Everton explore Bramley Moore Dock deal with £2bn firm as Dan Friedkin sets stadium naming rights deadline
The Dan Friedkin revolution is in full force and it seems an eternity ago that Everton were patient zero of the Premier League’s PSR outbreak and gasping for air in the deep end of the debt pool.
David Moyes is proving an inspired hire by The Friedkin Group, for whom the Toffees’ Premier League status ahead of the move to Bramley Moore Dock was by far the biggest risk in the takeover.
Barring a 14-point swing and a collapse that would go down in the history books, Everton will be a top flight club next season when they move into the new 52,888-seater stadium.
Dan Friedkin is therefore now able to concentrate on maximising the commercial value of Bramley Moore Dock, as well as making the right hires at the back of house.
Leeds United’s Angus Kinnear is reportedly a target for the CEO position currently occupied on a temporary basis by Colin Chong, whose expertise – it is said – could be retained in a different role.
Chong has been instrumental in delivering the stadium in one of the most trying periods in Everton’s history, fighting on multiple fronts in terms of Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and the takeover.
But while the bricks, mortar, glass and steel are all in place and the first test event has been staged at Bramley Moore Dock – an under 18s defeat to Wigan Athletic – the project is far from finished.
One of Chong’s deputies, Richard Kenyon, who heads up the commercial department, has the task of ensuring that the stadium lives up to its transformative financial billing.
Speaking exclusively to TBR Football earlier this year, Liverpool University football finance lecturer and industry insider Kieran Maguire said Everton should be looking to double matchday income.
Matchday income has been almost completely static at around £18m at Goodison Park for a decade – but it isn’t just the cash through the turnstiles that will soar at the new stadium.
Bramley Moore Dock will give Everton renewed leverage with sponsors and Kenyon, alongside the commercial agency Elevate Sports, has already secured several deals directly linked to the stadium.
Castore, Aramark and Christopher Ward have all signed up as ‘Founding Partners’, while OCS have partnered with the club to provide facilities management.
But the biggest sponsorship vacancy of all, naming rights, is yet to be filled. Or, at least, the club are waiting until the announcement will make maximum impact to reveal the sponsor publicly.
Everton have been looking for naming rights partner since 2021, when they enlisted Elevate to lead the search. Kenyon has said that the club has fielded multiple offers and is looking for a 10-year deal.
Now, TBR Football, has fresh detail about one potential candidate.
AJ Bell among Everton naming rights candidates
In June last year, two lifelong Evertonians, Andy Bell and George Downing, emerged as contenders to buy Everton from Farhad Moshiri.
Bell helped broker the funding deal for Bramley Moore Dock and was at one stage expected to be a partner in MSP Sports Capital’s part-takeover bid.
Bell is the founder of AJ Bell, the financial investment platform with a market cap of just under £2bn.
