Everton are to move into their new stadium at the start of the 2025-26 season, despite work on the project at Bramley Moore dock being scheduled to finish late next year.
The club have made the decision to relocate from Goodison Park during the close season, rather than mid-season, following consultations with supporters. Everton stress that the timing is not due to any construction issues at the new 52,888-capacity stadium, although they still need to secure the funds to finish the build. The development remains on course for completion towards the end of 2024.
It means Everton’s historic Goodison Park home will be in operation for one final, full season in 2024-25.
Everton’s interim chief executive, Colin Chong, confirmed: “The first competitive football fixtures for our senior men’s side will take place at our new stadium at the start of the 2025-26 season.
“To be absolutely clear, our decision to not move in mid-season is not because of a construction delay. It is a club decision driven by a combination of commercial insight, a comprehensive review of the logistics required, an analysis of the potential impact upon our football operations and, importantly, fan feedback sourced as part of our recent stadium migration survey, which was completed by almost 10,000 Evertonians.
“Everton Stadium remains firmly on track, as scheduled, to be completed in the final weeks of 2024,” added Chong, who also revealed that the Premier League club will stage a series of test events at their new stadium in the first half of 2025 to prepare for the move.
“We will need to conduct test events at our new home, which will allow us to stress-test the stadium in a number of different ways in order to obtain our safety certificate,” he added. “It will also give Evertonians a chance to see and sample the new facilities. Some of our test events will involve crowds of varying capacities, while others will need to be operationally focused and only involve our own staff.”
Everton are planning a series of events to mark the end of their time at Goodison Park, which will have been the club’s home for almost 134 years by the time it hosts its final game. The details will be announced in due course.
