Everton's new stadium project could receive a serious financial injection. The club from Goodison Park is set to raise up to £395 million, securing two vital streams of funding as the first phases of work on their new stadium get underway.

The construction of the new Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium has already started. Together with the formal groundbreaking, the largest stadium project north of London in many years started symbolically. Recent reports revealed that “The Toffees” are moving closer towards securing the bulk of the money needed to build the club's new 52,888-seater.

Everton are set to raise up to £395 million in funding for the club's new stadium project through the private placement market and combined authority. The packages will support work connected with Everton FC’s new venue being priced with the tag of £500 million.

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The club from the blue part of Liverpool is following the same direction as Spurs, when the London-based club raised capital to fund their new stadium project. In 2019 MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) and JP Morgan were enlisted by Everton to help find lenders to raise funding in a similar manner.

£45 million from local funding

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority approved up to £45 million support for the new Everton stadium. That turn aims to support the ‘transformational regeneration’ of North Liverpool and South Sefton. A majority of a loan of up to £30 million will contribute towards the overall project, and a grant of up to £15 million will assist with infrastructure and heritage work including preserving historic features, restoring derelict land, and providing public access to the docks.

As a condition of the financing promised, Everton has committed to target employment and training opportunities for local residents and the achievement of social value. As predicted, the project will create up to 15,000 jobs including new roles at the finished venue and employment linked to a forecasted increase in visitors to the city region.

“This is not an investment in a football club, but in an important project that will generate a myriad of social and economic benefits for communities across our region” - we can read from a joint statement.

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In addition, Everton will run campaigns focusing on health issues in the North part of the Beatles’ city. The club, as a part of its charity strategy, will be obliged to focus on local education, training, employment, youth projects, reducing crime and violence, supporting asylum seekers and veterans and health and wellbeing.

Solid funding from the private sector

Everton is using a phased funding model to cover the basic cost of the plan. The majority of the rest of the £500 million scheme is likely to come from the private sector. So far, the biggest shareholder Farhad Moshiri, British-Iranian businessman, has already committed around £100 million into the funding chest, enabling the first works towards securing and clearing the site to get it ready for construction. As mentioned, since 2019 MUFG and JP Morgan have had the responsibility for finding the investors to secure £300-£350 million.

What is more, with Farhad Moshiri and Usmanov being long-time business partners, Usmanov has injected a further £35 million in funding through securing naming sponsorship rights to the stadium, as confirmed by football finance expert Kieran Maguire on The Price of Football podcast.

“Everton, they have an agreement with a friend of the club owner, Alisher Usmanov, who has bought the option, he’s not actually bought the naming rights, he’s bought the option to have naming rights at the new stadium for £35 million”, noted Maguire.

Author: Karol Tatar

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