Everton, Tina and Tom too

8 Dec 2009, 10:11 Add Comment

"life's made of trouble,

worry, pain and struggle....

....Everyone wants to know

how's it going to end?"

Tom Waits - How's It Gonna End

They say that the secret of good comedy is timing. But nobody is laughing in Kirkby. The day after the Secretary of State announced that the proposed new stadium for Everton in Kirkby had been convincingly knocked back, Knowsley Council issued its Core Strategy Issues and Options Paper with the new stadium at the centre of its regeneration proposals for the town.

The Secretary of State's letter emphatically rejected virtually all aspects of the stadium and retail proposals - closer to Tottenham's 9-1 thumping of Wigan Athletic than a near miss 2-1 scoreline. On almost every point the Inspector and the Secretary of State came down in favour of the many opponents to the scheme, with the only crumb of comfort seeming to be that the possibility of a stadium somewhere else in Kirkby is explicitly not ruled out.

Okay, so if Plan A isn't going to happen, then we'd better move on to Plan B. Except there isn't a Plan B - either for the Everton Stadium or for the Kirkby regeneration proposals. Everton have made some noises about ground-sharing with Liverpool FC, but despite the idea making a lot of sense - the proposed new Liverpool FC stadium in Stanley Park, mid-way between Anfield and Goodison Park, is on hold, because Liverpool's American backers don't now have the financial resources to build it - but fans of both sides would seemingly rather gouge out their eyes than share a stadium with their respective arch rivals. Pointing out that the mighty AC Milan and Inter Milan share the San Siro Stadium (and the slightly less mighty Slough Town FC also share a ground with Beaconsfield SYCOB FC!) makes no difference - ground sharing seems to be a non-starter, at least at the moment.

The other main stadium option - to redevelop the existing Goodison Park ground - has also been discounted by the club, who point out that three of the existing stands are tight up against houses and a school. In any event, a massive redevelopment of the ground would possibly need the club to move out for at least a couple of seasons anyway, bringing back the spectre of ground sharing, if only for a short time.

One intriguing further option, put forward at the inquiry by the Keep Everton In Our City group, is to build a stadium on the Scotland Road Loop site, just north of the city centre and next to the entrance to the Kingsway Mersey tunnel. The scheme has been costed and assessed by internationally renowned companies, such as the HOK architectural practice, which was responsible for Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and Wembley Stadium, and presumably knows a bit about such things. The idea also seems to have some measure of support from the City Council.

So, where do we go from here? Despite the Secretary of State's suggestion that there may be another site in Kirkby on which a stadium (and presumably a big dollop of enabling development) can be built, I can't see Everton revisiting that particular option anytime soon. Maybe the Scotland Road Loop option will be picked up and run with by the club, if the constraints of the site (financial and physical) can be overcome at a viable cost. Or perhaps this latest setback will finally convince fans and owners of the clubs alike that it makes sense to look seriously at the Stanley Park ground-sharing option. In this case it may well be that TINA rules the day - There Is No Alternative.

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