For Everton, their move into a new home at Bramley-Moore Dock in two years time has already been hailed as a 'game changer'.
While the surroundings of Goodison Park, the home of Everton since 1892, are steeped in history and tradition, in order for the club to try and keep pace with the rapidly evolving world of football, the need for a new stadium that will allow it to generate new revenue streams and increase existing ones has never been greater.
Goodison has a capacity of 39,414 and the nature of the stadium and its positioning mean that development to reach the kind of levels that the club wants to achieve in terms of revenues. The move to what is known as 'Everton Stadium', to use its working title, is something that will not only serve to help service demand when it comes to tickets, but also develop revenue streams from hospitality, commercial activity, food and beverage sales, merchandising and other opportunities such as conferencing and concerts.
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The purpose built stadium will hold 52,888 and open up a plethora of new opportunities for the Blues. But in terms of the very basics such as matchday revenue, it is a move that will lift Everton up to a level that they will need to be at if they are to stay on the tail of other clubs that have ambition to break into the so-called 'big six', such as Newcastle United.
According to forecasts for the 2021/22 financial year by analysts at sport business website Off The Pitch, the Blues are set to make some headway in terms of their financial position, one that had seen them post more than £370m in losses over the last three accounting periods up to 2020/21.
While a considerable amount of that was Covid-related, the problems for Everton were exacerbated by their previous high spend on players in relation to the revenues that were coming in to the business. That saw them fly close to breaching the Premier League's profit and sustainability regulations and impose a more austere approach to the summer window last year. This year they have been more free-spending, although spend has still come on the back of savings made through the sale of Richarlison to Tottenham Hotspur for £60m and the disposal of a number of large, onerous player contracts, including the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Cenk Tosun and Fabian Delph.
Losses are forecast by Off The Pitch, albeit almost halved from last year, with a £59.8m loss predicted.
Commercial revenues are forecast to rise, and the return of fans to stadiums will provide a major boon, with the report forecasting that the Blues will see matchday revenues hit around £14.9m, up from the £0.2m that it was in the 2020/21 accounts, which included a campaign played almost entirely behind closed doors due to the pandemic.
At present, Everton have the 10th biggest capacity stadium in the Premier League. Their matchday revenues are the predicted to be the 12th highest when the financial accounts for the 20 member clubs from the 2021/22 campaign are published later this year and early next.
The increase in capacity by some 34 per cent means that the Blues will be looking at potentially adding another £5m plus annually, although potential price rises and increased scope for corporate hospitality could see that double.
While Everton's goal is ultimately to be among the 'big six' and challenging for top honours, the short to medium term goal is to establish themselves as the biggest outside of that bubble, with the clubs in the top six able to generate huge revenues thanks to European football year after year. In order to achieve that, the Blues have some ground to make up on the sides outside the top six with bigger revenues than them.
West Ham United are predicted to reach £32m in revenues from their 60,000-capacity London Stadium, the highest outside the top six. That is followed by Newcastle, whose St James' Park home is anticipated to have delivered £26.8m in matchday revenues for 2021/22. It is those two clubs who Everton will be identifying to close the gap on first when they eventually take residence in their new home.
The Blues will have an advantage, however. West Ham are tenants in the London Stadium, used for the Olympic Games, and they have had to find a way for it to work for them, something which remains a work in progress. Newcastle, whose St James's Park stadium sits proudly in the city centre, have constraints of their own given its location.
The beauty Everton have in building a stadium from scratch, as Tottenham have found, is that it can be designed in such a way as to maximise opportunity across the board. Spurs are forecast to post matchday revenues of £105.9m, the second highest in the Premier League, according to the Off The Pitch report.
Ensuring a Premier League team that has potential will be a key factor in making sure that the club head into the new stadium in the best possible position, with the build having the potential for Everton to leapfrog a number of their rivals in a key area where they have scope for even more growth, having had the shackles on their potential on that front for some time.
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