The new stadium experience Everton will hope to avoid at Bramley-Moore Dock
After decades of setbacks and disappointments, Evertonians are quite rightly thrilled by the prospect of finally moving to their new stadium.
A document produced in July revealed that planning permission for the club’s new home on the banks of the royal blue Mersey is expected to be approved by Liverpool City Council before the end of the current year which would mean construction work can begin in 2021.
The £500million project would not only be a game-changer for Everton but the City Region in general with a £1billion boost to the local economy by creating 15,000 jobs and helping to attract an estimated 1.4million visitors.
But with that of course you need fans.
While Everton’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock has been designed to hold 52,888 – a figure surpassing their highest-ever average attendance to date of 51,603 set in the 1962/63 League Championship-winning season – at present, Goodison Park, like all other stadia in professional football, remains empty on matchdays.
Championship side Brentford came within touching distance of being one of Carlo Ancelotti’s side’s Premier League opponents this season.
They participated in ‘the richest game in football’ by reaching the Championship play-off final this year but after 105 minutes of stalemate at Wembley they ultimately succumbed to a 2-1 defeat to fellow west London side Fulham and were denied a return to the top flight for the first time since the inaugural post-Second World War season of 1946/47.
But even that disappointment pales in comparison to the heartbreak of moving into a new stadium in a COVID-afflicted world.
Not only were the club’s loyal supporters unable to attend their first game at their impressive new Brentford Community Stadium this month but lockdown restrictions also ensured they were absent from their emotional final match at their former home of Griffin Park.
It’s certainly food for thought for Blues and indeed all football followers in these times of crisis.
Stuart Hughes, BBC journalist and presenter of the Bees Bulletin podcast, told the ECHO: “Given the type of club that we are, we’re known by our local rivals, particularly Queens Park Rangers, as ‘Tin pot’ Brentford.
“Brentford is not the most salubrious part of west London but it’s undergoing huge renovation.
“The club’s recent success since it was bought by Matthew Benham, the building of the new stadium and the renovation of Brentford as an area have all come together.
“While it’s not a glamorous area, it’s somewhere that is currently very much ‘on the up.’
“The new stadium is by Kew Bridge and Kew is a more well-heeled part of west London.
“The whole project has been in the offing for about 20 years and there have been so many false dawns.
“For a time it looked like the club could go out of business altogether but in since they were bought by Matthew Benham we’ve seen the best football from Brentford in anyone’s lifetime, have come with a whisker of reaching the Premier League and now there’s a beautiful new stadium in a more upscale part of the area, it all makes for quite an enticing story of a club that is going places.”
The current ban on spectators though has cast a large shadow over what should be a time of celebration for the club after they moved into the £71million Brentford Community Stadium that they will share with rugby union club London Irish who have returned to the capital after two decades at Reading’s Madejski Stadium.
Hughes said: “We’ve gone from wanting to get moving and being in there to almost wishing it had been delayed for a season.
“For fans it’s even more frustrating in that they can see the new stadium and the seats on the telly and it makes them want to go there even more.
“In that respect it would probably be better if we were playing in some local park for a year because it’s a reminder for them of what we can’t have. It’s almost taunting us in that respect.”
Coronavirus restrictions also ensured that Brentford were unable to complete their final season at previous home Griffin Park in front of their own fans after 116 years at the venue.
Hughes said: “It was a very strange end to the season for everybody but more so for us.
“All through the season at every home game there was a big sign with ‘games to go’ on it, counting down and there would sort of be a ceremonial removal of the number at each match.
“When it got down to five, there was a 5-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday (what proved to be the last ever game in front of fans on March 7) and everyone went home with a huge smile on their face.
“They knew the end was coming for Griffin Park but it was going to be another couple of months off.
“The coronavirus was gathering pace though and suddenly in the blink of an eye, everything changed and locked down.”
Brentford’s final home fixture with Barnsley, originally scheduled for May 2, was supposed to be the occasion for Griffin Park’s ‘wake’ as the fans said goodbye to the place where they and their families had spent so many weekends, going back well over a century.
The game ultimately took place on July 22 while the team’s qualification for the play-offs ensured there was a further game – the 3-1 victory over Swansea City on July 29 that took them to Wembley – but spectators had long since been barred from attending.
Hughes said: “Like everybody, we wondered whether the season would be completed at all and there was some relief when Project Restart happened and the fixtures did get back underway.
“Of course then, the ‘Farewell Griffin Park’ scheme became a big unknown.
“There was a whole range of merchandise for sale saying ‘Farewell Griffin Park, 1904-2020’ and the entire season had kind of been built around this idea.
“I think fans went through various stages. First there was relief that the season was finishing, then there was excitement that we were heading for the top six (and the play-offs) but everything was tinged by the increasing levels of sadness and disappointment that the fans weren’t able to say goodbye to the ground.
“Because we’d never lived through this kind of pandemic before, everyone was hoping beyond hope that things would clear up in time for the final game of course but it turned into a much bigger thing.
“The club did manage to get some fans in for short socially-distanced tours after the end of the season to give them the chance to just sit in their seats, where lots of them had spent many years watching games, but of course it’s not the same.”
He added: “Like at Goodison Park, there are ashes that have been sprinkled on the hallowed turf at Griffin Park as people have left a small memento of their loved ones while people have sat in seats where family members have passed away with there often being several generations of fans who have been to the games.
“Not being able to say goodbye and pay their respects to those who have gone before them, I don’t think it’s too strong to say that it was traumatic for many people. It was another trauma in a year of many traumas.
“There was an expectation that there would be that sense of closure but it was taken away from them.”
In a similar vein to Evertonians who adore Goodison Park but have always voted for a new stadium when asked, Brentford’s fans have long since accepted the need to move on.
Hughes said: “You know what football fans are like, it takes time for people to get their heads around the idea, especially because we’ve been there for over 100 years, so a lot of people’s memories are wrapped up in that ground.
“In many ways the old ground encapsulates the club in that it’s not fashionable or trendy but very much has a huge heart in its community.
A lot of fans were nervous in that it’s seen as being our club for our community and that could be lost in the move to the new stadium but there was massive recognition – especially as the quality in the football we’ve been playing has improved – that Griffin Park was not fit for purpose.
“Our manager Thomas Frank was talking to Sky Sports and while he said it in a jokey fashion, admitted ‘it’s a sh*tty stadium but it smells of football.’
“The lavatories were sometimes in portable buildings, the sightlines were awful and your knees were virtually by your chin when in your seat.
“However, it was because of this that a lot of visiting fans liked coming there because it was like a throwback to football’s past and we also retained a standing terrace for which we had special dispensation.
“We’re all very sad to be losing that as we all love the nostalgia and the history of the place but there was without doubt a recognition that as much as we loved it, Griffin Park was not suitable for a club with the ambition that we have.”
When producing the renderings for Everton’s new stadium, US architect Dan Meis declared he was designing “a Ferrari, not a Bentley” and it’s the building equivalent of the iconic Italian sports car that comes to mind for Hughes, who was present for the first league game at the Brentford Community Stadium (a 3-0 win over Huddersfield Town on September 19).
He said: “Although it’s barely a mile away as the crow flies from the old ground, as a Brentford fan myself it’s something of a culture shock.
“We’ve gone from Griffin Park which is like a 1940s old banger to a 2020 Ferrari overnight and my brain still hasn’t caught up with it.
“After playing at a ground that was well past its sell-by-date, we’ve moved to somewhere that is forward-looking and Premier League ready.
“There contrast couldn’t be greater and I think it’s going to take me quite a while longer to get used to it.
“I know that it won’t truly become ‘our home’ until the fans are let in.
“I’m in a privileged position to have watched games there but we obviously haven’t had that real matchday feeling with fans as of yet.
“We’ve only scratched the surface but it’s still breathtaking.”
So what of the prospect of getting some fans into the stadium at some point this season?
Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed on Tuesday that plans for fans to return to watch live sport events in England from October 1 will not go ahead.
However, Hughes believes it would be advantageous to at least try and get a restricted number of supporters into matches in the near future.
He said: “I thought for a while that rather than divide the fanbase it should be all or nothing when it comes to letting them back in.
“I can see the logic to that with the haves and the have-nots that causes another set of problems because Brentford FC is all about togetherness and community.
But we’ve got about 11,000 season ticket holders so in a 17,000 capacity stadium, even in the times of a pandemic it seems to me conceivable that if done in the right way you could get in say 1,000 fans in safely.
“So over an 11-game period every season ticket holder would get their chance to attend a match and see the new stadium for themselves.”
Hughes added: “Over time, for every club, I think that being kept out is going to anger season ticket holders who have spent significant amounts of money but have yet to see a game and may not see one for as long as they can see into the future.
“As a public relations exercise for all clubs I think getting some fans in would be a good idea.
“At least, over a period, everyone would get to see something rather than everyone getting to see nothing but we are of course beholding to bigger events and that virus that we can’t see.”
Original article 27.09.20 on the Liverpool Echo website.