The club has committed to the huge project of building a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. What progress is being made on this development?

Delivering a new waterfront home for Everton at Bramley-Moore Dock as well as cementing and sustaining a suitable lasting legacy for Goodison is one of the main priorities of the Board of Directors and something we are absolutely committed to delivering. Our advisors and technical teams have been busy working to progress our plans for Bramley-Moore Dock as well as an outline planning application for the Goodison Park site. We have a lot of work to do to make both exciting projects a reality, but we are now more aligned than ever before.

Only last month we appointed a stadium development director. Colin Chong has extensive experience in delivering stadiums and other large-scale capital projects and, together with our strengthened internal team and a best-in-class team of external advisors, we now have all the resource and expertise we need in place as we move towards the crucial planning phases. Part of Colin’s remit will be to ensure that we will fully consult with all groups on both the Bramley-Moore Dock and Goodison schemes, including finalising designs and capacity and developing the best possible legacy for Goodison Park.

Over the course of the next few months, a period of engagement with our fanbase and residents local to Goodison will be undertaken. The feedback we then receive from our fans will help our final designs as well as our submission of a planning application. We are continuing to explore and hope to finalise our financing options over the next few months as well. Any deal we enter into will be the best deal for the football club. For the support we have received from Liverpool City Council overall, I would like to personally thank Mayor Anderson and his team for their ongoing assistance and their commitment to supporting us in this exciting project for Everton and the city of Liverpool.

What will happen to Goodison Park once you move to the new stadium?

We are committed to our promise to leave a lasting community legacy on the site of Goodison Park. I’ve spent many hours lying awake at night thinking, “How does a proper People’s Club exit its community after more than 125 years?” Then I realised that the answer is very simple. We don’t! We won’t leave our community. We will never abandon our spiritual home. We want Goodison to become a community asset that will be at the heart of a happy, vibrant, prosperous community which will thrive in the Liverpool 4 (L4) area when we relocate to Bramley-Moore Dock.

I’ve been working with a number of colleagues across the city in developing a Trust Board that will look after a site that will always be sacred to Evertonians for generations to come. As part of that work, I am excited to confirm that consultation with local residents and stakeholders regarding the legacy for L4 will get underway later this year.

Over the course of the past three years, we have developed and built some amazing community facilities in the shadows of Goodison Park, including the state-of-the art Everton Free School and Sixth Form College and The People’s Hub. Our latest development, The Blue Base, has been operational for several weeks now and we’ll be officially opening it in September.

The site, which was formerly the St Francis de Sales Parish Social Club, has been transformed into a fully accessible facility to deliver our community programmes for older residents in our community and a pre-match and post-match suite for vulnerable and disabled fans to visit on match day. It is also available for the local public to use for functions away from match days, making it operational throughout the year. These facilities will form part of a lasting Goodison legacy, ensuring Everton remains very much at the heart of the community in L4.

How will the development of the new stadium impact the club in the short to medium term as planning and construction gets underway?

Clearly, the process of moving to a new stadium is a complex project with many moving parts, but we are taking steps to make that transition as smooth and seamless as possible. Over the past year we have been working on a continuity business plan which includes the relocation of our staff from Goodison Park to our new headquarters on the seventh floor of the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool City Centre. Staff in several departments of the club – including Finance, Marketing, Commercial, Hospitality, Partnerships, Communications and People Services – will be based at the iconic waterfront building.

There are many benefits of this move, none more so than having our football club operating from the heart of the city’s commercial centre, but most importantly it gives us a business continuity plan as we prepare for our move to Bramley-Moore Dock. That does not mean we will be abandoning Goodison Park and just opening the stadium up for matches on a Saturday. We will be establishing a full match day operation centre at Goodison Park for key personnel.

Moving to a new stadium is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so it’s vital we get the right design and capacity at Bramley-Moore Dock and that the project remains affordable and therefore allows us to continue to fulfil our ambitions on the pitch. No final decisions on either capacity or final detailed designs have been made as yet but our fans’ input into this process has been vital and we plan to consult further on these matters before final commitments are made. This input is invaluable in shaping our new home. Prior to submitting a planning application, we will be undertaking more engagement and, in turn, formal consultation with our fans, neighbours and wider stakeholders at both Bramley-Moore Dock and Goodison Park.

Our new home on the waterfront will not only be a fantastic new stadium for Everton, but also kick-start a £1bn regeneration of North Liverpool and we’re proud to be the catalyst for significant numbers of new homes, jobs and infrastructure – as well as introducing our world-famous waterfront to billions of Premier League fans around the world every weekend.

Images: Everton FC & PA Images