Everton announce Bramley-Moore dock stadium update

Everton had indicated during the Board reshuffle carried out recently that there would be someone appointed soon to take over the management of the new stadium project at the Bramley Moore Dock, and today made the official announcement.

Construction industry stalwart Colin Chong will take over from here as the Stadium Development Director. With over 35 years’ experience in the development sector, Chong has previous history with the Toffees having been the project manager for the refurbishment of the Park Stand at Goodison Park in 1994, along with a number of other major projects in the Northwest.

He was also heavily involved in the stadium redevelopment carried out by Manchester United at Old Trafford and the Manchester Commonwealth Games stadium, and the construction of Wigan Athletic’s current home the DW Stadium. Chong has been with the Blues since 2016 in the capacity of Head of Estates at Goodison Park.

Speaking to EvertonFC.com, he said -

“I feel privileged to have the opportunity to play a key role in the delivery of what will be a great project, not only for Everton Football Club but also for the City of Liverpool.

“The Club has already done a huge amount of work to get us to our current position, spending millions of pounds to make sure that any scheme we develop is right for the Club and our fans, that the design principles are right and, crucially, that it’s affordable.

“This is a long and complex process, but we have put together a well-resourced team of internal staff and consultants to ensure we are able to drive this forward effectively.”

The Club’s Chief Executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale also spoke about the role -

“The appointment of Colin as our Stadium Development Director is an important step for us.

“Whilst we have made progress on our plans for Bramley-Moore Dock - as well legacy plans for the Goodison Park site - there is a lot of detailed and complex work to do to enable our move to happen.

“The fact that he has had some involvement in the project so far – albeit without being wholly dedicated to it – means he can really hit the ground running with an awareness of what needs to be done next.

“Colin has extensive experience in delivering stadiums and other large-scale capital projects and, together with our strengthened internal team and a best-in-class team of external advisers, we now have all the resource and expertise we need in place as we move towards the crucial planning phases.

“A key part of Colin’s remit will be to ensure that we consult fully with all groups on both schemes - including finalising designs and capacity and developing the best possible legacy for Goodison Park - and we are entirely committed to doing this.

“I’d like to thank all fans for their support and patience to date and hope that they see this appointment as a positive sign of our ambition to move to Bramley-Moore Dock as soon as we possibly can.”

Early last week Everton announced that the Club would undertake an ambitious initiative to build ‘The People’s Place’, a mental health-focused facility for community outreach, right next to Goodison Park. The Blues have made it clear that they will not be abandoning Goodison after the club switches home grounds, and this is part of that campaign to utilize the area well.

Regarding the stadium itself, there have been no updates on the designs since architect Dan Meis completed the series of fan interactions for input in early April.