Everton confirms its new £760m ground will open for 2025-26 season
Everton has confirmed its first competitive match in its new Bramley-Moore Dock ground will take place in the 2025-26 season, meaning the club will play a full season, from 2024-25, at its Goodison Park ground, its home for more than 130 years.
Interim CEO, Colin Chong, made the announcement following a recent meeting with the club’s Fan Advisory Board.
The £760m 52,888-capacity stadium is currently under construction on the banks of the River Mersey.
Everton expects to complete construction this time next year, but insisted its decision not to move mid-season is not due to any delays in construction, but to enable a range of safety testing events.
Mr Chong said: “I recently had the pleasure of attending a meeting with our Fan Advisory Board. While the committee summary of that meeting is available for supporters to read online, I wanted to give all Evertonians an explanation and some background on one of the key club decisions we confirmed directly with the FAB.
“This was the confirmation that the first competitive football fixtures for our senior men’s side will take place at our new stadium at the start of the 2025/26 season.”
He said: “Firstly, and to be absolutely clear, our decision to not move in mid-season is not because of a construction delay. It is a club decision driven by a combination of commercial insight, a comprehensive review of the logistics required, an analysis of the potential impact upon our football operations and, importantly, fan feedback sourced as part of our recent stadium migration survey, which was completed by almost 10,000 Evertonians.
“Everton Stadium remains firmly on track, as scheduled, to be completed in the final weeks of 2024.”
He said the club will need to conduct test events at the ground, which will allow it to stress-test the stadium in a number of different ways to obtain a Safety Certificate.
Earlier this week Liverpool FC staged a test event with 7,000 fans to obtain a Safety Certificate to open up new sections of its Anfield Road stand extension in time for this Sunday’s (December 17) key match with Manchester United.
Mr Chong added: “Some of our test events will involve crowds of varying capacities, while others will need to be operationally focused and only involve our own staff.
“All of this does mean that next season, 2024/25, is scheduled to be our last at Goodison Park. By the time we close the gates for the final time, Goodison will have been our home for nearly 134 years, with many supporters telling us very clearly about their desire to make sure the Grand Old Lady gets a fitting send-off.”
He said the last season at Goodison will enable the club to organise a year-long series of events, tours and celebrations to mark the milestone.
