While nobody involved was glad that such circumstances came about, Everton’s 3-2 comeback victory over Crystal Palace in their final home game of the season was one of Goodison Park’s great nights - but as the dust settles on the fitful events of 2021/22 at the Blues, thoughts turn to just how many such occasions ‘The Grand Old Lady’ now has left. Less than a year after Everton moved in at Bramley-Moore Dock, the construction of their new waterfront stadium is already changing the iconic city skyline by the Mersey.
The four concrete cores, representing the four corners of the physical embodiment of Dan Meis’ stunning designs, were completed over two months ago and as work continues to gather pace, the first of four tower cranes has been fully installed. When releasing their annual accounts back in late March, club officials confirmed that Everton remain on schedule to move into their new home in 2024 which could ensure that if everything remains on track with the £500million project – and there are no more serious relegation frights of the next couple of years – there may now be just 38 Premier League fixtures to come at Goodison Park.
While understandably no one at this stage could provide cast iron guarantees that the team would be taking to the field by the banks of the Mersey for Everton’s opening home match of the 2024/25 season – Tottenham wanted to be in their new stadium for the start of 2018/19 but didn’t make it until April 3 – progress of the three-year build is on course and unlike Daniel Levy who faced a spiralling price tag from an original £400million estimate to an eye-watering £1billion final bill, the Blues are protected by the deal that chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale has struck with Laing O’Rourke to lock-in construction costs.
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By the time Spurs were ready to return to the rebuilt site of their former White Hart Lane ground having decamped to Wembley, the campaign was nearly over and they went straight into a Premier League fixture against Crystal Palace but some 136 years after they faced Accrington on the Football League’s opening day it’s to be hoped that Everton could mark the move to their new stadium with some kind of showpiece game - but the question then turns to who should provide the opposition?
Everton moved into Goodison Park, England’s first purpose-built football ground from Anfield, where they’d secured their first League Championship a year earlier, in 1892 but given the now tribal nature of their rivalry it seems unlikely that neighbours Liverpool will be handed the invite for what would be a gala occasion for the Blues.
Everton’s first-ever visitors to Goodison were fellow Football League founder members Bolton Wanderers, with the hosts triumphing 4-2 on September 1, 1892, while their first competitive opponents were First Division new boys Nottingham Forest – who return to the Premier League next season – playing out a 2-2 draw some 48 hours later. What about Stockport County, back in the Football League in 2022/23 after an 11-year absence?
Trivia fans will note that Stockport’s Edgeley Park has long been the closest football ground to the River Mersey but with Everton set to take that crown from them, perhaps an invite to Bramley-Moore Dock might be fitting. After all, County chairman Robert Elstone is a previous Blues CEO having worked on the early stages of the new stadium project and declared how the club was looking to break the mould with its intimate design and “create a fortress.”
Maybe Everton’s Chilean namesakes from the gambling resort of Vina del Mar, who travelled to Goodison Park to contest ‘The Brotherhood Cup’ in 2010 could make the trek of more than 7,000 miles across the Andes, Amazon and Atlantic again to play on Merseyside? Perhaps Celtic, who moved into Parkhead around the same time that the Blues opened Goodison might be a suitable opponent or even another of European football’s big names such as Bayern Munich who were vanquished 3-1 in the 1985 Cup-Winners’ Cup semi-final second leg on what most regard as being the greatest night at the ground.
Such possibilities will continue to generate lively debate among Evertonians over the next couple of years but in the meantime, excitement will continue to build for Blues as they watch with great anticipation as the new home many of them have been waiting on for decades, starts to take shape before their very eyes.
- Who do you think should be Everton's opponents for their first game at their new stadium? Let us know in the comments section below.
