The club have announced that an evacuation exercise will be tested prior to the full-time whistle in the friendly between Everton under 21’s and Bolton’s B team on the 23rd March.
25,000 supporters will be asked to leave the stadium during the second half of the game and will not be able to return.
The club are also working with transport authorities to manage the crowd leaving the game.
Alix Waldron, Director of New Stadium Development said:
“Being able to demonstrate the evacuation routes and processes that have been put in place for Everton Stadium is an important part of us obtaining the required safety certificate and licence.
“It will allow us to demonstrate as well as understand how supporters exit the stadium and we are asking fans to play an important role in supporting us by taking it as seriously as if it were a real emergency.
“That means supporters staying in their seats until the evacuation protocols begin and exiting the stadium in a calm, considerate manner, paying attention to instructions from stewards and being respectful of others also trying to leave the area.
“We hope that this will be the only time we ever need to evacuate the stadium but we are asking everyone to help us in this vital exercise so that we can look forward to opening the stadium to more than 52,000 people from this summer.”
Featured image by Kieron Osbourne.
