Groundshare set for final rejection - Echo

Liverpool Echo, 24 Dec 2004
Groundshare set for final rejection
By Scott McLeod, Liverpool Echo

EVERTON and Liverpool met once again to discuss the Stanley Park
ground-share issue last night.

It is believed to have been a final gathering before providing a
definitive answer next week.

The clubs are expected to announce the ground-share is off the agenda
once and for all.

Goodison chief executive Keith Wyness, his Liverpool opposite number
Rick Parry and representatives from the North West Development Agency
are believed to have attended last night's meeting.

It followed last month's summit with Sports Minister Richard Caborn in
London.

The NWDA are keen to invest money in a ground development if it will be
home to both clubs.

But that now looks doomed because Liverpool's Stanley Park plans are so
far advanced and Everton are unwilling to contemplate anything less than
a clear 50/50 split on ownership of the ground.

If there is no further government intervention there will be no further
meetings.

That will allow Liverpool to press ahead with their plans for the £120m
Stanley Park development and leave Everton free to explore the
possibility of re-developing Goodison or finding a new home elsewhere.

Wyness has confirmed there are no suitable sites for a new home
currently available.

But the club is working with city council over the Goodison site, with
talks taking place over the possibility of the club acquiring more land
around the ground in order to extend to a potential 50,000 capacity.

Wyness revealed: "I think that without doubt the footprint would have to
be expanded for us to do a sensible redevelopment, if we were to stay in
this area.

"It is something I am giving a lot of attention to in terms of
feasibility and looking at what can be done.

"There are a lot of things beginning to coincide which lead us to the
conclusion that something will have to be done, either here or on a new
site. It is inescapable for everybody.

"It has been coming for a long time. It is a question of whether it will
be done here or elsewhere."