By James Dacey
A Tesco-financed project to relocate Everton Football club to the suburbs of Liverpool will damage the fan experience by removing the club from its historic city centre heartland. This was the case presented by Glasgow University sociologist and Everton fan Dr Peter Kennedy at the BA Festival of Science on Wednesday.
In January, Everton and Tesco put in a planning application for a £400 million scheme that will see a new stadium with a linked retail development in Kirkby, six miles north east of Liverpool.
Given the scale of this proposal and its potential impact on environment and local business, the planning permission must be granted from Knowsley Borough Council and the government.
'Keep Everton In Our City' (KEIOC) formed in 2007 to "be the voice of Evertonians" who oppose the move. To investigate fan responses to the proposal, Kennedy analysed messages posted on the KEIOC web forum.
According to Kennedy, the rapid commercialisation of football is changing the way fans talk about their club and conceptualise their club loyalty.
"Football has become a battleground of value struggles. Fans are talking about their support of a club through business discourses and this is changing the 'package' of football," he said.
One of Kennedy's main objections is the fusing of football with shopping which has no historic link with the game. The effect, combined with the severing of its industrial past will, he said, lead to a reduced football experience.
Although football is increasingly viewed as a business, Kennedy sees this as problematic because of the passion aroused by the game.
"Football is not easily 'produced' or 'packaged' and sold to 'consumer-fans' for monetary gain," he said.
Liverpool-based architect and Everton fan Trevor Skempton, who is involved with KEIOC, also opposes the move.
"There are more than 30 derelict sites in Liverpool. To pretend these sites are inferior to Skempton based on geographical reasons is simply a lie," he said.
The debate rages on and a planning decision is likely to be reached in 2009.