New stadium - Football / Athletics
A lot has been said about Everton's new stadium containing an athletics track to enable a Commonwealth games bid, particularly by the Mayor of Liverpool. In April he made the following comments to Paul Joyce of the Times.
“At the end of the day Everton’s desire to have intimacy with the fans is something that I want, too, as a supporter, but that doesn’t mean to say that they have to be at odds with each other.
“It might cost extra but we are happy to talk to Everton about those costs and who meets those costs. As part of our partnership they have to pay us a rental and we might take a window where they don’t do that.
“There are all kinds of possibilities. I am not getting worried about that. Everton are in partnership with us and I am confident, without revealing too much.
“They are fully aware of my position and they have told me their design team are looking at that. It is not conditional, but I would be disappointed if we couldn’t work together to find an outcome.
The potential cost savings for both parties (rather than the City of Liverpool funding a bespoke stadium for the games) are obvious. For Everton- the opportunity to save a few hundred million is bound to turn some heads, though the club themselves have kept schtum.
There are a couple of external variables here that are potentially critical to whether any of these solutions are possible-
1. Whether Liverpool wins the bid for the games
2. Which Commonwealth games they win- 2022 or 2026.
Here are a few thoughts and potential solutions.
The last one is a concept as it hasn't been done yet with a football stadium but involves a project Dan Meis (principle designer of the new Everton stadium) has worked on.
The Seitama Super Arena in Japan is a multi use indoor arena with a maximum capacity of 30,000. To put it simply, depending on the event and size of the arena needed the seating moves, maintaining an intimate seating arrangement close to the action. It is expensive to build and hasn't been done for an outdoor football stadium before but Everton have led the world in the past in many things so it shouldn`t be dismissed out of hand.
Conclusion
Collaborating with Liverpool City Council for a commonwealth games bid is possible and could give rise to significant public funds being available to contribute to the stadium. As you will have read above there are always issues when you try and combine athletics and football in the same stadium.
There hasn't been any appetite on Everton's side for the adoption of athletics facilities in the stadium, and thankfully we are working on getting all the funding ourselves rather than looking to dip into the public funds and making trade offs in stadium design. What the above does demonstrate though is that world class stadiums can be built to accomodate athletics without it looking like West Ham's. As our stadium designer put it on twitter in December-
Anything but the London Stadium please Farhad, and ideally a football only intimate stadium, like Juventus's but with a bit more character.
“At the end of the day Everton’s desire to have intimacy with the fans is something that I want, too, as a supporter, but that doesn’t mean to say that they have to be at odds with each other.
“It might cost extra but we are happy to talk to Everton about those costs and who meets those costs. As part of our partnership they have to pay us a rental and we might take a window where they don’t do that.
“There are all kinds of possibilities. I am not getting worried about that. Everton are in partnership with us and I am confident, without revealing too much.
“They are fully aware of my position and they have told me their design team are looking at that. It is not conditional, but I would be disappointed if we couldn’t work together to find an outcome.
The potential cost savings for both parties (rather than the City of Liverpool funding a bespoke stadium for the games) are obvious. For Everton- the opportunity to save a few hundred million is bound to turn some heads, though the club themselves have kept schtum.
There are a couple of external variables here that are potentially critical to whether any of these solutions are possible-
1. Whether Liverpool wins the bid for the games
2. Which Commonwealth games they win- 2022 or 2026.
Here are a few thoughts and potential solutions.
Build an athletics stadium then convert it
City of Manchester Stadium/Etihad
Manchester City's stadium, now called the Etihad was originally constructed on some brownfield land on the East side of Manchester city centre. It hosted the 2002 Commonwealth games and cost just over 100m to build, entirely public funding.
Once the games were finished, it was converted into a football stadium. The ground level where the athletics track was situated was lowered with an additional tier of seating.
The three temporary stands were dismantled and later replaced. Later development of the stadium has increased it from 41,000 for the Commonwealth games to 55,000 now, City have plans to expand it further.
A negative from a venue perspective is that it is now a football only stadium, and access to public funds for future similar stadium projects may be limited by the limited legacy the stadium can provide. There are no possibilities to hold athletics in the stadium now.
This is however much better from a fans perspective (see West Ham), though some features such as the shallow banking on some of the stands still stand out.
Dual use stadium- West Ham
West Ham have just completed their first season in the Olympic Stadium (London Stadium) and the response has been largely negative. Apart from their fans knocking seven shades of shit out of each other/anyone close to them the actual stadium itself has been plagued by issues. It is actually a superb athletics stadium.
The stadium was build for athletics and has undergone an absurdly expensive renovation to allow dual use athletics and football. It is a huge superstructure and the pitch is a long way away from the fans. The main problem is fitting the athletics track and a buffer area in. Instead if digging down for the football and elevating for the athletics (see the Wanda) they have placed removable stands above the lower tier.
It is far from intimidating. Espanyol played for a number of years up on Montjuic in the Olympic Stadium before building an out of town purpose built stadium in Cornella, which is miles better, but still nowhere near the atmosphere of their old Estadi de Sarria (see below), in the middle of a working class neighbourhood. Can see West Ham following them and moving again in a decade or so.
I think we can count out this course of action out for Everton now though. Apart from their being no demand for a permanent athletics track holding tens of thousands of seats in the North of England, the fans would revolt and support for the project would just fall away. The Man City option seems much more plausible.
Dual use stadium- Atletico de Madrid
Atleti are moving out of the Calderon and moving into the Wanda Metropolitano (Chinese money is running through the club and one of the sponsors/owners are Dalian Wanda group.. hence the name).
There are lots of shady goings on at the club at the moment, see this great bit of investigative work by Dermot Corrigan for more... http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/political-in-fighting-could-force-atletico-madrid-to-sell-stars-like-antoine-griezmann-in-pursuit-of-a7533251.html ... but essentially after next week the Calderon will be knocked down and Atletico will move to a new stadium at the edge of Madrid.
The stadium itself was the centre of the failed bid for the Olympics by Madrid, however the project itself has gone ahead and should be ready reasonably soon (nb. rumours are that there are severe delays and it will be closer to the end of the year before they move in. No idea what this means for the Calderon).
What existed before was a single stand athletics stadium.. as below. The new design has incorporated the previous stand, and maintains the potential for having athletics at the stadium.
What is different however is that instead of bringing the lower tier inwards towards the pitch, leaving the top tier massively isolated, they have the facility to have the athletics track above the bottom tier. This is a huge improvement on West Ham, and the stadium itself is stunning. The video below takes you through step by step how they will construct it.
However, it isn't without it's faults and there are gaps between the bottom and top tiers behind the goal. Saying this, it is on a different planet to the London Stadium.
Hybrid- Seitama Super Arena
Once the games were finished, it was converted into a football stadium. The ground level where the athletics track was situated was lowered with an additional tier of seating.
The three temporary stands were dismantled and later replaced. Later development of the stadium has increased it from 41,000 for the Commonwealth games to 55,000 now, City have plans to expand it further.
A negative from a venue perspective is that it is now a football only stadium, and access to public funds for future similar stadium projects may be limited by the limited legacy the stadium can provide. There are no possibilities to hold athletics in the stadium now.
This is however much better from a fans perspective (see West Ham), though some features such as the shallow banking on some of the stands still stand out.
Dual use stadium- West Ham
West Ham have just completed their first season in the Olympic Stadium (London Stadium) and the response has been largely negative. Apart from their fans knocking seven shades of shit out of each other/anyone close to them the actual stadium itself has been plagued by issues. It is actually a superb athletics stadium.
The stadium was build for athletics and has undergone an absurdly expensive renovation to allow dual use athletics and football. It is a huge superstructure and the pitch is a long way away from the fans. The main problem is fitting the athletics track and a buffer area in. Instead if digging down for the football and elevating for the athletics (see the Wanda) they have placed removable stands above the lower tier.
It is far from intimidating. Espanyol played for a number of years up on Montjuic in the Olympic Stadium before building an out of town purpose built stadium in Cornella, which is miles better, but still nowhere near the atmosphere of their old Estadi de Sarria (see below), in the middle of a working class neighbourhood. Can see West Ham following them and moving again in a decade or so.
I think we can count out this course of action out for Everton now though. Apart from their being no demand for a permanent athletics track holding tens of thousands of seats in the North of England, the fans would revolt and support for the project would just fall away. The Man City option seems much more plausible.
Dual use stadium- Atletico de Madrid
Atleti are moving out of the Calderon and moving into the Wanda Metropolitano (Chinese money is running through the club and one of the sponsors/owners are Dalian Wanda group.. hence the name).
There are lots of shady goings on at the club at the moment, see this great bit of investigative work by Dermot Corrigan for more... http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/political-in-fighting-could-force-atletico-madrid-to-sell-stars-like-antoine-griezmann-in-pursuit-of-a7533251.html ... but essentially after next week the Calderon will be knocked down and Atletico will move to a new stadium at the edge of Madrid.
The stadium itself was the centre of the failed bid for the Olympics by Madrid, however the project itself has gone ahead and should be ready reasonably soon (nb. rumours are that there are severe delays and it will be closer to the end of the year before they move in. No idea what this means for the Calderon).
What existed before was a single stand athletics stadium.. as below. The new design has incorporated the previous stand, and maintains the potential for having athletics at the stadium.
What is different however is that instead of bringing the lower tier inwards towards the pitch, leaving the top tier massively isolated, they have the facility to have the athletics track above the bottom tier. This is a huge improvement on West Ham, and the stadium itself is stunning. The video below takes you through step by step how they will construct it.
However, it isn't without it's faults and there are gaps between the bottom and top tiers behind the goal. Saying this, it is on a different planet to the London Stadium.
Hybrid- Seitama Super Arena
The last one is a concept as it hasn't been done yet with a football stadium but involves a project Dan Meis (principle designer of the new Everton stadium) has worked on.
The Seitama Super Arena in Japan is a multi use indoor arena with a maximum capacity of 30,000. To put it simply, depending on the event and size of the arena needed the seating moves, maintaining an intimate seating arrangement close to the action. It is expensive to build and hasn't been done for an outdoor football stadium before but Everton have led the world in the past in many things so it shouldn`t be dismissed out of hand.
Conclusion
Collaborating with Liverpool City Council for a commonwealth games bid is possible and could give rise to significant public funds being available to contribute to the stadium. As you will have read above there are always issues when you try and combine athletics and football in the same stadium.
There hasn't been any appetite on Everton's side for the adoption of athletics facilities in the stadium, and thankfully we are working on getting all the funding ourselves rather than looking to dip into the public funds and making trade offs in stadium design. What the above does demonstrate though is that world class stadiums can be built to accomodate athletics without it looking like West Ham's. As our stadium designer put it on twitter in December-
Anything but the London Stadium please Farhad, and ideally a football only intimate stadium, like Juventus's but with a bit more character.
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