Moving into a new stadium next year will be a landmark moment for Everton Football Club.
While the Blues continue to battle against relegation from the Premier League, the move from their home for the past 130 years, Goodison Park, to a new, state-of-the-art stadium on the banks of the River Mersey remains on track.
Everton owner Farhad Moshiri is understood to be closing in on securing the final tranche of funding for the project, which is well past the halfway point now.
The 52,888-seater stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock is set to open its doors ‘during 2024’ - with the hope that it will be in time for the 2024/25 season, and with the Blues being a part of the lucrative, 20-strong membership of the Premier League.
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Being a Premier League club is of enormous importance to the club both competitively and financially, with the rewards on offer for being a part of English football’s top flight the largest across Europe, with even the revenue split among even the smallest market teams, driven by broadcast and commercial rights, dwarfing that of anything Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga can muster.
Everton’s financial difficulties have been well documented in recent times, having racked up more than £400m in losses cumulatively over the past four financial years.
That has placed more pressure on ensuring the Blues can deliver from a commercial standpoint, something that Goodison Park has provided something of a barrier to. The game has grown and what commercial partners are seeking from their activations with clubs has changed from simply taking an advertising hoarding and a mention in the matchday programme.
For Everton, ensuring that they are a competitive force in time for the move into a new stadium will be key, with the move offering significant potential for commercial growth.
“Everton’s new stadium provides a clean slate for the club in terms of what visibility they can offer partners,” explained Daniel Haddad, head of commercial strategy at global sports agency Octagon, speaking to the ECHO.
“One of the key considerations when building a new stadium is thinking about how you can integrate brands into that and how you can offer them something different, which will be of value to them, and ultimately you.”
Fan experience is one area that Haddad believes can offer significant value to commercial partnerships, particularly with technology companies, with the modern connectivity of new stadiums affording clubs the chance to maximise such opportunities.
“Tech brands like to contribute to fan experience. At present, if you compare what goes on on a matchday at somewhere like Manchester City, across the Etihad Campus, then it is night and day to what you see at Goodison Park with Everton at the moment.
“Clubs have to think about how they can integrate brands into those kinds of deals. New stadiums can make the most of things like entertainment touchpoints for fans, and what that can do from a commercial standpoint can be quite transformative.
“Liverpool have managed to remodel Anfield to incorporate that kind of thing and what a lot of new stadiums have, but Everton have been unable to adopt that kind of approach at Goodison Park.
“Whoever takes over Manchester United will have a new stadium, or a near total redevelopment of Old Trafford, at the top of their list.
“Everton’s new stadium will offer them commercial opportunities that they haven’t been able to tap into before, and that would be significant to the club’s ability to generate greater commercial revenues. Premier League football is important to all of these things, however.”
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