The docks of Bramley-Moore are eager for the new construction project in town: Everton Stadium, the new home of the Everton Football Club. A state-of-the-art stadium occupies the new venue, standing ready to usher in a new era for the Toffees on the weekend of Aug. 16, when they will most likely play their first home fixture of the 2024–25 season. Many fans will certainly experience delight in singing along to the “Z-Cars” theme in the architectural masterpiece, but the modern-day bowl stadiums signify a bigger trend coming to the pinnacle of the English Football League.
Teams, more than ever, have made the transition to architecturally novel bowl stadiums in efforts to tap into wealthy international markets. Take the London Stadium — which the West Ham United Football Club moved into after the 2012 Olympics — or the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium — with its retractable pitch capable of hosting NFL games several times a year. New stadiums like these signify an attempt to bring teams into the modern era and force new brandings upon teams to tap into lucrative American markets.
Don’t get me wrong: The injection of money into the highest-grossing revenue football league is certainly great for players and local fans alike, but its classy new stadiums and tiki-taka football tactics are a clear departure away from the values that made the gritty English league so popular in the first place. Tiki-taka and Total Football have certainly done wonders for Europeans, but mainstay managers such as José Mourinho and Erik ten Hag have never been able to find their footing in the U.K.
From its insanely lucrative television deals to the “hooligan” nature of its fans to competitive match days for clubs across the table, the English Premier League has facilitated competition that American professional leagues can only dream of. British football is a no-nonsense game, where buzz words such as “park the bus” and “4–4–2” have become cultural mainstays when discussing the league. If you have your concerns, I will refer you to the pleasurable accounts of AFTV and Mark Goldbridge to convince you otherwise.
In all seriousness, the well-disciplined yet fiercely competitive English Premier League has become the most consumed soccer league in the United States, consistently surpassing Major League Soccer in viewership. The English Premier League’s popularity has come from staying true to its competition, focusing on player development and pushing 38 high-quality matches every season.
Fans in this league don’t expect much. They don’t need padded seats inside state-of-the-art bowl arenas. Victorian-age arenas such as St. James’ Park and Craven Cottage have remained mainstays in the league even when oil money and sports betting companies seek to convince the fans otherwise. And when Toffees supporters transition out of Goodison Park for good, the club's loyal supporters and rich history will remind fans of why they call it the blues.
