Everton’s women’s team has moved to the historic stadium in Liverpool. The club has begun the process of adapting the venue to the needs of a new audience, while facing organizational and financial challenges.

New chapter in history

On Sunday, September 15, Everton Women played their first match at Goodison Park, which from now on will serve as their permanent home. The ground, associated for decades with the men’s team, had previously been earmarked for demolition. A change of plans has meant that the 133-year-old stadium has become the new home of the women’s side.

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Goodison Park, however, did not look complete. Thousands of seats were missing from the stands, while the upper tier of the Goodison Road Stand remained stripped bare. In the tunnel leading to the pitch, a pink wallpaper appeared with the slogans A New Era and A History We Own, and banners featuring the players were hung on the Bullens Road Stand. Yet finishing touches were still being added - on the day of the journalists’ visit, a worker was installing a missing part of the decoration.

Double move

This summer Everton had to coordinate two relocations. The men’s team moved to Hill Dickinson Stadium, which for fans marked the end of an era. Around 20,000 supporters took advantage of the club’s offer to purchase a seat from Goodison, leaving parts of the stands looking empty.

Under the new owner – The Friedkin Group (TFG) – Goodison, however, was given new life. For the women it represented a huge step up compared to Walton Hall Park, which held only 2,200 spectators. The first thing they [TFG] said to me is, ‘You can’t play at Walton Hall Park, we will fix that. They had never been there, but I think they saw some videos, recalled coach Brian Sorensen.

© Sławomir Nosal

Stadium for new audience

Under Farhad Moshiri’s ownership, the Goodison site was to be redeveloped into housing and commercial space. TFG abandoned that plan and opted instead to focus on developing the women’s team. The new challenge became adapting the stadium to the audience of women’s football.

The biggest issue turned out to be the toilets. If a dad’s bringing his kids, how can we adapt to make sure there’s a baby change in the male toilets? These are not considerations the male game has had to think about, said Hannah Forshaw, CEO of Everton Women. She also stressed that the club had to replace urinals with stalls to meet the needs of families and women with children.

Experiments and amenities

The first match, against Tottenham Hotspur in the Women’s Super League, launched a series of tests concerning the matchday experience. The club introduced a family zone with face painting, balloon artists and a mobile gaming truck. In food concessions, nachos and falafel wraps appeared alongside the traditional sausage rolls and Bovril.

Fans were also allowed to drink alcohol in their seats as part of a WSL trial, while in the Leasowe Pacific Lounge - formerly the Dixie Dean Suite - the club introduced a bottomless brunch format. This was a nod to history, as the women’s team once played under the name Leasowe Pacific.

© Chris Homer

Money and prospects

Finances remained the greatest unknown. The sale of the Goodison site could have brought the club a seven-figure sum, whereas £1 million had already been invested in modernizing the stadium for the women’s team. The ground had a capacity of 39,572, but Everton was targeting an average attendance of around 6,000, moving banners to limit the impression of emptiness. The worst thing would be for this to look like a big, empty stadium, Forshaw stressed.

Despite the risk, Goodison opened up new investment opportunities. Forshaw called the stadium a major point of differentiation for sponsors, and the club expected new capital, most likely from the United States.