Here’s what Man United could learn from Everton’s nod to the past in their amazing new stadium, writes IAN HERBERT
There were no garish artists’ impressions featuring a ‘trident’ of masts or vast ‘umbrella’ canopy when Everton set about creating a stadium to replace Goodison Park.
Unlike Manchester United’s £2billion blockbuster ‘Eiffel Tower of the North’ – which features both – the Merseyside club just had their architect stage a series of fan workshops in a parish hall at the bottom of Goodison Road.
Around 1,000 supporters attended those audiences with American architect Dan Meis, staged a month after West Ham fans protested about their unloved new London Stadium home, which had lost the rabid atmosphere of Upton Park. A further 10,000 Everton fans responded to a detailed survey about what the planned Bramley Moore Dock stadium’s key attributes should be. Making the new home ‘a fortress’ was the key defining principle.
Seven years later, the fruits of that labour were revealed on Sunday to 25,000 fans who attended a test event at what will be the Everton Stadium. They discovered the stands’ steep gradient, or ‘rake’, designed to kindle Goodison’s intensity. A huge home end for 12-15,000 fans which is steeper and closer to the pitch than Borussia Dortmund’s ‘Yellow Wall.’ And nods to Goodison’s creator Archibald Leitch’s trademark criss-cross balcony designs – engraved into brickwork, railings overlooking the River Mersey and the aluminium panels which form the spectacular new roof.
That respect for the past extends to the stadium’s exterior. Meis said at those workshops that he wanted the building to seem like ‘it grew out of the dock.’ The prominent use of traditional materials like brick and wood at the waterfront site 1.8 miles from Goodison, make it sit so well in its location.
A superb video posted by one fan on Monday, showing how it had risen from the dock, was viewed tens of thousands of times.
Everton had their architect stage a series of fan workshops in a parish hall at the bottom of Goodison Road when designing their new stadium
There are nods to Goodison creator Archibald Leitch’s trademark criss-cross balcony designs – engraved into brickwork, railings overlooking the River Mersey and the aluminium panels
United’s £2billion design, meanwhile, features a ‘trident’ of masts or vast ‘umbrella’ canopy
Asked about Sir Norman Foster’s futuristic masterplan for the new Old Trafford on Sunday, Meis warned against plonking a brash venue in Manchester which disregarded Old Trafford’s rich history.
He said: ‘I hope that other clubs who are thinking about new buildings will really take heart at what we did here – which was not to try and do some giant, over-the-top thing that could be anywhere in the world but “we are going to put it in the middle of Manchester”.’
The new stadium has been built in the face of huge odds. Planning approval was secured in the early weeks of Covid and if the club’s senior executive Colin Chong had not been instrumental in securing raw materials pre-pandemic, the costs might have soared to a prohibitive level.
Size seems to be everything in the new world of super stadiums. Where 10 years ago, signing the best players mattered most, egos are now manifest in bricks and mortar.
The so-called ‘New Trafford’ stadium’s computer-generated visuals – first seen by United fans during Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s recent publicity drive – seems like a leisure palace where football happens. Everton told Meis that it must be all about football.
‘Proximity to the pitch for fans was important,’ Meis said. ‘Steepness was important. Kind of ‘no fuss.’ We didn’t want a whole bunch of commercial things getting in the way.
‘The direction from the club very early on was “we’re not Wembley – or Tottenham for that matter”. This is about a proper football stadium, though of course, you need it to be commercially viable and help it to grow in all the things you need from a new building.
‘Obviously [Manchester United] have to make a decision about what’s right for them and there’s a lot of ambition there. I’m a huge fan of Norman Foster and he’s been a hero of mine forever so I wish them well. But I guess that I can say that this stadium shows what I believe about English football and English football stadiums more than anything.’
The new stadium apron will not be limited to football. The plaza created before it will accommodate 17,000 people – bigger than Liverpool’s Pier Head. Dominating that spot is a restored Grade II listed building which once powered the dock. Everton, as the Goodison anthem states, knows its history. The global club up the M62 would be wise not to forget their own.
