In the first of a four-part special, Chris Beesley looks at Everton’s long journey in building a new stadium to replace Goodison Park.
As we move into the summer months of 2022 and the club approach their first anniversary of moving in on site at Bramley-Moore Dock, Everton’s new stadium is starting to take shape before our very eyes. But in some ways the Blues’ future home by the banks of the Mersey is a culmination of a vision that stretches back over half a century. With Everton only securing their top flight status for another season with a dramatic 3-2 comeback victory over Crystal Palace in their final home game after what was the joint lowest equivalent points total in their 134-year Football League/Premier League history, owner Farhad Moshiri, now on his seventh manager since 2016, has found building a successful football team rather difficult but off the pitch his ambition is at least close to bringing the Blues’ dream to find a worthy successor to Goodison Park to fruition.
Since formally taking control at the waterfront on July 26 last year, Everton have completed the infill of Bramley-Moore Dock using 450,000 cubic metres of fluidised sand and piling the foundations to make the site suitable for building upon and the four concrete cores that will form the corners of the 52,888 capacity stadium are also in place along with the first tower crane as construction gathers pace on the three-year build with the Blues scheduled to play their first game there during the 2024/25 season. For long-suffering Evertonians though, the move has been a long time coming with the idea of a new stadium stretching back to the 1960s.
