“I still miss Highbury.” That admission came from my Arsenal-supporting friend, Majid, as we discussed the experience of leaving home as a football fan – of bidding farewell to the place where you were first entranced by the game. For an apprehensive Evertonian preparing to say goodbye to Goodison Park, it was intriguing to hear him explain the gradual layering of memorable moments through which Arsenal’s new stadium began to feel like home. That and the physical “Arsenal-isation” process via murals, artwork and the like. “It needed those finishing touches that were a nod to our history to help us move on from Highbury emotionally,” he explained.
Change seldom occurs without something being lost. That is certainly the case with Everton’s impending farewell to Goodison Park, their home since 1892. I am biased, of course, given it’s where I began watching football in the 1980s. Goodison has seen more English top-flight games than any other stadium. In 1966, it staged a World Cup semi-final. In 1970, it witnessed the first penalty shoot-out in European Cup history, when Everton prevailed 4-3 against Borussia Mönchengladbach. I sat down recently with Colin Harvey, a member of that Everton team, and we smiled at the YouTube footage of players not knowing quite how to act – starting with centre-forward Joe Royle sinking to his knees when his opening spot kick was saved – as well as the speed which the teams vacated the pitch at the finish. “The players just went straight off,” Harvey recalled. “There was no standing there, waving to the crowd.”
Goodison was once at the vanguard of stadium development in England: it became the first ground with four double-decker stands in 1938 and later the first with a triple-decker stand. And its location, amid a tight grid of streets of red-brick terraced houses, transports you to a different time. It has a church in one corner and a pub directly opposite the Main Stand. The ritual of going there – and seeing familiar faces collecting for Fans Supporting Foodbanks (a joint-Evertonian and Liverpudlian initiative) at one end of Goodison Road and browsing the Everton Heritage Society stalls in St Luke’s Church hall at the other will be missed. (The sight of ex-players from the 1970s, 80s and 90s in there on my last visit suggests I’m not alone.)
Everton’s new 52,888-capacity waterfront home at Bramley-Moore Dock – with three times the corporate space Goodison can offer – will increase revenue and is a move very much in tune with the fresh wave of stadium developments as clubs seek greater matchday income. Witness Barcelona’s Camp Nou redevelopment, following Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu makeover. Or how, in England, Manchester United have unveiled plans for a new 100,000-seater stadium, while Newcastle United ponder a potential move from St James’ Park.
“I still miss Highbury.” That admission came from my Arsenal-supporting friend, Majid, as we discussed the experience of leaving home as a football fan – of bidding farewell to the place where you were first entranced by the game. For an apprehensive Evertonian preparing to say goodbye to Goodison Park, it was intriguing to hear him explain the gradual layering of memorable moments through which Arsenal’s new stadium began to feel like home. That and the physical “Arsenal-isation” process via murals, artwork and the like. “It needed those finishing touches that were a nod to our history to help us move on from Highbury emotionally,” he explained.
Change seldom occurs without something being lost. That is certainly the case with Everton’s impending farewell to Goodison Park, their home since 1892. I am biased, of course, given it’s where I began watching football in the 1980s. Goodison has seen more English top-flight games than any other stadium. In 1966, it staged a World Cup semi-final. In 1970, it witnessed the first penalty shoot-out in European Cup history, when Everton prevailed 4-3 against Borussia Mönchengladbach. I sat down recently with Colin Harvey, a member of that Everton team, and we smiled at the YouTube footage of players not knowing quite how to act – starting with centre-forward Joe Royle sinking to his knees when his opening spot kick was saved – as well as the speed which the teams vacated the pitch at the finish. “The players just went straight off,” Harvey recalled. “There was no standing there, waving to the crowd.”
Goodison was once at the vanguard of stadium development in England: it became the first ground with four double-decker stands in 1938 and later the first with a triple-decker stand. And its location, amid a tight grid of streets of red-brick terraced houses, transports you to a different time. It has a church in one corner and a pub directly opposite the Main Stand. The ritual of going there – and seeing familiar faces collecting for Fans Supporting Foodbanks (a joint-Evertonian and Liverpudlian initiative) at one end of Goodison Road and browsing the Everton Heritage Society stalls in St Luke’s Church hall at the other will be missed. (The sight of ex-players from the 1970s, 80s and 90s in there on my last visit suggests I’m not alone.)
Everton’s new 52,888-capacity waterfront home at Bramley-Moore Dock – with three times the corporate space Goodison can offer – will increase revenue and is a move very much in tune with the fresh wave of stadium developments as clubs seek greater matchday income. Witness Barcelona’s Camp Nou redevelopment, following Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu makeover. Or how, in England, Manchester United have unveiled plans for a new 100,000-seater stadium, while Newcastle United ponder a potential move from St James’ Park.
On his last Goodison trip in April, Pep Guardiola stood before the game viewing footage of old heroes shown on the ground’s big screen, then reflected: “I watched the screen with goals from Gary Lineker and said, ‘Wow, this is English football.’” Yet new stadiums need not be sterile places. The steep stands at Everton’s new home have been designed to recreate Goodison’s feel of fans being right on top of the action.
The choice of venue for this season’s Europa League final, Athletic Club’s San Mamés, provides an encouraging example. My colleague Graham Hunter – an authority on Spanish football – says that while “towering old stands” have given way to a 21st-century arena, Athletic have succeeded in transporting the soul of the old San Mamés to a stadium inaugurated in 2013. The famous Pichichi bust – honouring Rafael ‘Pichichi’ Moreno Aranzadi, the legendary marksman after whom Spain’s top scorer’s award is named – has been installed close to the tunnel, and Athletic have maintained the tradition whereby the captain of any team visiting for the first time must lay a bouquet of flowers beside it.
Other rituals unique to San Mamés remain intact – the blowing of the alboka or Basque horn in the lead-up to kick-off, accompanied by a fan playing the txalaparta, a large xylophone-type instrument. Freed from Desire it is not. According to Graham, Athletic benefit also from the fact that their new home was built on the same site as the old, meaning that supporters’ long-established rituals – such as calling into the same bar every other weekend – could still endure. In turn, businesses dependent on the stadium continued to thrive. “One of the massive things was keeping it on the same site, which is slap-bang in the centre,” said Graham. “You can eat cordon bleu stuff or just plain pintxos to your heart’s content all around the ground.”
Of course, not all supporters have that privilege. For me, there’ll no longer be the stroll across Stanley Park to Goodison – carefully averting my gaze from Anfield – with Everton’s new ground just over 3km away on the banks of the Mersey. Yet I have not forgotten the words of an Atlético de Madrid fan I met on a train in March. Their move to the Metropolitano took them around 15km from the Vicente Calderón but, as he insisted, “It’s the people that make a stadium.” I’ll hold on to that.
“I still miss Highbury.” That admission came from my Arsenal-supporting friend, Majid, as we discussed the experience of leaving home as a football fan – of bidding farewell to the place where you were first entranced by the game. For an apprehensive Evertonian preparing to say goodbye to Goodison Park, it was intriguing to hear him explain the gradual layering of memorable moments through which Arsenal’s new stadium began to feel like home. That and the physical “Arsenal-isation” process via murals, artwork and the like. “It needed those finishing touches that were a nod to our history to help us move on from Highbury emotionally,” he explained.
Change seldom occurs without something being lost. That is certainly the case with Everton’s impending farewell to Goodison Park, their home since 1892. I am biased, of course, given it’s where I began watching football in the 1980s. Goodison has seen more English top-flight games than any other stadium. In 1966, it staged a World Cup semi-final. In 1970, it witnessed the first penalty shoot-out in European Cup history, when Everton prevailed 4-3 against Borussia Mönchengladbach. I sat down recently with Colin Harvey, a member of that Everton team, and we smiled at the YouTube footage of players not knowing quite how to act – starting with centre-forward Joe Royle sinking to his knees when his opening spot kick was saved – as well as the speed which the teams vacated the pitch at the finish. “The players just went straight off,” Harvey recalled. “There was no standing there, waving to the crowd.”
Goodison was once at the vanguard of stadium development in England: it became the first ground with four double-decker stands in 1938 and later the first with a triple-decker stand. And its location, amid a tight grid of streets of red-brick terraced houses, transports you to a different time. It has a church in one corner and a pub directly opposite the Main Stand. The ritual of going there – and seeing familiar faces collecting for Fans Supporting Foodbanks (a joint-Evertonian and Liverpudlian initiative) at one end of Goodison Road and browsing the Everton Heritage Society stalls in St Luke’s Church hall at the other will be missed. (The sight of ex-players from the 1970s, 80s and 90s in there on my last visit suggests I’m not alone.)
Everton’s new 52,888-capacity waterfront home at Bramley-Moore Dock – with three times the corporate space Goodison can offer – will increase revenue and is a move very much in tune with the fresh wave of stadium developments as clubs seek greater matchday income. Witness Barcelona’s Camp Nou redevelopment, following Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu makeover. Or how, in England, Manchester United have unveiled plans for a new 100,000-seater stadium, while Newcastle United ponder a potential move from St James’ Park.
“I still miss Highbury.” That admission came from my Arsenal-supporting friend, Majid, as we discussed the experience of leaving home as a football fan – of bidding farewell to the place where you were first entranced by the game. For an apprehensive Evertonian preparing to say goodbye to Goodison Park, it was intriguing to hear him explain the gradual layering of memorable moments through which Arsenal’s new stadium began to feel like home. That and the physical “Arsenal-isation” process via murals, artwork and the like. “It needed those finishing touches that were a nod to our history to help us move on from Highbury emotionally,” he explained.
Change seldom occurs without something being lost. That is certainly the case with Everton’s impending farewell to Goodison Park, their home since 1892. I am biased, of course, given it’s where I began watching football in the 1980s. Goodison has seen more English top-flight games than any other stadium. In 1966, it staged a World Cup semi-final. In 1970, it witnessed the first penalty shoot-out in European Cup history, when Everton prevailed 4-3 against Borussia Mönchengladbach. I sat down recently with Colin Harvey, a member of that Everton team, and we smiled at the YouTube footage of players not knowing quite how to act – starting with centre-forward Joe Royle sinking to his knees when his opening spot kick was saved – as well as the speed which the teams vacated the pitch at the finish. “The players just went straight off,” Harvey recalled. “There was no standing there, waving to the crowd.”
Goodison was once at the vanguard of stadium development in England: it became the first ground with four double-decker stands in 1938 and later the first with a triple-decker stand. And its location, amid a tight grid of streets of red-brick terraced houses, transports you to a different time. It has a church in one corner and a pub directly opposite the Main Stand. The ritual of going there – and seeing familiar faces collecting for Fans Supporting Foodbanks (a joint-Evertonian and Liverpudlian initiative) at one end of Goodison Road and browsing the Everton Heritage Society stalls in St Luke’s Church hall at the other will be missed. (The sight of ex-players from the 1970s, 80s and 90s in there on my last visit suggests I’m not alone.)
Everton’s new 52,888-capacity waterfront home at Bramley-Moore Dock – with three times the corporate space Goodison can offer – will increase revenue and is a move very much in tune with the fresh wave of stadium developments as clubs seek greater matchday income. Witness Barcelona’s Camp Nou redevelopment, following Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu makeover. Or how, in England, Manchester United have unveiled plans for a new 100,000-seater stadium, while Newcastle United ponder a potential move from St James’ Park.
“I still miss Highbury.” That admission came from my Arsenal-supporting friend, Majid, as we discussed the experience of leaving home as a football fan – of bidding farewell to the place where you were first entranced by the game. For an apprehensive Evertonian preparing to say goodbye to Goodison Park, it was intriguing to hear him explain the gradual layering of memorable moments through which Arsenal’s new stadium began to feel like home. That and the physical “Arsenal-isation” process via murals, artwork and the like. “It needed those finishing touches that were a nod to our history to help us move on from Highbury emotionally,” he explained.
Change seldom occurs without something being lost. That is certainly the case with Everton’s impending farewell to Goodison Park, their home since 1892. I am biased, of course, given it’s where I began watching football in the 1980s. Goodison has seen more English top-flight games than any other stadium. In 1966, it staged a World Cup semi-final. In 1970, it witnessed the first penalty shoot-out in European Cup history, when Everton prevailed 4-3 against Borussia Mönchengladbach. I sat down recently with Colin Harvey, a member of that Everton team, and we smiled at the YouTube footage of players not knowing quite how to act – starting with centre-forward Joe Royle sinking to his knees when his opening spot kick was saved – as well as the speed which the teams vacated the pitch at the finish. “The players just went straight off,” Harvey recalled. “There was no standing there, waving to the crowd.”
Goodison was once at the vanguard of stadium development in England: it became the first ground with four double-decker stands in 1938 and later the first with a triple-decker stand. And its location, amid a tight grid of streets of red-brick terraced houses, transports you to a different time. It has a church in one corner and a pub directly opposite the Main Stand. The ritual of going there – and seeing familiar faces collecting for Fans Supporting Foodbanks (a joint-Evertonian and Liverpudlian initiative) at one end of Goodison Road and browsing the Everton Heritage Society stalls in St Luke’s Church hall at the other will be missed. (The sight of ex-players from the 1970s, 80s and 90s in there on my last visit suggests I’m not alone.)
Everton’s new 52,888-capacity waterfront home at Bramley-Moore Dock – with three times the corporate space Goodison can offer – will increase revenue and is a move very much in tune with the fresh wave of stadium developments as clubs seek greater matchday income. Witness Barcelona’s Camp Nou redevelopment, following Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu makeover. Or how, in England, Manchester United have unveiled plans for a new 100,000-seater stadium, while Newcastle United ponder a potential move from St James’ Park.
On his last Goodison trip in April, Pep Guardiola stood before the game viewing footage of old heroes shown on the ground’s big screen, then reflected: “I watched the screen with goals from Gary Lineker and said, ‘Wow, this is English football.’” Yet new stadiums need not be sterile places. The steep stands at Everton’s new home have been designed to recreate Goodison’s feel of fans being right on top of the action.
The choice of venue for this season’s Europa League final, Athletic Club’s San Mamés, provides an encouraging example. My colleague Graham Hunter – an authority on Spanish football – says that while “towering old stands” have given way to a 21st-century arena, Athletic have succeeded in transporting the soul of the old San Mamés to a stadium inaugurated in 2013. The famous Pichichi bust – honouring Rafael ‘Pichichi’ Moreno Aranzadi, the legendary marksman after whom Spain’s top scorer’s award is named – has been installed close to the tunnel, and Athletic have maintained the tradition whereby the captain of any team visiting for the first time must lay a bouquet of flowers beside it.
Other rituals unique to San Mamés remain intact – the blowing of the alboka or Basque horn in the lead-up to kick-off, accompanied by a fan playing the txalaparta, a large xylophone-type instrument. Freed from Desire it is not. According to Graham, Athletic benefit also from the fact that their new home was built on the same site as the old, meaning that supporters’ long-established rituals – such as calling into the same bar every other weekend – could still endure. In turn, businesses dependent on the stadium continued to thrive. “One of the massive things was keeping it on the same site, which is slap-bang in the centre,” said Graham. “You can eat cordon bleu stuff or just plain pintxos to your heart’s content all around the ground.”
Of course, not all supporters have that privilege. For me, there’ll no longer be the stroll across Stanley Park to Goodison – carefully averting my gaze from Anfield – with Everton’s new ground just over 3km away on the banks of the Mersey. Yet I have not forgotten the words of an Atlético de Madrid fan I met on a train in March. Their move to the Metropolitano took them around 15km from the Vicente Calderón but, as he insisted, “It’s the people that make a stadium.” I’ll hold on to that.
“I still miss Highbury.” That admission came from my Arsenal-supporting friend, Majid, as we discussed the experience of leaving home as a football fan – of bidding farewell to the place where you were first entranced by the game. For an apprehensive Evertonian preparing to say goodbye to Goodison Park, it was intriguing to hear him explain the gradual layering of memorable moments through which Arsenal’s new stadium began to feel like home. That and the physical “Arsenal-isation” process via murals, artwork and the like. “It needed those finishing touches that were a nod to our history to help us move on from Highbury emotionally,” he explained.
Change seldom occurs without something being lost. That is certainly the case with Everton’s impending farewell to Goodison Park, their home since 1892. I am biased, of course, given it’s where I began watching football in the 1980s. Goodison has seen more English top-flight games than any other stadium. In 1966, it staged a World Cup semi-final. In 1970, it witnessed the first penalty shoot-out in European Cup history, when Everton prevailed 4-3 against Borussia Mönchengladbach. I sat down recently with Colin Harvey, a member of that Everton team, and we smiled at the YouTube footage of players not knowing quite how to act – starting with centre-forward Joe Royle sinking to his knees when his opening spot kick was saved – as well as the speed which the teams vacated the pitch at the finish. “The players just went straight off,” Harvey recalled. “There was no standing there, waving to the crowd.”
Goodison was once at the vanguard of stadium development in England: it became the first ground with four double-decker stands in 1938 and later the first with a triple-decker stand. And its location, amid a tight grid of streets of red-brick terraced houses, transports you to a different time. It has a church in one corner and a pub directly opposite the Main Stand. The ritual of going there – and seeing familiar faces collecting for Fans Supporting Foodbanks (a joint-Evertonian and Liverpudlian initiative) at one end of Goodison Road and browsing the Everton Heritage Society stalls in St Luke’s Church hall at the other will be missed. (The sight of ex-players from the 1970s, 80s and 90s in there on my last visit suggests I’m not alone.)
Everton’s new 52,888-capacity waterfront home at Bramley-Moore Dock – with three times the corporate space Goodison can offer – will increase revenue and is a move very much in tune with the fresh wave of stadium developments as clubs seek greater matchday income. Witness Barcelona’s Camp Nou redevelopment, following Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu makeover. Or how, in England, Manchester United have unveiled plans for a new 100,000-seater stadium, while Newcastle United ponder a potential move from St James’ Park.
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