Leagues POSTS
The Way Forward for Both Liverpool Clubs?
Published by Ian John on October 14, 2010
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After a break for international fixtures, where the England team hung on to a 0-0 draw against the mighty Montenegro (you could not make it up, could you?), the EPL returns this weekend and most of the focus will, for once, be off the teams at the top of the table and instead on two city neighbours struggling near the foot of the table.
Sunday sees the Merseyside derby at the outdated Goodison Park where Everton will host Liverpool, who have had a busy old week off the field of play. You can read the articles that have been published before and after this one for more details on that sordid affair.
It is fair to say that both teams will begin the game with more than a sense of repidation. If Everton’s start has been bad, Liverpool’s has been woeful. Both clubs have massive off-the-field problems and have also under performed on it this season. They both need new stadia to fuel the increase in turnover they need in order to compete at the highest level, they both have a loyal and passionate fan base who, possibly, deserve a little better.
It all seems a far cry from the halcyon days of Merseyside football in the mid-to-late 1980s when they were challenging for the top honours at home and abroad. Evertons title victories in 1985 and 1987 sandwiched between Liverpool’s Double of 1986. It was the golden era of Merseyside soccer.
Now, it seems a wasteland. Everton’s bid to relocate from Goodison Park to Kirkby, on the back of some Tesco cash, fell through last year and has left the club and its chairman in limbo. Liverpool? Well their problems are well documented at present. Suffice to say that neither club has the money to compete on an even keel with the likes of Sunderland, Birmingham City or even Stoke City, let alone Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and the Manchester duo of United and City.
As unpalatable as it is for both sets of fans. One possible way forward could well be to ground-share.
Now the very idea of this is immediately met with howls of derision from both sets of fans. They both would rather let the club die than share with their rivals.
That’s good then, because at the moment, that is the way things are going for both clubs.
The facts remain that even if Liverpool’s takeover is resolved positively for the club (and that is by no means a certainty) and Everton get planning application for a new stadium somewhere in the North of England. Where is the money going to come from to pay for two massive new construction projects? Given how much Wembley cost, how much would two stadium’s of say 60,000 (which is the absolute minimum Liverpool would need, I am guessing Everton would need something of a similar size) cost?
The finances just do not add up. The cost for each club to bear, at present, is far too great and the only sensible economic way is to build a single, large stadium for both teams to play in.
A stadium fit to host the best events that would make Old Trafford look like a corrugated shed with scaffolding. That would make it the obvious choice to host key games at the 2018 World Cup (if we get it). That would allow the vast numbers of fans who want season tickets to get them, but still allow fans who cannot afford them, to buy a ticket and go to a game with their kids. A stadium which would generate the kind of revenue both clubs would need to seriously improve their lot.
Will it happen? Financially it is the only sensible option. But in the world of football, where the heart rules the heads, fans stubborn resistance to the idea will, no doubt, see any approaches to share the costs quickly rebuked and turned down. “Why should we share with them?”, “Why should they get OUR money?”, “Let them build their own ground… We don’t need them..”
Actually, at the present moment, the only hope for Merseyside football is a United front. The clubs, and I include my own humble Tranmere Rovers in that, have no chance of a bright future unless fans and board members are prepared to think the unthinkable.
Two excellent teams sharing a ground challenging once again for the top honours in Europe and England? Or two teams with grounds not suited to their needs, straggling about the lower reaches of the league, pretending they are still one of the key players in British football and with no finances to make any real inroads into solving the crisis? I know what I’d prefer.
I just worry that a large proportion of fans on Merseyside wouls sacrifice the former, for the latter all because they don’t want to share.
On Saturday both sets of fans will share the stands, at the same time, for 90 minutes in an outdated ground that is ill-suited to the purpose. The game, which could easily attract an attendance approaching 100,000, will kick off in front of approximately 40,000 people. The money Everton make on the game will disappear in wages and debt repayments. Then the same thing will happen again later in the year at Anfield.
The question is, if the crowd can share a small stadium together for 90 minutes twice a season, why are they so afraid of sharing one big ground that could generate the revenue they need, and cost much less to build, than having individual grounds?
Tradition. Is what they tell you.
Obstinacy is the answer.
Image Courtesy of ***futbolchentoso *** on Picturebox.com
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