Everton CEO Denise Barrett-Baxendale outlined the benefits of the club’s plans for a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in her LJMU Roscoe lecture this week.
Following the news earlier this week that the government has requested an extension on reviewing the plans, Barrett-Baxendale told LJMU that the “once in a generation opportunity for our region” will “fast forward the re-generation of North Liverpool and deliver a host of public benefits that are needed now more than ever in our city”.
She provided estimated figures such as a £1.3 billion boost to the local economy, the creation of more than 15,000 jobs for local people and 1.4 million additional visitors to the city each year.
This is part of the People’s Project, the club’s plan not only to build a new stadium but to transform the site of their current home at Goodison Park into a community hub, a project “unlike any other high-profile stadium move in the UK”.
Barrett-Baxendale said that the plans were to create a £100 million ‘civic inheritance community campus’, to enable the growth of Everton in the Community and embed Everton Football Club in the community for generations to come.
She also called for the safe return of fans to football stadia imminently.
“I think the first thing we can do as football is get people back into stadia safely and let us have that sense of belonging that football allows when it brings people together.
“I think now more than ever we’ve seen people reaching out to their football club for support and really appreciating the fact that the football club has become part of their extended family.”
