Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, has said that he hopes Liverpool City Council and Everton Football Club will be able to make an announcement on a new stadium for the club within the next few months.
Speaking to our Everton Podcast, lifelong Evertonian Anderson said that the club and the council had been working hard together in order to develop a scheme that would suit both council and club.
“We’re looking at a number of offers from the club, and we’ve made offers to them as to how we can help progress things,” said Mayor Anderson.
“There are a number of sites that we’ve been considering and we’re doing all we can.
“I’m sure that reasonably shortly there’ll be a discussion and a debate taking place between ourselves and people of the city about something that we’ve been working on.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to put forward a suitable solution within the next couple of months.
“The council will work with the club to look at how we can support them, not necessarily in a financial investment in the club, but perhaps in the same way that we’ve done with Liverpool.
“We’ve invested quite a substantial amount of money around the area [of Anfield] and I’m sure Liverpool Football Club would be the first to admit that.
“We’re working with Everton and I’m confident that we’ll be able to put a proposal forward shortly.”
No Groundshare
When asked about the potential for a ground share with Liverpool Football Club, Anderson was determined that both clubs have their own proposals that are so far advanced that the idea of a share is now dead in the water.
Adding that he would have been behind such a scheme, he said, “I think it could have worked, it’s not going to work, but the thing that I want is for both clubs to be successful and have money coming out of their ears and buy the top players without worrying about a groundshare or whatever.
“But if it saves you tens of millions of pounds a year and you can work together then I would have been supportive of it.
“But it’s not going to happen. The proposals from both clubs are so far advanced now that it’s academic, so let’s move on from that.”
