Everton fans get first glimpse of new stadium
It may have been a dark, freezing Monday evening on the banks of the Mersey, but Evertonians hope this day signifies the start of a bright new future.
Everton’s magnificent new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock opened its doors for the first time to 10,000 lucky Toffees fans successful in a ballot for an under-18s friendly against Wigan.
Four years in the making and at an เว็บพนันออนไลน์ UFABET สมัครง่าย โปรโมชั่นมากมาย estimated cost of more than £750m, the club will move in fully over the summer in time for the start of the 2025-26 season.
The first thing that strikes you on approach to the stadium along Liverpool’s dock road is its sheer size. It is absolutely enormous.
Goodison Park, flanked on three sides by rows of Victorian terraced housing, can sneak up on you. But there is no missing this place. A gigantic, futuristic mesh of steel and red brick, combining the old and the new.
The Bramley Moore pub, directly opposite, is doing a roaring trade, with Elton John’s ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues’ belting out over the speakers. The sense of anticipation and excitement is palpable.
“It’s out of this world,” said Andy, a Goodison season-ticket holder who has signed up for Bramley-Moore next season.
“We could not have wished for a better stadium. Everyone is excited, old and young.
“It will wrench to leave Goodison. When you see this, it is going to be the envy of everyone.”
It is hard to imagine this was a working dock just three and a half years ago. It was filled in over the space of three months. With a dredger making 130 round-trips 20 miles into the Irish Sea to collect 480,000 cubic metres of sand, pumped in to form a solid base for the stadium foundations.
The 52,888-capacity ground will be the seventh-biggest in the Premier League and has been selected to host matches at Euro 2028. It is hoped the project will contribute an estimated £1.3bn to the local economy.
There are nods to the past everywhere. The old railroad tracks and Grade II-listed Victorian hydraulic tower have painstakingly restored. The Latticework design by renowned Scottish architect Archibald Leitch. Still present on two of the four stands at Goodison Park, is incorporate into the brickwork.