Blues sign Tesco deal
EVERTON Football Club have signed an exclusive deal towards the building of a new stadium in Kirkby.
TheBlues have agreed that the move four miles from Goodison is now their preferred option, and have reached formal agreement with Knowsley council and Tesco to start the project.
The news of the deal will be formally announced to shareholders tonight at the club's AGM at Goodison Park, the Blues home for 114 years.
If the scheme goes ahead it would not only provide Everton with a world-class venue but would also mean a multi-million pound regeneration of Kirkby.
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It is hoped the three-way partnership with Tesco and Knowsley will keep costs of building the venue to an absolute minimum.
However, the club, which has made no comment on today's agreement, will tonight emphasis the fact that no final decision on moving has been taken.
Above all, the Blues will stress their supporters will be fully involved during negotiation and discussion, and well before any final decision to quit Goodison.
Although the project is only in its infancy, if it was to be adopted and completed, the centrepiece would be a state-of-the-art stadium for the Blues, a world-class venue which would hold at least 50,000 people.
Though they would ideally have preferred to have remained within the Liverpool city boundary, it is believed the as-yet undisclosed potential stadium site stands less than four miles from Goodison as the crow flies.
Despite recent talk of a move to Kirkby, Everton have always maintained there were three options open - a new, stand-alone stadium, a shared stadium with Liverpool FC, or the rebuilding of Goodison.
With Liverpool now close to concluding a huge investment deal with Dubai and the cost of regenerating Goodison believed to be prohibitively high, Blues chairman Bill Kenwright and his fellow directors are thought to have opted for a move away from the club's much-loved home.
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