Despite Liverpool FC ruling out a groundshare with Everton, it's an issue that refuses to go away. I was recently asked for my views on the topic, and replied with the following:
IMAGINE telling Catholics their cathedral in Liverpool was closing and they had to go over the road and share with the Church of England.
Forget history, forget your religion, this is the future. This is business.
It would never happen, of course. There would be uproar.
Yet it seems perfectly acceptable to suggest that my cathedral - Anfield – should be closed (bad enough in itself) and that the club I love, Liverpool FC, should share a new ground in Stanley Park with that shower from the other side of said park, Everton.
Well sorry, no. Never.
On so many levels, it's a non-starter.
A club's ground is central to its identity – it is its home, its powerbase, and it's the cathedral for the fans' religion: Liverpool.
To share it with your bitterest rivals would dilute everything to do with Liverpool FC - from the matchday experience to the framed picture of your club's home.
It would be the end of a combined 248 years of footballing history - that's how long Liverpool and Everton have lived in their OWN homes.
And how would it work?
What would the stands be called? What colour would the seats be? Where would the Shankly Gates go? And what about the statue of good old Bill? Or the one of Dixie Dean at Everton?
But of course there's the business argument. The money. Well sorry, fuck the money!
It's not about money, or business. It's sport, it's a team, a club, something that represents the city and means an awful lot to a hell of a lot.
Not only that, but the business argument is flawed. Inter and AC Milan is always trotted out as this shining example of how groundshares DO work. Well do your research, it doesn't. If it does, why have Inter Milan paid for feasibility studies into building their own ground?
What about Roma and Lazio, they share? Yep, Roma want to leave, too.
If we merge the grounds, what next? Merge the teams? Half-red, half-blue kits with players turning out for Merseyside United or Everpool?
Silly maybe, but so is this groundshare idea. An idea that has only come to light again because Everton's Kirkby stadium fell through.
Well sorry Blues, clear up your own mess - we're not bailing you out - if we leave Anfield, we leave for a new Anfield, the new home of Liverpool Football Club...and no-one else.
Logging you in...
Posts
Dav · 796 weeks ago
Another shining example of the stupidity that will eventually lead to both clubs becoming no better than also rans - and the rest of us can keep laughing at them.
"Well sorry Blues, clear up your own mess - we're not bailing you out "
Are you joking? You don't get it do you? Liverpool are living on borrowed time (and money) and as soon as the Yanks cut and run, selling them to another dodgy arab outfit, you'll see how much worse off than Everton you actually are!
At least they haven't hocked their team to the highest bidder for a bit of short term kudos!
Laughable!
sevo · 796 weeks ago
robbohuyton 61p · 796 weeks ago
You seem to have completely missed my point - it's not about money and business. If it is, why don't we just have done with it an auction off every seat at the ground to the highest bidder?
Both clubs have survived this long in their own grounds - long may it continue.
What is the coffee I need to smell? LFC as a club don't want it, the fans don't want it, the owners - much as i hate them - don't want it.
Everton need it to happen but I doubt very much that 95% of either set of supporters want it to happen. Remember there was plenty of opposition within your own support for an almost free stadium in Kirkby.
robbohuyton 61p · 796 weeks ago
My opinion on a groundshare is going to lead to both clubs becoming also-rans? Not over the top or anything then.
And what's the basis for being worse off then Everton? Or are you just throwing around over the top opinion for the sake of it?
LFC are a bigger club than Everton, more fans, bigger season ticket waiting list, more revenue, more potential and, clearly, a more attractive proposition to investors (otherwise why has no-one invested in EFC in the last five years when they have been scouring the globe for someone with deep pockets?).
Which brings me to your final 'point'. EFC would happily sell to the highest bidder. But there's no bidder.
As David Moyes said: "Maybe Everton need it more than they (Liverpool) do at this moment in time."
Robbie Shields · 796 weeks ago
Robbies Shields · 796 weeks ago
robbohuyton 61p · 796 weeks ago
Paranoid you'll overtake us? Thanks for that, I needed a laugh!
Bird's eye view · 795 weeks ago
http://birdseyeview-football.blogspot.com/2009/11...
robbohuyton 61p · 796 weeks ago
And what's your point about the San Siro? You're just backing up what I'm saying. Inter want to move to make more money from their OWN stadium not a shared one.
And why would LFC move to Goodison? We are already in a better ground than Goodison, and a ground which if need be could be extended on the main stand side. Goodison is landlocked, as well as outdated.
It's not a case of being bitter, I support Liverpool and the ground is central to the club, as I stated in the original post.
Terry · 796 weeks ago
Interestingly the comments left by our Blue friends reflects what I have heard from other blues, both friends and family. Nothing personal lads but if you want a groundshare that desperately have you tried Tranmere? there would be no clash of colours and you could build a stadium more in keeping with the crowds you attract. Ours will be much too large for you.
@socialknight · 796 weeks ago
Young Reds and Blues need this unique experience to develop their own passion.
It's not bigotry - it's a passion for our Club, and yes, no matter who owns 'it' it is OUR club!
On a practical level - neither club shares their ground with their own reserve teams at the moment as it's said that pitch won't take too many games. So how can two premiere teams play 36 games plus the addition of potentially long cup runs manage to share the same pitch?
THIS IS ANFIELD lets keep it that way.
Mcdonaldtaf · 796 weeks ago
As I said in my post on the matter "Then there's the heart. The biggest problem for anyone looking to make the ground share reality? The fans' hearts. I don't want to ground share, I don't want to share our football club or its property with anyone. I don't want our great football club to have to share with anyone else. We are one of the top clubs in Europe, indeed the world. Why should we have to share? Again, I get angry at the years of mis-management pre-Purslow and I hope he is the man to move us forward commercially. The only rational business decisions for not having a ground share are in the paragraphs above but if you ask me, I can't give you any facts or figures, I just don't want to share."
It's just an emotive thing mate! If 'business calculating' me doesn't want it then you know it surely can't happen :-), despite all the logical business arguments for it.
NO TO GROUND SHARE
robbohuyton 61p · 796 weeks ago
Spot on though, I'd rather stay as we are or extend Anfield, explore the cheaper options, than share.
Robbie Shields · 796 weeks ago
I agree with some of your sentiment socialknight (Why don't you use your REAL names? Have you all got something to hide because I haven't). In an ideal world we would both have magnificent stadiums and be solely owned by our own supporters, but guess what, the world is not ideal. You have not won the league in 20 or so years! and I'm sorry to say (Not really......) but there is no sign so far that that is going to change in the near future. In fact, if you fail to qualify for the Champions League this years as is VERY likely, then as Souness has stated you could be REALLY in deep crap!
Be very careful what you wish for............
robbohuyton 61p · 796 weeks ago
And again, what has Anfield previously being Everton's ground got to do with anything?
@socialknight · 796 weeks ago
As Rafa said yesterday - fans can judge for themselves the merits of Souness' comments.
Robbie Shields · 796 weeks ago
robbohuyton 61p · 796 weeks ago
Go and spam another site and see if you get anyone to bite there.
paul cooper · 796 weeks ago
In no way, shape or form do I want to share a ground with them tramps from across the park. It doesnt make any sense whatsoever, other than the chance for the blueshite to get a ground built for them for fuck all, which theyve been trying to do for years now.
From what I hear you will get your tesco freebie soon enough anyway, the plans were only knocked back because they were stupidly shit and involved rerouting the river. Once the new ones are submitted which will place you more bang smack in kirkby town centre you will have your shiny new ground.
every little helps.....but you aint getting fuck all help from us.
revo · 796 weeks ago
Kirsty_LFC 39p · 796 weeks ago
"Sharing" a ground and "Moving into one previously left by another club after the ground needed a team, the sole reason Liverpool FC were created" is TWO TOTALLY different things.
It's clear that it is the majority of the blus half of Liverpool that agree with the idea and not the red. Straight after Kirkby fell through?!
Their in crap and they know it, wasn't Moyes saying the other day he feels he's taken them as far as he can. Anything that could give Everton a new lease of life is a good idea to them well i'm sorry it's not to me!
As somebody just said THIS IS ANFIELD, i would rather see our ground crumble and us have to put astroturf on the car-park to play our remaining fixtures than move into a blue and red seated shambles of a football stadium and culture with Everton and people thinking that it actually will happen is nothing short of hilarious.
Ian L · 795 weeks ago
I understand the line that says it's a non-starter, that Anfield is as much as the folklore as Shanks and that Italian teams might want to leave their shared grounds to have their own.
I think we should be pragmatic, see a shared stadium as a means to and end - what if it allowed us to compete with the likes of Man Utd and Chelsea in the transfer market? The Mancs must have something like 100 exec boxes and a capacity of 75,000 with talk that they want to increase this to 90,000 or so.
They have already left us behind and a shared stadium might help us narrow that gap.
Like it or not, football is as much about money as it about all the other things we want it to be.
And if we could get some European Objective 1 money, some NWDA cash and get Liverpool CC to cough up as well, then even better.