Looks a bit like Leicester. Like it’s made on Pro Evo. And a big Tesco. Going to stink being next to a sewage works isn’t it? It’ll be the best stadium in the Championship anyway.
Luckily, not a single one of the criticisms levelled at Bramley Moore Stadium are remotely true. After all, a sewage works is a major improvement on historical neighbours of Everton Football Club.
As one of the 10,000 lucky fans to be attending the first Bramley Moore test event I was a little nervous about not liking the new stadium. This was an event where most of the vast fan plaza was out of bounds. The food and drink options were limited and parts of the stadium are still being dressed up in time for the new football season.
Let’s start with the negatives. The concourse was busy, with nobody knowing exactly where to go there were bottle necks in places. The bathrooms are also small, with long queues just before kickoff in the men’s toilets. This is as much a hazard of 10,000 people entering a stand at once and not the steady trickle a normal football match would deliver.
Bits also feel unfinished. The floors are scuffed and dirty, the ceiling is all exposed pipes. There are bits of scaffolding and fences around the exterior of the stadium and the club shop, housed in an impressive glass section of the East Stand, is still a husk. It is a reminder there is much to do to get this stadium ready for 53,000 fans on the opening day of the Premier League 2025/26.
That is what the test event is for. And now we’ve got that out of the way let’s talk positives.
I didn’t really look at the stadium as I entered the upper part of the South Stand, a vast 13,000-capacity stand that represents the steepest in Europe. It was only when I made my way up the sheer steps and settled into a seat that I took in Everton’s new permanent home.
This is the real litmus test of a stadium. That first look and how you feel when you view it.
Bramley Moore passes the test with flying colours. I’ve poured over the drone shots, devoured the club videos and stared at pictures as the stadium grew from the docks but none of that really gets across the sheer scale of the stadium. Dan Meis has delivered a master class in claustrophobia and intensity. The stands are steeper than videos can really showcase. They loom over the pitch, making it feel like the stadium is enveloping you. It feels huge but intimiate somehow and even in the upper part of the stand it felt like the stadium was on top of you.
Fill that with 50,000-odd fans and there is no doubt the atmosphere will be as intimidating as any stadium in the world.
The front rows are actually further from the pitch than Goodison Park but not by much. Every seat feels connected to the action and there will be no problem with fans being able to impact the game.
The modern aspects of the stadium are easy to praise. Sight lines are perfect, with clear views from all angles. The screens are huge and visible from every seat. The sound system is world class, with curved speakers hanging from every angle and delivering concert-level sound quality.
But all that can be explored later. Your first game will mostly be spent marvelling at the corners either side of you and how they seem far too steep to be allowed.
The stadium is world class. It blends modern comforts with a shape that allows it to retain the traditional British football atmosphere. It’s a marvel of design.
Inside the stand the full-length view of the city is spectacular. A view you just will not be able to get at any other football ground. The bars run almost as long across and while no alcohol was being served waiting times were seconds rather than minutes. The Amazon ‘walk in’ technology retail units were not open and food options were basically pies (£6.20 a pop) or a ‘loaded sausage roll’. There were also bright blue doughnuts and the usual array of soft drinks and hot drinks.
These food and drink options will expand and spill out onto the vast fan plaza outside. I wondered when it was reported it could hold festivals of up to 17,000 people but it really is a huge space, stretching from the wonderful Dock Wall to the walls of the stadium. I think this will be my favourite part of the new stadium. The little touches are incredible; from the tribute to Michael Jones, who sadly lost his life during the construction of the stadium, to the little Archibald Leitch motifs on the seating areas.
The railway lines and dock wall, complete with shimmering blue paving where the dock water used to be, are a reminder of the history and heritage of the site.
For generations Liverpool’s docks have been the beating heart of the city. It is fitting that Everton, itself the beating heart of the city’s football scene, is now going to be based here on the banks of the River Mersey, where heritage and tradition eminates from every single brick and rusted bollard.
From the moment you pass under the Dock Wall the stadium blends heritage with modernity seamlessly. You walk along the track of an old railway line until you hit the modern South Stand walkway, up the futuristic escalators and into the concourse. There you have the latest retail technology, all while gazing over historic dockland and the stunning Docker’s Clock.
Then to your seat, where you have more space than before and a clear view of the pitch. But fill those stands with Evertonians. Line the South Stand with the 1878’s flags and set Z-Cars blaring through the state-of-the-art sound system and it will very quickly begin to feel like home.