Liverpool should embrace Everton stadium move as benefits clear ahead of final ‘crossing the park’
As Everton prepare to ‘cross the park’ for the last time, Chris Beesley believes their move to a new stadium can be good for both the city’s clubs
“Across the park/crossing the park” – everyone in Merseyside football understands what that means.
Everton will “cross the park” for the final time on Wednesday when they make the short journey from Goodison to Anfield, the two grounds that for 133 years have stood either side of Stanley Park. At their closest point, these two sporting cathedrals are a mere 800 yards apart but in terms of what they’ve come to represent, they’re now worlds away from each other.
Although they’ve curiously never actually played in Everton itself, where the tower emblazoned on their club crest is situated, the Blues are steeped in the history of this part of the city. Everton originally played on an open pitch on Stanley Park itself before a brief spell being based at Priory Road.
They’d been at Anfield for four years when they got the nod over their original local rivals Bootle to become founder members of the Football League in 1888. This was mainly due to their pulling power at the turnstiles over on-the-field record at the time – Everton can claim to be football’s first major fanbase having enjoyed the highest average gates for the inaugural decade of the Football League – and they were still based at Liverpool’s current home in 1891 when they became the first club to lift the League Championship trophy (Preston North End had to make do with a flag in 1889 and 1890).
The following year of course saw Everton ‘cross the park’ for the first time as they fell out with landlord John Houlding over the terms of their rent and decamped to a site called Mere Green field, where they built Goodison Park. Fans of both clubs should therefore acknowledge that if it wasn’t for Everton FC then there would have been no Liverpool FC, and if it wasn’t for Liverpool FC, then there would be no Goodison Park.
Having been in Walton since 1892, the Blues, who have already built several community facilities in the shadow of their ground, are understandably eager to retain a presence in the area through the Goodison Park Legacy Project but while the good folk of L4 won’t be forgotten when the team makes the two-mile journey to Vauxhall on the Mersey waterfront this summer, Everton will change. It won’t just be derby days that are different though.
Merseyside Derbies have been taking place at Goodison Park and Anfield since 1894. Consider this… it was the year that Liverpool-born William Gladstone stepped down from his fourth and final stint as Prime Minister aged 84.
