(Credit - Imago)

Dan Plumley

Thu 27 February 2025 19:10, UK

Everton and Liverpool City Council are threatened with having to stump up more money after a new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium issue.

With only five more games left to play at Goodison Park, it is only a matter of time before the Toffees begin a new era at their stadium on Bramley-Moore Dock.

Everton conducted the first test event at the brand-new structure on 17 February as 10,000 fans witnessed the Under-18s suffer a 2-1 defeat against Wigan Athletic.

Bramley-Moore Dock problem emerges after test event

While a second test event is planned towards the end of March or early April, Everton need to fix the issues with transport links and parking that cropped up after the game earlier this month.

Reflecting on the scenes after the match on 17 February, Dan Plumley admitted his disappointment at those problems not being anticipated and solved beforehand.

The football finance expert admitted that Everton and Liverpool City Council may need to spend millions if transfer connectivity from Bramley-Moore Dock needs improvements.

“I think this is one of the things where a part of it is these test events are there to look at that bigger picture”, Plumley exclusively told Goodison News.

“But if the problems were as bad as people were suggesting, and that’s the one test event, albeit on a midweek, but still there’s going to be some fixtures there on a midweek and other events that take place, I just wonder why people don’t look at these things and play it through.

“Maybe they did, and maybe this is a one-off, but it’s just one of those things that you look at and go, ‘Okay, well that could have been looked at way before’.

It’s not safe!
A shocking decision to have trains running every 30 minutes and only a four carriage too!!!
That was with 10k today so god knows how they’ll cope with 50k plus!
Awful @MetroMayorSteve pic.twitter.com/Ln36AKyW7W

— Tony Scott (@Tony_Scott11) February 17, 2025

Everton plan more tests

“The council are going to have to be involved as well. If there’s any work to be done on that, it’s going to cost, likely it’ll be in the millions for sure.

“And yes, hopefully, these test events are used to weed some of that out and get it sorted because you are up against it as well in the run-in to the new season for major significant work.

“I guess that is the one kind of down point certainly that I saw from the event this week, so it’s one that’s going to need some addressing for sure because you don’t want that every week, week in, week out, with a crowd that’s probably five times bigger than it was on the test event.”

The second test event will have 25,000 in attendance, while a final one will take place before the end of the season with the number expected to be closer to the total capacity of 52,888.

It is imperative that the Premier League club solve the existing issues before those two events.

One positive for now, is that Premier League football looks guaranteed ahead of the stadium move, with early relegation fears smashed out of the park.