in place.

The South stand would be able to hold 20,000 with safe standing, with other parts of the ground including the North and I think East stand, with only one stand not having safe standing which must be the West stand.

Whichever stand is nearest the Mersey I believe is the stand not having safe standing.

Again things May have changed since back then.

I remember being sub at Oakwell (thank fuck!) in a reserve game, and we were getting beat three nil at halftime, simply because our captain lost the toss. Honestly, I’ve never known wind, like that before (wind = the enemy of football) and our goal kicks, where coming right back and giving them corners, with no other player even touching the ball, and this went on for about 25 minutes.

Clough happened to be there, and absolutely destroyed everyone at half time, saying we were all fucking useless and how he couldn’t understand how most had even got to that level, when they couldn’t keep the ball on the floor, and play into a little bit of fuckin wind.

This has now got me thinking about the wind of Bramley Moore, which I’m certain is going to be absolutely brutal?

Casement Park in all its glory.

Given our present circumstances, I’m aware we will also be lucky, but I’m saving up for a big warm Canada Goose coat, because it’s gonna be ffffffffcan fffreezing, mate!

My claim to fame is definitely playing at solitude, so I was gutted when it wasn’t chosen instead of this place Shane.

Cliftonville is it Tony?

wind is going to be no problem at the new stadium. You will need your coat for the cold at times though. Nothing new there!

To reiterate, when I go to Goodison, the club is lucky to get £55 out of me, which is my ticket and half-time drink.

As of this season, our most expensive season ticket is £625.

In parts of Fulham's new riverside stand, it will cost their supporters £3,000.

I know we have a balance to strike with the local support base, but that is quite stark.

The ones I spoke to told me it was for a certain section of the new stand. Either way, they were not best pleased with the club. One that is located in one of the most affluent areas of the country, although I know that not all are located there. Fulham are already 3rd in terms of highest price before the £3K tickets are made available.

Everton needs to strike a careful balance. We need to increase revenue, but need to remain mindful of where the majority of our match going fan base come from.

Interesting mention of the London Stadium. It reminds me to some degree of the Emirates. Claiming a sell out yet you can see the empty seats. Likewise at the Etihad. I guess to the clubs, it matters not as they have sold the tickets and made the money.

Confused.

I'm not done yet.

The pitch is going north to south, but I think the wind will just comes straight in from the river mersey, and blow right across the pitch, meaning a seat on the far side of the stadium might just be a little bit warmer!

I have always considered the wind, to be the enemy of football, so it did surprise me when Everton never went with a retractable roof.

There are lots of ways of coping with the situation. One way is to deny the possibility of it ever happening, which is what Rob does in his reply. Another is to act like it’s going to happen and is an inevitability, like other poster have.

Both of these responses are coping mechanisms and are just reflections on how people cope with traumatic events in life.

I’m somewhere in the middle and flit between the 2 responses.

I was at the Wimbledon and Coventry games in the 90’s and at the Palace game last season. At no point in any of those seasons did I actually think we’d be relegated, even when we were 2 down against Wimbledon and Palace respectively but this season just feels different to me at times and has a certain inevitability to it.

We are shorn of any attacking quality and that is our Achilles heel. You just need to look at the goals for and against column to see that the defence isn’t the worst in the league, indeed there are 5 teams who have conceded more goals and in some cases many more goals than us. But, our goals for is the joint worst in the division and that’s why I lean towards the “we will actually go down this time” negativity more than the “we won’t ever go down because we are Everton” positivity that my mind wrestles with 24/7 and which destroys my sleep most nights!

I could go on, but yesterday has gone, and the most important thing right now is that Dyche picks a team that can really compete against Crystal Palace, at Selhurst Park, this Saturday.

Warmer too, Eddie, nothing like a bit of noise, which always warms up the blood, when watching football, mate!

I honestly think it was a stupid decision not building a retractable roof, when you consider (something most of us already know) how windy it gets down by the River Mersey, sometimes.

Do you not think the minute's silence for Hillsborough added to the lack of atmosphere. It is right that we remember the 97 but it does have an impact on people's thoughts.

Remember the week before at Anfield at their minutes tribute the Liverpool fans were quiet until Xhaka threw his wobbler to get them going.

The other place is between Leeds, Leicester and us. Leeds need points from their next 3 games as they have difficult fixtures after that. Leicester have it in their own hands as they play Leeds and us in the next 3 games.

I think one of the latter two will finish higher than us and we will finish 4th from bottom.

I can't speak to others, but I felt dejected the minute I saw Maupay named in the starting XI.

I'm gonna stick my neck out again and say I don't think wind will be a real problem at Bramley-Moore Dock.

The prevailing wind will mostly be met by that big curve of the roof of the western stand which will tend to reduce the pressure and influence the air across the top.

If you look at the protections of the finished stadium, the roof opening is also relatively small. Incidentally, that roof design looks to me like it could have been provided the option of being a retractable version with different engineering. Maybe in our mega future in some years time.

As for playing direction re the sun, probably best to play north first half, then towards the city for the big finish.

I hope you’re right about the roof, Will, because nothing spoils a game of football more than horrible windy conditions.

I admire Rob and Danny for their optimism and positivity but having watched the Blues for over 60 years I have never felt more despondent.

Even when we were 2 down against Wimbledon I felt we could still prevail but this season the total lack of a goalscorer with DCL's injury situation has made me wonder where we will get the points we need especially now the MF and defence are falling apart again..

I do however hope the fans can make an effort to repeat last seasons level of support on the run in and drag the lads over the line.

was a bit belt and braces there as sun won't be a real issue as you say, but probably just slightly better that way overall.

We keep the same orientation of home end with main stand/tunnel/bench etc. as that is now on the east side.

Looking at the table I fancy Southampton and Forest to go down, and us in a dogfight with Leicester and Leeds.
Goals scored 41 Leicester, 40 Leeds, Everton 24! Defensively we are much better, 9 less than Leicester and 14 less than Leeds.

We need wins and you cant win if you don't score its as simple as that.