We’ve been bought by an American billionaire and hired a company to manage the stadium naming rights. So even though it made zero financial sense for it to become Toyota stadium I think we were all sort of hoping it would be a big, recognisable global brand. Perhaps neutral enough to not detract from it being distinctly Everton. (Eg if it were the Toyota dome we’d still need something else to call it).

The fact that it’s a local company is all a bit meh. Did we really need to hire the worlds best stadium naming rights consultancy to make this deal happen? It feels a bit small time.

BUT

Combine this with the news that we’ll keep a redeveloped Goodison for the women. What they signal together is that TFG seem to have a genuine desire for the club to have strong roots in the local community and a strong presence in the city. Together with their interest in Nelson dock they are making a bet on the city as much as a football club.

Imagine a 20k indoor arena gets built on Nelson dock with shared commercial premises. Who’d want to buy and fund a local basketball team? Pick a sport.

This deal could be unimaginative and a bit cheap. It could also be part of a very coherent strategy to look past the men’s first team and build a really strong foundation for a whole tonne of different opportunities.

I don’t believe that these are knobhead yanks watching at a distance letting our local commercial team pass off a kitbag deal as the best we can do. I think there’s a strategy in place.

At the very least, a big local law firm have decided that instead of just treating guests to hospitality, maybe buying a box, they want their name on the whole stadium. They are thinking that they can get important global clients to come to Liverpool, and Bramley Moore Dock (sorry, The Hill Dickinson Stadium) will be part of the draw. Beatles and football - betting big on our core identity as a city. Whether Premier League or big rugby league games. Who knows what else but HD will have a prime position.

I know it all sounds like a non league team - getting a local company to name the stadium is only a few steps up from adverts in the programme and getting to choose the man of the match. But if that’s what you think - and if that’s what our friends across the park think - they are not belittling us, they are belittling the city of Liverpool.

Liverpool was the docks. Its future is professional services (and entertainment?). I like the logic and although the name grates *any* new name would sound weird. It’ll be known as the HD stadium which is fine. Or just the Everton ground. It symbolises where we’re going though, and as a statement of intent reveals TFG keeping our roots.

Compare to 777 ownership and it being the Memecoin arena. Or under Moshiri it would have been the Russian dirty oil money stadium. Kenwright would have called it “Nee Goodison” or something knaff.

It was never Bramley Moore Dock, and although I liked “Everton Stadium” we absolutely need new sponsorship streams. This literally means we don’t have to sell Branthwaite. It’s a new era and it shows our owner are buying into the whole city. It’s good news.