Kings Dock plans at the Mega Store

The Kings Dock "Everton" presentation opens at the Mega Store next to Goodison Park for one week only.

On Saturday, 17th February, it will be there from 9.00am to 5.00pm,
on Sunday 18th from 10.00am to 4.00pm
Monday to Friday, 19th-23rd from 9.00am to 8.00pm.
Open Thursday-Sunday 10am - 8pm.

Call Y'self an Evertonian? Get your Arses down there!!!

Everton unveil Kings Dock plans to the public

Under the banner of "Houston Securities," Everton let the Merseyside public get their first glimpse of detailed plans for the new stadium. I spent a couple of hours today viewing the 5 schemes, trying to be objective.
The 5 developers left in the race where given the same amount of space to show off their schemes. Even on presentation alone, Everton won hands down. All the schemes had their plans on display boards. Only 4 had models, Everton being one of them. One of the opposition's model looked like it had just come from Blue Peter. It was naff. Everton and 2 others had videos. Everton's included clips of various sports, which would be housed in the Arena. It included clips of the Everton players celebrating scoring. This was interlaced with computer images of how various parts of the stadium would look like. All 5 bids gave out glossy leaflets. Everton went one better and gave out their info in CD form. To say the presentation was impressive was an understatement.
The only black mark against was that they ran out of the CD's shortly after 12.00 noon. Considering the amount of Evertonians who would be visiting the Merseyside Maritime Museum, this was a big oversight. Apparently, there will be more copies sent ready for tomorrow.

Now for the stadium itself. The capacity will be 55,000. The lower tier will seat 28,000, and the upper tier 26,000, with 1000 being housed in 100 suites in between. This is what the bumf says: "The stadium is 'wrapped' east and west by sweeping 'exoskeleton' diagonal walls, which help to enclose and unify the structure and forms a protective shield cradling the spectators within." Impressive or what?
The stadium is to be built on 5 levels.

Level 0. includes parking facilities and entrance turnstiles. It also houses the players changing rooms and warm up areas.

Level 1. houses the bulk of the kiosks/ bars/ merchandising. It has 2 main food courts, plus customer care, parenting rooms, gaming rooms, ATM's, telephones, and toilets.

Level 2. has the 100 suites, and 2 banqueting rooms, one overlooking the River Mersey. The other overlooking the city. A sports bar, which will be open 7 days a week will be on this level, together with a hotel.

Level 3. Bars, catering kiosks, and a high quality restaurant. There will be 'smart seats' (Start saving now). These will have built in monitors with facilities for action replays, betting, and ordering food & drink.

Level 4. This will be for general admissions etc..

One of the main features is the sliding roof, which will be closed for indoor sporting events, and allowevents to be staged in all weather at any time of the year.
The pitch itself will also be moveable, and it will take 3 to 4 hours to do so. The advantage of this would be you could have U2 playing on Friday night, and the Blues playing on Saturday afternoon. Also it allows the pitch to grow in perfect conditions.

There were allsorts of figures given. Too many to put here, but one thing that stood out is that the Everton development would create 8,000 jobs. The other schemes only between 2,000 & 5,000. This to the people of Merseyside is a significant point.

The exhibition is at The Merseyside Maritime Museum, Albert Dock. It is on 22-27 Jan. and is open 10.00am. - 5.00pm. It is well worth going to see.
This is a golden opportunity for us all to make comments on the official
'Kings Waterfront' comment sheets. This is the only official way for us, the fans, to have a say. So get down to the Albert Dock this week. (22/01/01)

Everton, today formerly lodged their phase two submissions for the vacant City Centre site - Kings Dock. English partnerships in consultation with redshite Vision, redshite City Council and the North West Development agency will in the next week begin to look at all 5 proposals ( 2 have chickened out). which will coincide with a public viewing of each submission.

Bill Kenwright said today: "We have despatched our Phase Two plans. What we have done is given it a bit of growth. The first etchings have now progressed and the results are phenomenal. Our blueprint is for a fantastic complex and it will provide a big plus for the dockside skyline. We can only assure Evertonians and the people of Liverpool that they will find our whole vision for the site sensational."

"We are not just talking about another football stadium, but one of the finest soccer venues in the world, alongside a world class arena and entertainment complex. This is a once in a lifetime's opportunity for everyone involved, for the city and the North West."

"If we were to be successful, this would provide yet another magnificent landmark for Liverpool's famous riverside. Our scheme's developments over the past few months to what will be presented on Monday has been little short of phenomenal. I can't speak too highly of what our international team has achieved thus far. They have worked night and day and have done a fantastic job for us."(18/01/01)

As predicted, the fans have voted overwhelmingly in favour to move the club to Kings Dock. Now the fun starts.

FULL RESULT OF VOTING

Number of ballot papers returned.............................17,410
Number found to be blank/spoiled............................12
Thus number of valid votes to be counted..................17,398
Number voting YES..............15,049 (86.5 per cent of valid vote)
Number voting NO................2,349 (13.5 per cent of valid vote) TOTAL................................17,398 (100 per cent of valid vote)

Michael Dunford said: "We don't want anybody thinking that the bulldozers are moving in at either the Kings Dock or at Goodison in the immediate future. There is an awful lot of work to be done before there can be any talk of Everton moving to the Kings Dock site."Everton are up against six other bids.Talks will start in early 2001.

Dunford added: "Most of the other bids emanate from outside of Merseyside so I think it would be particularly nice if a local interested group were involved in the final round of negotiations. It now starts to get very complicated. We can take nothing for granted but we are very pleased indeed that over 15,000 of our supporters have shared our vision."(27/11/00)