City prepares for Everton’s first game at new stadium with road closures in operation

The first Everton Stadium test event takes place later today (February 17) in front of a capacity of 10,000 spectators.

Liverpool City Council granted a safety certificate late last week for the event to take place. Two further test events with bigger attendances will be staged over the next few months with the aim of achieving an overall safety certificate for the full 52,888-seat capacity.

Kick off for tonight’s historic game at Bramley Moore Dock – an Under-18s friendly fixture against Wigan Athletic – will be 7pm, with road closures around the £760m venue to begin at 5pm.

To coincide with the venue hosting its first match, a new experimental parking zone for the area around the stadium and the city’s north docks (see the map here) also goes live today.

Announced almost two weeks ago, the proposals have caused consternation with residents and businesses over plans to restrict parking around the area, reaching as far north as Bootle and south to the city centre.

Established under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO), the zone is subject to a public consultation to gain feedback from residents and businesses.

Although it goes live today, the new parking scheme becomes fully operational when the 2025/26 football season begins in August.

There are two key points about the ETRO:

• It allows the council to monitor and evaluate the scheme’s effectiveness, and modify it, if necessary, before making the measures permanent.
• These measures can run for a maximum of 18 months – expiring in August 2026 – but that does not mean changes have to wait until then.

For example, although it states the number of permits per business will be set at 10, the council said it will consider any request for more permits on a case-by-case basis.

People can have their say on this ETRO in a quick survey at: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/BramleyMooreParking/ and if there are further questions, people are asked to please email: bramleymooredockETRO@liverpool.gov.uk

A second test game is being scheduled for March, which will see 25,000 fans use all four stands of the waterfront stadium.

Road closures will be in place two hours before kick-off on the main approach roads to the stadium: Waterloo Road, Regent Road, Ten Streets Area, roads surrounding Wellington Employment Park, and roads south of Bankfield Street.

These roads will also be closed from the final whistle until crowds have dispersed. Sandhills Lane will be closed following the final whistle at Sandhills Station to assist in crowd management.

Supporters travelling by car are advised to avoid these closure areas.

A new crowd-marshalling area has been built next to Sandhills Station, but this has also attracted strong criticism from Everton fans angry that it is not covered, to offer protection in bad weather, and claims that it will be insufficient to handle the expected throughput of fans when the ground’s full capacity is reached.

A video Mayor Stever Rotheram published of his visit to the site drew a slew of negative comments.