Everton have officially announced their financial results for the year ending May 31st 2009, figures which were first revealed in the Financial Times last week. Once again these results demonstrate how Everton continue to slip behind in the ‘financial’ league tables, and how the stadium issue needs resolving quickly. Total revenues, boosted by two Wembley appearances and a new marketing deal with online retailer Kitbag, increased by just 5.3% or £4 mln. to £79.7 mln. Revenue generated from the sale of match tickets and hospitality rose to £21.9 mln., while TV rights generated £48.6 mln., an increase of £2 mln., as a record 17 live league games were broadcast. However the inevitable upward pressure on player pay was demonstrated with an increase in the total wage bill to £49.1 mln. (only about a quarter of Chelsea’s); a rise to 62% from 59% as a proportion of total revenues. Excluding player trading operating profit was £6.3 mln., but after including £13 mln for the amortisation of players’ registrations, the club reported an overall operating loss of £6.7 mln.
To put these figures in perspective it is worth noting that Arsenal’s annual revenues exceed £200 mln. Every home game at the Emirates generates £3.3 mln while a typical match-day take at Goodison is just £800,000.
Chairman Bill Kenwright said in his statement to shareholders that David Moyes “remains the single, most important figure at the club and we all strive – on a daily basis – to provide him with the tools….to evolve and develop into a genuine, meaningful force within both English and European football.”

This post was originally written for the Times Fanzine Fanzone Blog.

Moving home was always going to be an extremely testy subject. The very idea of it swills around our mouths until we spit it out like particularly disgusted wine-tasters.

It looks like we have three options with regards to our footballing home. First option, which should Kirkby go belly up will become even more viable, is to stay at Goodison, attempting to remodel our beautiful and historic stadium. For those who hate change (and as an Evertonian, force-fed past glory but starved of modern day success, how can we be anything BUT traditionalists) this looks like the least painful option. We stay in our beloved home and try and redevelop not a seismic shift, but a comfortable makeover for the Old Lady.

The second option is to move to Kirkby and “leave” the city of Liverpool. I am undecided about this one, only a heartless and brainwashed Orwellian Premier League Party Member would wave goodbye to such a beautiful old stadium and with it a mountain of memories, careworn laughter lines and crows feet. However, we have to move a few painful thorns from this argument.

First of all, we are only “moving out of the city” on a very dubious technicality. Try telling Terry McDermott or Alan Stubbs that Kirkby isn’t in Liverpool. As much as the red side of town wants to believe that Everton are moving to a desolate atoll, we will in reality only be a handful of miles from Goodison. The other thing we have to realise is that we voted for this – this isn’t a decision being forced on us by a distant and vengeful oil-igarch – but actually the result of a pretty fair plebiscite vote. Lastly, we have to at least take this option seriously, and give it time to breathe without the “Tesco Kirbydome” tag being foisted on it at the first chance. A new, bigger stadium will ultimately bring in more money, and we are a million miles and four decades distant from our Merseyside Millionaires moniker.

If leaving Goodison for Kirkby is tough, then how about the third option? A ground share with Liverpool. The knee jerk reaction is “not on your life, not in a month of Super Sundays”…But take a step back, take a deep breath. This could make sense.

By sharing we can get a bigger and better stadium than Kirkby, that much is obvious. One end, presumably, will be Blue, and the other red. Warren Bradley and his acolytes may feel that this is the only option if Merseyside wants to be involved in England’s bid to host the World Cup – as neither Anfield nor Goodison compare to the two vast and modern stadia across the M62 in Manchester. To be honest, the idea of the city of Liverpool hosting a World Cup barely registers on my footballing radar – after losing one of our greatest young talents to Manchester, do we really care about a Mancunian stadium playing host to a World Cup game?

Of course, for many – including me – this isn’t about sensibly stated facts, its about deep-rooted emotions. No Evertonian wants to say goodbye to Goodison because we worry that we would be saying goodbye to all the legends and memories. Dixie Dean, the gluttonous striker who told a different story with each of his goals, even though every tale ended the same; with the meeting of ball with net. Or Alex Young, fine bone china skillfully sliding through a bull market. As these tales, and countless more, are passed on we still have Goodison to frame them. But what if we leave the Old Lady? The very real fear of many is if we turn our back on Goodison we turn away everything that has made us great.

There is a strange symmetry to a ground share with the reds. One club split into two early in our common history, and now we could be grafted together like conjoined twins, long since split but now reunited again; still with our own identities but sharing living space. Is it possible to share with the enemy?

Even at its very worst, the relationship between Blue and red on Merseyside isn’t even close to Barca- Real or Rangers-Celtic, teams pressganged by history into mutual enmity. There was a time when we sat together, sang together and dominated the league together. The answer to why this has changed lies at the bottom of Morrisseys melancholy caterwauling We hate it when our friends become successful. We are jealous because they didn’t miss the boat for the top four like we did. We now get under their skin because we are starting to catch up after years spent beached at the wrong half of the table, they can no longer put their feet up and relax.

We need to realise that we are two sides of the same coin, Beardsley, Balmer, Morrissey, and Abblett and yes, even Abel Xavier. We are Blues dressed as reds Jamie Carragher and reds dressed as Blues Leon Osman. In the blue corner we have the punch drunk Rocky Balboa and in the red corner they have Joe Louis piston fists

Was I really the only one who wanted us to win the FA Cup and them to win the Premier League with the sound of Merseyside, Merseyside bobbing and weaving through the crowd in a Wembley season opener? This is neither Spanish morbo nor religious sectarianism or Italian vendetta. This is sibling rivalry.

Some will shake their heads until this idea is shot down. Some reds will scream until their faces turn blue, and some Blues will shout until their cheeks turn red. But to retain our history, a communal stadium with Liverpool, is the best idea for the Peoples Club: fact.

How can we guarantee that we dont see our hard fought history flutter away? By combining with our historic rivals, literally meeting halfway in Stanley Park. By swallowing our pride, sharing with the enemy in a halfway house of Blue and red. A stadium that befits, pound for pound, the most successful footballing citadel in the country.

Latest news fresh from the Official Everton site is that Kirkby has been called in. Quite what this means for our transfer fund, which EFC have claimed – until they are blue in the face – won’t be affected one jot by any failed stadium remains to be seen.
The club said:

We are disappointed by the decision. Having spent more than two years working diligently on a project which would not only provide Everton Football Club with a new home but also regenerate Kirkby, we had hoped to avoid a Government call-in.

It never rains but it pours…