Everton Stadium – How have new stadiums impacted teams in the UK?
By Zach Rowlandson via Unsplash
By Aaron Masterson
Everton’s last gasp draw in the Merseyside derby spells the end for these huge games on Goodison Road. The new stadium located on the Bramley Moore Docks will be the home for Everton at the start of the 2025/2026 Premier League season. The ground will hold 52,888 people which is around 13,000 more than the historic Goodison Park. So why did Everton move stadium?
In 2017 then CEO of Everton Robert Elstone laid out 11 key principles which include supporter input in designing the stadium, creating a bigger and better home for Everton Football Club, an increase in affordability for tickets and easy transport access to and from the stadium.
The increase in revenue from tickets is a huge positive for The Toffees. In England’s top flight, teams play 38 games in a regular league season and with 19 guaranteed home games next season coupled with 13,000 additional seats, Everton will make a huge sum of money from a new stadium.
Everton’s new stadium (Paul Ellis via Gettyimages)
The cheapest average ticket at Everton costs £88, which means Everton will earn an additional £1,140,000 per game and £21,736,000 in total for the 19 home games just from the added seating. However, Everton aren’t the only team to have moved to another stadium in the Premier League.
Arsenal, who now play at the Emirates Stadium in London, moved there from former ground Highbury in 2006. The reason was simply to create a more modern ground to compete with other clubs. Arsenal also had a major seating increase of nearly 22,000. Their North London rivals Tottenham moved from White Hart Lane to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2019 and built a multi-purpose stadium which can now host both Formula 1 races and NFL football matches.
As football becomes a bigger sport and teams gain increased support, owners have taken full advantage of this by building new stadiums to increase capacity which brings more revenue. Modern stadiums are going to become more common around Europe and an effective step to take for a club’s future.