Exclusive: Everton’s Goodison Park move part of plan for major sale

Everton will move into the Hill Dickinson Stadium this coming season, leaving behind Goodison Park, which has been the club’s home since 1892.

But rather than demolish the old ground, the club have instead moved their women’s team to the stadium.

The Women’s Super League is skyrocketing in terms of value, with Deloitte‘s latest report on the women’s game in England revealing the league’s aggregate revenue for clubs has risen by 34%.

Everton eye women’s team sale

In May of this year, EFCW Holdings [Companies House] was created, something that could have been done in preparation for a sale of Everton’s women’s team, finance expert Plumley told Football Insider.

This coincides with a report from Bloomberg, who report the club’s owners, the Friedkin Group (TFG), have held talks with investors about the sale of a minority stake in the team.

This sale would mirror similar moves that took place before the sale of both Chelsea and Aston Villa’s women’s teams. Alexis Ohanian invested £20million [BBC Sport] into the Blues’ team, allowing the West London club to sell to their parent company, BlueCo, for a valuation of £198.7m [BBC Sport].

Whilst Everton have found themselves in a much stronger financial position than in recent history, the sale of the women’s team may not need to be reactive as a get out of danger move, but instead be used to strengthen the club’s financial position long-term.

And the move to put the women’s team in Goodison Park may have been done so with that in mind Plumley thinks, but interestingly, the senior lecturer from Sheffield Hallam University believes the club could also consider selling to an external investor, breaking the mould from Villa and Chelsea’s deals which have seen the women’s teams sold to the parent companies of club owners Nassef Sawiris and Todd Boehly.

He said: “That always seemed to me to be part of that strategy for, as you say, putting the women’s team in Goodson Park.

“From a value point of view, you’ve still got the challenge of getting good crowds in there consistently and growing, which would be a challenge for them at the moment.

“But it’s certainly a statement of intent and then, as you say, with the holding company and the way it’s been set up, we won’t fully know what’s happening until it gets confirmed, but it does kind of logically look like it might be a play to go down the route of Chelsea and Aston Villa and potentially do that if they need to.

“Separating and it out as well, and as you say, growing it in its own right is certainly something that you could look to a longer-term valuation strategy of increasing that valuation and success on the pitch has got to come into that equation.

“But it looks like a strategy to try and do that, and then that’s when you’re pushing the value up and then of course, if you do want to sell it, you might not have to sell it to yourselves.

“It could be something a little bit different, or it could be connected into the wider strategy of the group, which I would suggest is probably going to be that. 

“I think if you look at the way they’re heading under those new owners, the moves that they’re making would appear to suggest that they’re trying to increase the value of the women’s team further down the line.”

Everton working on limited budget

Whilst there is no danger of the club failing any financial tests in the immediate term, Plumley told Football Insider that Everton are still working on a limited budget this summer.

The club have teetered on the verge of breaking the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules in previous years, but are in a stronger position following TFG’s takeover.

But after several years of austerity, Everton have signed Thierno Barry and Carlos Alcaraz and are looking to make a number of other moves.

However, the Toffees may need to sell before they buy, as Plumley does not expect their spending to exceed £100m without a big cash boost.

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