IT is the sound of Goodison Park that gets you. His feet slam on the board as his blue shirt walks towards the corner flag. Vibrates through your legs, towards your torso, towards your heart. As the player runs down the wings, it's a rattle of a staccato in wooden seats that flips into the sky. The hymn began in the air in a swirling vortex, clefts echoing around the ground, starting from the belly of the stand below.
It's the sound of my childhood, my teenager, a certain sound that I can't hear again at the end of this season. The Everton Football Club will leave Goodison Park, where it has been home for over 130 years, and move to the cutting-edge 52,888 Capacity Stadium at Bramley Mooedok, in Mersey's bank.
Wednesday marks the final derby under Goodison's lights, and the Evatonian's usual sentiment – primarily, despite last year's extraordinary 2-0 victory – another in the long bye this season As the milestone passes, there seems to be a deep sadness.
My dad took me to my first game at Goodison when I was three years old. I cried all the time, but it didn't put off him. One of my early memories is that it was so small and hot in my winter coat, surrounded by a sea of large shuffle men leaving the lower blens stand. “Little girl, please keep the young man in your heart.”
Goodison has always been the place I felt safe. Like tens of thousands of other Evetonians, going to the ground with my family was more than my Saturday routine. That was a central part of my identity. As a girl who was obsessed with soccer, it meant my passion was taken seriously. I went to a game and I was allowed to talk about football. Dennis Bergkamp got it. “When you start supporting a football club, you don't support it because of the trophies, players, history,” he said. “You found yourself somewhere there, so you support it. You found a place you belong.”
So if we remembered our favourite Goodison memories Heaven's Screamer Indulge in us against Wimbledon on the final day of the 1993-94 season while you ask. why? Because in an era of billions of dollars in industrialized football where fan eyes are spreadsheet units, the bones of place are still important, as clubs are not passion projects but investment vehicles. History, memory, and belongings remain important.
Goodison is definitely a relic. Built in 1892, England's oldest dedicated football ground is surrounded by dense, terraced homes that are impossible to expand outward. Inside, the corporate box crushed into the main stand resembles a cow pen that is badly maintained. Viewing the game from the back of a Lower Gradies Street or Lower Blend Stand is like spying out of a letterbox, offering an unparalleled selection of blocked views with abundant steel struts.
However, the artifacts are precious. They tell stories. Blend Road Stand Designed by Archibald Leitchwith a clear assertion balcony motif – 99 years old. The area hosts more top flight games than any other stadium in the UK. It held a record of attending women's matches for 90 years. 53,000 people came to see dicks and car ladies In 1920, Dixie Dean broke a record 60th goal for the season at Goodison in 1928. Pere performed here at the 1966 World Cup. Eusébio has said thatThe best stadium in my performance life”.
“If a place like Goodison turns the lights off, it loses connection to the past,” says Rob Sawyer. Everton FC Heritage SocietyYou can still find it on the day of St. Luke's Church, surrounded by the corner of Goodison Park. “I think most fans appreciate that the revenue generated by Goodison is not competitive. But when you leave, you're no longer in that continuous thread, Dixie Dean. You won't be back to Tommy Lawton, or more recently, Kendall, Harvey, Ball years. You're losing that historical connection. That thread is broken.”
The Evantonians know that despite many false dawns, we are gaining incredibly beautiful new stadiums, new futures, and even hope. I'm watching hypnosis YouTube Everton Stadium construction footage -It's bland until the company eliminates millions of people for naming rights – hungry sea urchins, our stomachs growl.
According to the club, the new basis will create a £1.3 billion boost to North Liverpool's economy and create 15,000 jobs. Everton recruits in hopes of escape from the soulless new build trap Dan MaceThe design allows fans to get as close to pitch as possible with a steep, raked stand, while the roof sits tightly above the seat, trapping sounds. The club has made other efforts to make the stadium home as well as sophisticated money-making complexes. Outside the South Stand, Thousands of granite stones are placedcelebrating her birth and marriage, remembering her loved ones. It's impossible not to get excited.
And most Evertonians, including this, understand that this move is necessary. After years of upheaval, including but not limited to 17 managers over 20 years, the severity of connections with Russian billionaire supporter Alisher Usmanov, last season's profitability and sustainability rules Bankruptcy and record deduction prospects for violations and sustainability rules – Everton desperately needs their new owner, Friedkin Group, to make the club more calm, more profitable waters I'll guide you.
In an age where 10 of the 20 top flight clubs are US-owned and others are managed by private equity companies and authoritarian Petrostates, modern football mantras expand or die. in spite of Premier League club revenues increase by 11% In the 2022-23 season (high £6.1 billion), only five clubs made a profit. Larger stadiums with more spending opportunities are considered important to survival. In the same season, Matchday revenues rose 14% across the Premier League. Many of them come from ticket hiking. Bramley-Moore Dock – This The cost is over £800 million – The lowest-priced adult season tickets are 15% more expensive than Goodison's final season, but the club will probably be a mid-table for the cost.
Returning to L4, Goodison becomes a bulldozer as the approved plan goes on. Community-centric regeneration project There are affordable housing, shops, nursing homes and healthcare facilities. The club still owns the land, its charity Everton of the community It's still based there. Statues of the great Everton figures remain, and the central circle is held in its center “as an open green space.” Last year, historic England issued a certificate of exemption guaranteeing that the ground was not listed and effectively guaranteed its dismantling. The spokesman said the listing was not appropriate due to past changes. “What's historic interest is not the football field building,” they said. “But the place itself and the collective memory.”
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For many, those memories are internal organs. My father suddenly passed away just before he began his second year at university. He was 47 years old, several years older than me. And although I still loved Everton, I followed their results and went to see them play, but I didn't go back to Goodison. At first, the raw was too heavy, too heavy with memories and sadness. Then I was too far and too busy. Finally, I had a young child, which was too difficult.
But I had to make my last pilgrimage this season, just as many others were inflated the gates. I wanted my son to experience a place that meant so much to me and my family. He's a football crazy at 9 years old, but despite the sustained attempts to indoctrinate me and my brother, he has never supported Everton. Instead, he loves Borussia Dortmund, thanks to his Bundesliga highlights and easy access to the mythology of the yellow wall.
Still, the prospect of going to an actual Premier League match was a good draw, along with the promise of all he could do from the club shop. So, in the cold bright light of last weekend, we headed up the M6 to the ground.
With the Statue of the Holy Trinity – The trio of Howard Kendall, Alan Ball and Colin Harvey helped the club He took the title in 1970 – Everton volunteers in the community record my son Dortmund top. He begins chatting about how the vertical South stands in the new stadium – It houses 14,000 fans in a safe position – The club can be very unique Blue wall. He then points to the figure of the ball. “That Farrah said that after Everton touched you, nothing was the same,” he says, and Winks. “When you go there, young people, the rest means nothing.”
And with the sound of Air Raid Siren and Z car theme Still vibrating my body, Abdoulaye Doucouré scores the fastest goal in Goodison history after 10.18 seconds. I saw my boy and there is little doubt that he was moved. After another three Everton goals, he swings his scarf around his head and joins Spirit of the Blues. As we leave the ground he places my hand. “It was the best day of my life,” he says. me too.
Days like this are very rare, like Everton, I tell him. But the hope is, and when I take my daughter, they could happen more frequently in the new stadium. The sound is never the same, but it creates new memories for the Royal Blue Mersey bank. Maybe even a new history to keep fans up for the next 30 years.
But for now, let us grieve for a while when we say goodbye to the epic old lady in her final season. Please make us sad.
