Everton Bramley-Moore Dock stadium on budget and on schedule, says club
Described as “a crown jewel in the English game” by chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale, the future stadium has already incurred capital costs of £206m.
These costs for the Bramley-Moore Dock stadium were labelled as “significant” in Everton Football Club’s annual report and statement of accounts for the financial year ending 30 June 2022.
The report, published Friday, cites the project as one of the main reasons the club’s net debt position more than doubled that year, growing from £58.2m the year before to £141.7m.
The £206m capital costs included the infilling of Bramley-Moore Dock, enabling works, and the beginning of above-ground construction.
As of January this year, main contractor Laing O’Rourke was beginning internal works on the 53,000-capacity stadium. The stadium is still set to open in time for the 2024-2025 football season, according to chief executive Barrett-Baxendale.
Barrett-Baxendale described the fact that the project was on schedule and on budget as “something we can all be justifiably proud of”.
She added later: “The pace of the project’s progression is underpinned by the unprecedented agreement that was sealed with our tier one contractor in 2022 to provide cost certainty in the most uncertain of times.”
That £500m agreement with Laing O’Rourke was described as “a key reason the development remains on track” by Barrett-Baxenbale.
While the club listed the project as on budget and on schedule, The Guardian reported this weekend that construction experts place the stadium project as actually being three months behind. If true, that would likely lead to an increase in costs.
When questioned about a possible delay by The Guardian, the club insisted that the project was on track. A spokesperson from Laing O’Rourke said the same.
Helping fund the stadium project is a £70m interest-free loan with no agreed repayment date from Everton FC majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri. The contribution was made post-year-end, according to the annual report.
Everton also noted that it was in advanced negotiations on securing the next round of funding for the new stadium, with heads of terms agreed. The club expects to be able to announce the funding deal in the next couple of months.
Looking beyond just the figures relating to the new stadium, Everton reported a £181m turnover for the year ending in June 2022, and a statutory loss of £44.7m. Read the full annual report.
If there`s one thing we thank Moshiri for he`s delivering the stadium as promised, that picture is a bit dated as the build is much more advanced than shown. Really hope this will boost the economy and landscape down the dock road, as there is scope for residential etc outside of Liverpool Waters. Only downside is the stadium should have been bigger and at least 55,000, we can see Newcastle are extending their capacity to 60,000, and they are hampered by lack of space.
By Anonymous
Interesting how the club simply didn’t answer a number of direct questions from The Guardian in relation to the alleged delay. If silence is the last refuge of the guilty I think you can draw your own conclusions from that.
By Sceptical
Great news for the club and our city this is a fantastic project and hopefully acts as a Catalyst for other substantial projects on the waterfront. Know doubt disappointing for the Guardian “reporting” which has been spiteful , speculative nonsense . EFC should exclude them.
By Paul M - Woolton
Sceptical , last time i checked the Guardian had no experience of building major projects. In their assessment its running behind , hate to ruin a good story with the truth but unfortunately is on time and that is official. Silence is best sometimes rather than even waste your breath on ill informed nonsense .
By Paul
With safe standing the stadium will hold more than 53,000 so I’m not worried by the capacity it will be closer to Arsenal at 60,000 in a few years.
By David Woods
The Guardian: Everton stadium is behind schedule
Stadium builder: No, it’s on schedule
Stadium client: It’s on schedule
The Guardian: Everton stadium is behind schedule
By I have an agenda and i will not bend
A 60,000 stadium in the Championship would’ve been nice for the fans of Rotherham and Plymouth to visit to be fair
By Verticality
The Guardian is generally a liberal-left version of the Daily Mail so I would probably just take things from them with a very heavy pinch of salt.
By SW
@Paul, indeed you are correct, so why did both the club and the contractor both ignore direct questions and instead provide wider statements that failed to address those questions? When someone ignores a question it’s a fair assumption that (a) it’s an awkward one; and (b) they’d really not rather have to provide a truthful answer. So go figure.
By Sceptical
The development is on track and on budget !
By Anonymous
Having worked on the project for close to 18 months, I cam tell you the agreed handover date between both parties is December 2024 with an ambitious project director aiming to shave 2/3 months off that. In my eyes it’s unlikely EFC will commence 24/25 at Bramley Moore.
By Michael
Come on this is positive news for Liverpool isn’t it? Even Jeff would be delighted by this I’m sure.
By Geoff
The thing the guardian comments don’t recognise is that plans can change as projects progress. The critical path could well have changed from what is shown in the document submitted with the planning application circa 2 years ago, for a whole manner of reasons. It was a very one sided article containing two anonymous opinions.
By Abots
This is on schedule i assure you and in one of the biggest developments site in Europe
By Anonymous
Looking forward to seeing it
By Daniel gibson