In the kitchen of the house of Wirral by Joachim Zadow, the retired architect remembers the characteristics of the “Dual Stadium”, which may have welcomed the Merseyside derby on Wednesday on Wednesday if Everton and Liverpool followed their concepts in the summer of 2010.
“The concept works,” insists on Zadow, 15 years after a key role in a plan that culminated with 27 pages of its design presented to Everton before being sent to the United States for the attention of Tom Werner, recently installed as president of Liverpool after the capture of Fenway Sports Group.
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Liverpool ended up staying in Anfield through the reconstruction of two stands, while Everton’s long race has dragged, with a new location at the beginning of the 2025-26 season.
Zadow’s vision has placed the two clubs on the same Stanley Park site, with two United stages through a central medium of 10 degrees with an area for a hotel with a view to the locations.
The task was his time. Zadow and the other members of the organization “Mersey Stadia-Connex” idea that they had discovered an economic solution to Everton and Liverpool disorders because the clubs sought departure tactics of Goodison Park and Anfield, and the two fought financially.
During the 2009-2010 season, Everton’s movement in a new site in Kirkthrough interrupted through the British government after a public investigation in the middle of a fierce opposition. Meanwhile, Liverpool received an economic crisis leap, Royal Bank of Scotland raised doubts twice in the one -year area in the club’s ability to continue.
Liverpool challenges taxes were caused through the owners of Sirers Tom Hicks and George Gillett, whose acquisition of leverage in 2007 continued through a global monetary crisis. Under this damaged dating of the stadium challenge: as Goodison, Anfield Hell on all sides through housing in terraces.
Manchester joined the club to win and his source of income from Old Trafford more than double Liverpool. Hicks and Gillett had made their own plans for a position in Stanley Park to see to fill this void, however, the promise of Hicks for a “shovel on the floor” has never been held in 60 days.
Three years later, Liverpool’s position worsened through the team’s failure to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2003. During the same month, Rafa Benítez collapsed as a manager only one season in a five -year contract.
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In such uncertainty, Zadow and the other members of the Consortium shared their proposal with the local newspaper of Liverpool Echo, without any of them making their own identity public. The resolution has led to the plan described in a name as a “Siamese stadium”, as well as online hypothesis on the consultation of whether the dark organization was connected to an acquisition of Liverpool, with one of the rumors that extended with respect to the interest of the Chinese state.
It is now that Zadow feels that Cushty reveals his part.
“It’s as if the two clubs were trembling,” he recalls. “They were in a funny stadium in their history. What we did absolutely speculative, however, we felt that we deliver a convincing plan. If the clubs kissed him, then we would probably have come, but never reached this stadium. “
Athletics can identify Zadow’s participation through an online route. He agreed to speak after consulting Andy Heron, the group leader, who also lives in Wirral.
“It is an independent project,” explains Heron. “There is no link with a client interested in Liverpool, despite the rumors. All interested parties had links with merseyside and that brought a safe spirit. There is an aggregate of Liverpudlianos and Evertonians. We were interested in the prosperity of the two clubs and by extension, the city.
Heron had grown up from a Liverpudlian, who lived near Calderston Park in Alleron, before placing a ceiling entrepreneur and a small genuine real estate investor. “I had not worked at all like this before,” he admits, was able to deal with contracts. “I estimated that we had a chance of five % of leader somewhere. “
Heron says he grew up on a spirit of cooperation between clubs and his fans. Banners cited “Merseypride” the finals of the Cup between the groups in the 1980s as evidence of this. “He stayed with me. I hoped it still existed. “
His circle of relatives was also supporters of the Rugby League and his ties with Widnes helped open a door to Everton. Heron says that a telephone verbal exchange with a senior official has become transparent for him that there may be an opportunity because “everything was on the table” after the Kirkby Plan cave.
Heron’s idea of a “Mega Stadium” that would save Everton and Liverpool of millions of pounds. “In my opinion, it is colossal, but it is also an entrepreneurial solution for each club,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s not just an impossible dream. “
Heron knew an engineer in the design of consultations with contacts that can help him. One of them Zadow, who had established himself in the region after having moved to Liverpool of Stockport in 1960 to end a title in architectural studies. At the local level, Zadow had worked on small projects abroad, there was more, in the specific design of a suburbs on the outskirts of Jeddah, where 3,377 houses were built. He then designed a hotel in the Saudi port city.
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In 2010, Zadow was in Semi-Retiro. He admits that he is not a football fan, but he would support a team, it would be Liverpool. “I had no paintings at that time and I told myself:” What can I do so well? “” His email channel with Heron began in March of the same year and after an assembly in Heron, they agreed to verify to locate something. This implied that Zadow was in control of the manufacturing documents of plans for the stadium that Hicks and Gillett could not build.
After examining several possible sites, adding the North Liverpool docks where Everton will move later this year, Zadow learned that the only viable option for anything of this Stanley Park scale, since he already had a manufacturing plans permission. “While I stayed in the red lines, I get the idea that I had given us a chance,” said Zadow. “Once you make plans again, slow down everything. “
Using the modeling software and a representation program, Zadow presented a 60,000 seats for Liverpool and 50,000 for Everton. The latter would be multifunctional, with a closed roof and a step that took place.
They would be located in what was the car park of the green space, with entrances for both venues facing Arkles Lane. Everton would be to the north, flanked by Priory Road, making them closer to Goodison, while the new Anfield would be over the road from the old stadium, albeit with a pitch rotated by 90 degrees.
Zadow regrets never visiting Anfield or Goodison, but reasons there was no budget to play with. Initially, he had designed a two-tiered Kop grandstand before he was encouraged by another member of the group to make it a continuous one.
There was room for independent changing rooms and underground museums. Yet the “clever bit”, according to Zadow, was the shared facility in the middle, which not only saved money but, in theory, could stimulate additional revenues through 300 hotel rooms, some of which had windows facing each of the pitches.
“It seemed logical: Everton here, Liverpool there,” Zadow says. “Fans get into the habit of going to the same place. This would have kept both clubs close to its roots and the fans, their routines.”
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Heron says that a meeting with Everton went well but he was struggling to get in front of people at Liverpool after copies were sent to the club’s offices. On reflection, he thinks maybe the timing was wrong because both owners wanted to sell up and nobody involved at Liverpool was really in a position to commit to anything.
This led to him floating the idea in the Liverpool Echo, without giving away too much because Heron was concerned someone might steal the idea. “The ‘Siamese stadium’ was a media tag. It certainly wasn’t a term that we used,” Zadow says.
The report that followed was published just three days after it was revealed for a second time in 12 months that the Royal Bank of Scotland was concerned about Liverpool’s future. While a Liverpool spokesman told the Echo: “We remain committed to building our new stadium in Stanley Park,” an anonymous source at Everton suggested the scheme was “unworkable, unaffordable and undeliverable”.
The Echo’s reporting led to a significant public response. In the same month, Well Red, a Liverpool fanzine, led with the headline: “Could we twin and bear it?”. For some Evertonians, the answer was no because the size of the stadiums, despite room for an increase in capacities, put Everton at a disadvantage straight away.
Ultimately, for both clubs, the same problem remained: who would finance all of this? Peter McGurk, another local architect who had come up with plans to redevelop Anfield, suggested any new stadium would cost just as much in debt or return to investors as it would add to existing revenues. “Fans would be pouring more money into the pockets of banks or owners with no additional help for the team,” he told Well Red.
Heron knew that even if he got both clubs to agree to the move, the next step would be convincing Liverpool City Council and passing a feasibility study. Meanwhile, Zadow can laugh about it now, but he remembers some of the online comments about his design being particularly cutting. “They were saying it looked ugly and it made me feel bloody awful, but I just didn’t agree! I still don’t think it looks ugly!”
Heron was almost at the point of giving up but when Liverpool were taken over by FSG five months later, he had one last go at engagement. This involved him finding the address of Liverpool’s new chairman, Tom Werner. “I sent him the proposal by recorded delivery. It was signed for but we never heard back.”
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Zadow knew that the odds were always against him but he wishes they at least came closer to fruition. “I relished being a part of something that had never been attempted before but I thought it was a winner. Of course I was disappointed that it didn’t end that way. I might have been a millionaire!”
(Top photo: Joachim Zadow)