Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, writes for the ECHO about his concern for Everton and finding answers
In a region with a proud history of sporting achievements, Everton’s place, not only as a founding member of the Football League, but as a certified mainstay of top-flight football (featuring in the first division of 121 of English football’s 125 total seasons) ranks as one the most impressive.
The modern game may be rife with sportswashing, transfer hyperinflation and an unsteady embrace to technology, our region’s football clubs have felt like lodestars among the gloom; institutions offering a link with tradition, whose value goes beyond numbers on a spreadsheet.
These clubs are far more than businesses and football is far more than a sport. Football is like a local religion, their stadia cathedrals where young and old worship with fervour on a weekly basis. And like a church these institutions are anchors of their communities, symbols of pride and central to our local identity.
Anybody fortunate enough to ‘own’ one of these clubs is a temporary custodian with a responsibility to not just to protect its legacy but to burnish it. I’ve been watching the unfolding situation at Goodison Park, not with partisan interest but as the Mayor of the region, with a mixture of concern and trepidation.
Nobody would ever mistake me for being a Blue but, on the other side of Stanley Park, we know better than most what happens when our beloved football club falls into irresponsible and predatory hands. Recent years have seen Everton’s struggles on the pitch overshadowed by events off it.
Throughout it all, despite our natural supporter rivalry, I have not wanted to see Everton relegated. They are simply too important to our region: as the yin to Liverpool’s yang, a key contributor to our thriving £5bn visitor economy and a lifeline to many through the invaluable work they do through the outstanding Everton in the Community.
The new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock represents far more than a step into the 21st century for the club’s ground. It is one of the north’s largest regeneration projects and the centrepiece to the ongoing rejuvenation of the Ten Streets area. Its success should act as a catalyst for the wider renaissance of an area that has been crying out for investment for decades.
Such is its strategic importance that, as a city region, talks were held with the Combined Authority I lead to loan the club £30m at a competitive rate of interest, which would have delivered returns for us to reinvest into projects across the region, in addition to a £15m grant to preserve the heritage of the site and improve public access. The club was able to find an alternative funding source, but the importance of the project and our commitment to delivering it has not diminished.
Everton fans across the region and beyond are understandably concerned about what the future holds. Will the stadium be finished? Will the struggles on and off the pitch be resolved? Will the club deliver on the Goodison Legacy Project? Do 777 Partners have the best interests of the club at heart and the funds to deliver on them?
I share many of those concerns and have written to the club to seek assurances and request a meeting to get answers to the questions on so many lips.
Everton Football Club has been at the heart of the English game and the Liverpool City Region for well over 100 years. As Mayor, I’m determined to do my bit to ensure that remains the case for the next 100 and beyond.