Goodison Park
Goodison Park is a football stadium in Walton, Liverpool, England. It is the home of Women's Super League club Everton, who moved into the ground in 2025. The stadium opened in 1892, and was built to serve the home ground for the club's men's team who relocated to the Hill Dickinson Stadium in 2025.
Outside of a home ground for Everton, Goodison Park has also been the venue for the 1966 World Cup, in addition to numerous other international fixtures. It has also hosted the 1910 FA Cup Final and has hosted more top-flight games than any other stadium in England.
The stadium is 2 miles north of the city centre, and has an all-seated capacity of 39,414.
History
Before Goodison Park
Everton originally played on an open pitch in the south-east corner of the newly laid out Stanley Park. The first official match following the renaming of the club from St. Domingo's to Everton was at Stanley Park, staged on 20 December 1879; St. Peter's was the opposition, and admission was free. In 1882, a man named J. Cruit donated land at Priory Road with the necessary facilities required for professional clubs, but asked the club to leave his land after two years because the crowds became too large and noisy.Everton moved to nearby Anfield Road, a site where proper covered stands were built. Everton played at the Anfield ground from 1884 until 1892. During this time the club turned professional, entering teams in the FA Cup. They became founding members of the Football League, winning their first championship at the ground in 1890–91. Anfield's capacity grew to over 20,000, with the club hosting an international match as England played against Ireland. During their time at Anfield, Everton became the first club to introduce goalnets to professional football.
In the 1890s, a dispute about how the club was to be owned and run emerged with John Houlding, Anfield's majority owner and Everton's Chairman, at the forefront. Houlding disagreed with the club's committee initially disagreeing about the full purchase of the land at Anfield from minor land owner Mr Orrell escalating into a principled disagreement of how the club was run. Two such disagreements included Houlding wanting Everton to sell only his brewery products during an event and for the Everton players to use his public house The Sandon as changing room facilities.
The most well-known of the disagreements concerns the level of increased rent Everton was asked to pay. In 1889, Everton paid £100 to Houlding in rent; by the 1889–90 season this had risen to £250. Everton had to pay for all works and stands. The dispute escalated to a rent of £370 per year being demanded. In the complicated lead-up to the split in the club, the rent dispute is too simplistic to be singled out as the prime cause. The dispute was compounded by many minor disputed points.
The flashpoint was a covenant in the contract of land purchase by Houlding from Orrell causing further and deep friction. A strip of land at the Anfield ground bordering the adjacent land owned by Mr Orrell, could be used to provide a right of way access road for Orrell's landlocked vacant site. In early 1891 the club erected a stand on this now proposed roadway, which was also overlapping Orrell's land, unbeknown to the Everton F.C. Committee. In August 1891 Orrell announced intentions of developing his land next to the football ground, building an access road on the land owned by Houlding and occupied by Everton F.C.
Everton F.C. stated it knew nothing of the covenant; Houlding stated it did. This situation created great distrust, leading to friction between Houlding and the Everton F.C. Committee. The rift and distrust between the two parties was on three levels: Houlding's personal business intentions, politically and morally. Nevertheless, the club faced a dilemma of having to destroy the new revenue generating stand or compensate Orrell.
Houlding's way around the problem was to propose a limited company with floatation of the club enabling the club to purchase Houlding's and Orrell's land outright, hoping to raise £12,000. Previous attempts to raise money from the community had failed miserably. This would have meant the club would need to find £6,000 in cash with an additional £4,875 mortgage. The Everton Committee initially accepted Houlding's proposal in principle, yet voted against it at a meeting.
After much negotiating and brinkmanship on both sides Everton vacated Anfield, leaving Houlding with an empty stadium with no one to play in it. As a consequence, Houlding formed his own football club, Liverpool, to take up residence at the stadium.
The clubs have differing versions of events of why it occurred.
Genesis of Goodison Park
On 15 September 1891, a general meeting took place at Royal Street Hall, near Everton Valley. Everton's chairman John Houlding proposed that a limited company be formed with the new company purchasing his land and local brewer Joseph Orrell's adjacent land for a combined £9,237. A club run as a limited company was unusual for the time; football clubs were usually run as "sports clubs" with members paying an annual fee. The proposal was supported by William Barclay, the club secretary and a close friend of Houlding.Liberal Party politician and Everton board member George Mahon fought the proposal putting forward his own amendment which was carried by the Everton board. At the time Everton's board contained both Conservative and Liberal Party councillors. Houlding and Mahon had previously clashed during local elections.
Both men agreed that Everton should operate as a limited company; however, they had different ideas about share ownership. Houlding suggested that 12,000 shares be created with each Everton board member given one share and the other shares sold to the public or Everton board members. Mahon disagreed and proposed that 500 shares be created with no member carrying more than 10 shares with board members given "7 or 8" shares. Mahon reasoned "we would rather have a large number of individual applications so that there will be more supporters of the club."
A special general meeting was convened at the former Liverpool College building on Shaw Street on 25 January 1892. John Houlding's proposal was defeated once more with George Mahon suggesting that Everton relocate to another site. A heckler shouted, "You can't find one!" Mahon responded "I have one in my pocket" revealing an option to lease Mere Green field, in Walton, Lancashire, the site of the current Goodison Park.
The Liverpool press were partisan. The proposal was deemed to be a positive move for the club by the Liberal-leaning Liverpool Daily Post which described Houlding's ousting as "having shaken off the incubus." The Tory-supporting Liverpool Courier and Liverpool Evening Express—owned by Conservative MP for Everton, John A. Willox, a Trustee of the Licensed Victuallers' and Brewers' Association—took Houlding's side. The Courier published letters regularly criticising Mahon's supporters—many of which were anonymous. Philanthropist William Hartley, a jam manufacturer and Robert William Hudson, a prominent soap-manufacturer supported Mahon.
The stadium was named Goodison Park because the length of the site was built against Goodison Road. The road was named after a civil engineer named George Goodison who provided a sewage report to the Walton Local Board in the mid-1800s later becoming a local landowner.
The Mere Green field was owned by Christopher Leyland with Everton renting until they were in a position to buy the site outright. Initially, the field needed work as parts of the site needed excavation, the field was levelled, a drainage system was installed and turf was laid. This work was considered to be a 'formidable initial expenditure' with local contractor Mr Barton contracted to work on the site at 4½d per square yard—a total cost of £552. A J. Prescott was brought in as an architectural advisor and surveyor.
Walton-based building firm Kelly Brothers were instructed to erect two uncovered stands that could each accommodate 4,000 spectators. A third covered stand accommodating 3,000 spectators was also requested. The combined cost of these stands was £1,640. Everton inserted a penalty clause into the contract in case the work was not completed by its 31 July deadline. Everton officials were impressed with the builder's workmanship agreeing two further contracts: exterior hoardings were constructed at a cost of £150 with 12 turnstiles installed at a cost of £7 each. In 1894, Benjamin Kelly of Kelly Brothers was appointed as a director of Everton.
Dr. James Baxter of the Everton committee donated a £1,000 interest-free loan to build Goodison Park. The stadium was England's first purpose-built football ground, with stands on three sides. Goodison Park was officially opened on 24 August 1892 by Lord Kinnaird and Frederick Wall of the Football Association. No football was played; instead the 12,000 crowd watched a short athletics event followed by music and a fireworks display. Upon its completion the stadium was the first joint purpose-built football stadium in the world; Celtic's basic Celtic Park ground in Glasgow, Scotland was inaugurated on the same day as Goodison Park.
The first football match at Goodison Park was on 2 September 1892 between Everton and Bolton Wanderers. Everton wore its new club colours of salmon and dark blue stripes and won the exhibition game 4–2. The first league game at Goodison Park took place on 3 September 1892 against Nottingham Forest; the game ended in a 2–2 draw. The stadium's first competitive goal was scored by Forest's Horace Pike and the first Everton goal scored by Fred Geary. Everton's first league victory at their new ground came in the next home game with a 6–0 defeat of Newton Heath in front of an estimated 10,000 spectators.
It was announced at a general meeting on 22 March 1895 that the club could finally afford to buy Goodison Park. Mahon revealed that Everton were buying Goodison Park for £650 less than the price of Anfield three years earlier, with Goodison Park having more land and a 25% larger capacity. The motion to purchase Goodison Park was passed unanimously. Dr. Baxter also lent the club £5,000 to redeem the mortgage early at a rate of 3½%. By this time the redrawing of political boundaries put Walton, and hence Goodison Park, inside the City of Liverpool.
In 1999, The Independent newspaper journalist David Conn unexpectedly coined the nickname "The Grand Old Lady" for the stadium when he wrote "Another potential suitor has apparently thought better of Everton, walking away on Tuesday from the sagging Grand Old Lady of English football, leaving her still in desperate need of a makeover."