Goodison Park, one of the UK’s oldest football stadiums, has been saved from demolition and will become the country’s first major stadium dedicated solely to a women’s team next season, the Guardian can reveal.
Hailed as a gamechanging move for women’s football, Everton Women will kick off their first season at Goodison in September, 133 years after the men’s team started playing at the ground in Walton, Liverpool.
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Goodison, which has hosted more top-flight games than any other stadium in England since it became the home of Everton football club in 1892, was set to be bulldozed when the men’s side move to a new 52,888-seat stadium in Bramley-Moore dock on the banks of the Mersey next season. Sunday’s game against relegated Southampton will mark Goodison’s last Premier League fixture.
But in a shock move that has delighted fans the club’s new American owners have announced that the historic ground will become the new long-term home of the women’s team in a bid to make the ground “one of the most distinctive homes in European women’s football”.
The move would provide “a blueprint for how clubs can build the future of women’s football”, said Nikki Doucet, the CEO of Women’s Super League Football. “Establishing Goodison Park as a purpose-driven home for the women’s team sends a powerful signal – not just about ambition, but about belief,” she said. “Belief in the players, the fans, and in what the women’s game can become when given the stage it deserves.”
Everton Women are currently in eighth position in the WSL, but sources said the move was a “statement of intent” of the new owners’ ambitions for the women’s team. The Friedkin Group, owned by the Texas billionaire Dan Friedkin, bought Everton in December last year, bringing the turbulent era of Farhad Moshiri to an end.
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After the group took over AS Roma in 2020, the women’s team came fifth in the 2020-21 season and took their first major trophy, winning the 2021 Coppa Italia. They won their first Serie A title in 2023, and secured the domestic double in 2024.
“It shows just how committed they are to backing the women’s team and making Everton a force at the very top of the women’s game in this country,” said Julie Makin, secretary of the Everton Women Supporters’ Club.
Everton Women’s tenure at Goodison Park comes 105 years after the ground hosted a landmark women’s match between Dick, Kerr Ladies and St Helens Ladies, which held the attendance record for a women’s game for 103 years. “Evertonians have a saying of ‘If you know your history’, that is why it is deeply meaningful that the very same ground that held the record attendance for a women’s fixture for so many years will now become home to Everton Women,” said Richie Gillham, secretary of the Everton FC Heritage Society.
Sources at the club said Everton Women’s move from Walton Hall Park, which has a capacity of just 2,220, was seen as an financial opportunity for the club to increase attendances at women’s games. The WSL is expected to attract 1 million fans for the first time this season, with attendances doubling in the last two seasons. With more than half of those attending games under 40, the club hopes to build lifelong loyalty at a venue which already has a significant sentimental draw. “This move is a testament to where the women’s game is right now and, more importantly, where it is heading,” said Everton Women’s captain, Megan Finnigan.
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A feasibility study commissioned by The Freidkin Group last month confirmed that the ground would meet standards set by the WSL, but the Archibald Leitch-designed stadium is likely to change dramatically after its new custodians move in.
“We know how treasured Goodison is, not only to every Evertonian, but to the game itself,” said Everton’s recently appointed CEO, Angus Kinnear. “We’re under no illusions – there are obstacles we need to overcome to make this a success, but we’re confident that we will overcome those challenges.”
Everton will drastically reduce its 39,000 capacity – with upper tiers of the ground likely to be taken out of action after season ticket seats are sold off to fans at the end of this season. But there are no immediate plans to change its structure in the short term, according to the club which added that it was “planning targeted investments” to adapt the ground for the women’s game.
It is understood that plans drawn up under the club’s previous owners, to bulldoze Goodison to make way for a community-focused regeneration project with housing, shops, a care home and healthcare facilities, have become less viable since they were first submitted in April 2020. But the club’s charitable arm Everton in the Community, which runs outreach work in the mile radius of Goodison, will be based at the ground, with the charity developing plans to support the development of girls’ and women’s football more widely.
“What we are looking to do with the women and girls strategy at Goodison Park is really exciting,” said Sue Gregory, the CEO of the charity. “But for our communities I think its important that when they come down the County Road they will still see Goodison and feel the presence of the club.”
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