Men in Blazers, the largest independent football-focused media company in North America, saw its founder and CEO Roger Bennett return to his hometown of Liverpool this week. The network, which grew from a single podcast to a full-scale digital platform, covers football year-round across three main channels with daily programming including podcasts, video content, social media, newsletters, second-screen watchalongs, live event tours and New York Times bestselling books. The Men in Blazers TV Show airs directly after Premier League matches on NBC and Peacock.
Live show at Hill Dickinson Stadium
Last weekend, the network streamed live football for the first time, showing the Tottenham Hotspur friendly against Hoffenheim across the US and Canada on its YouTube channel. However, Bennett's personal highlight came on Monday, when the lifelong Evertonian hosted a live show at Hill Dickinson Stadium with his mother in the audience for the first time. He interviewed first-team players James Garner, Hayden Hackney, Christian Norgaard and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in front of some 200 fellow Blues, with chief executive Angus Kinnear and technical director Nick Cox also in attendance.
Bennett, born in Liverpool on September 14, 1970, moved to Chicago in 1993 on a three-month tourist visa before relocating to New York and becoming a naturalised US citizen in 2018. He granted an exclusive interview to his local newspaper ahead of the event.
Early memories of Everton
Asked about his earliest recollection of Everton, Bennett told the ECHO: “I can still remember the first game I went to on April 1, 1978, Everton 2 Derby County 1. I went to Goodison Park and I couldn’t see a thing. It was freezing (the game kicked off at 11am because it was Grand National Day). A man by me took off his sheepskin coat and flung it down under me as a booster, while picking me up with one arm and said: ‘We’re all one big family here at Goodison,’ and that was it.
“I remember all of it. Every kid remembers the first time they saw the grass and the floodlights, the smell of that mix of spilt ale, sweat and police horse turd. Like I said, it was so cold, and at halt-time someone magicked a flask of Bell’s Scotch whisky and told me: ‘Have a swig lad.’ I felt that warmth through my body, and I’ve been a whisky drinker ever since!”
He added: “It was joyful, it was mesmerising. Then, the following season, Andy King scored that derby winner, all of it, they were the greatest, Bob Latchford was my everything, watching that 30-goal season. But it was basically about going to the game with my dad. I think a lot of people experience this, but whatever else was going on in life, it was a place where your parents lost themselves in something else for 90 minutes.
“It’s about the football, about the winning. There are layered memories and a lot of it is about family and the two sit side by side. I’m a third generation Evertonian. My grandpa was a Blue, my dad was a Blue and I thought the club was massive, I thought they were enormous – and they were. My kids are all Blues and haven’t seen that because it’s been a while since Everton were the best team in the country, the best in Europe, but it’s my eternal hope that they will be again in our lifetime. I went across Europe with them. Everton were known, respected and feared. Watching them get to that cusp of being one of the best teams in Europe, it was like a cliffhanger. We’ve been waiting a long time for that to return.”
Tradition and the new stadium
Despite living on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean for most of the Premier League era, Bennett believes Everton have maintained their traditions. He said: “It’s still such a potent experience coming to Everton Football Club, even here at Hill Dickinson Stadium where it feels like a spaceship has landed on the banks of the Mersey. I’m ecstatic that Everton have been able to raise their levels but keep their tradition, authenticity and sense of real locality.
“That’s what is special about Everton to me in 2026. Football has moved to embrace the global but a lot of the Americans who come over find this to be the most riveting atmosphere, Everton and Crystal Palace, that’s what you hear and the matchday experience at the new stadium still feels very much authentically local. On the one hand, it’s been a tough 30 years, but the joy of football is that you choose your own adventure and it’s the lens through which you view the world and Everton are always mine. I think there’s so much about this club, even in times of challenge – and there have been many true challenges – the spirit of the fans is the best of football. At times it has been the fans that have saved this club. Their values are loyalty, tenacity, eternal belief.”
Of the new 52,769-capacity stadium designed by Dan Meis, Bennett said: “The first time I went into the home changing room was what struck me the most. Roberto Martinez used to say if he was trying to sign a player for Everton, he had to meet them at Finch Farm or the airport, because if he took them inside the changing room at Goodison Park, they’d never sign. To see excellence again at Everton is amazing.
“Goodison Park, and I went a lot during that last season is very beautiful, particularly towards the end when people were buying single match tickets and going on their own. The last game I went to as Ipswich, and there was a woman there on her own. When they played Z-Cars, she started crying, one of her parents had died and she was clearly thinking about that. A random stranger put his arm around her and said: ‘Why yer cryin’ girl? We’ve not even lost yet!’ There was a true beauty to that exit. Hill Dickinson Stadium, I hope, is like a butterfly going into a cocoon and then over the course of the next few seasons, something beautiful will emerge. I’ll say it’s a sign of intent. And the reality, please God, will catch up with that sign of intent.”
Transfer window and trophy hopes
On the current transfer window, Bennett said: “If you look at the big picture for the whole of football, it’s a summer of chaos. There are nine new managers in the Premier League and the World Cup which has pushed the transfer market back and made it unbelievably late for everybody. I’ve spent the week going across all the clubs, we’re at Chelsea on Thursday and Arsenal on Friday and were at Tottenham on Saturday, filming at them all, Manchester United too. Every club is the same, they’re all feeling incomplete – everyone is messaging: ‘much more to come.’ I think it’s very frustrating for everybody. The fans, the managers. Football is so interconnected and the financial rules are handbrakes on what is possible for the likes of Aston Villa and Newcastle United and we’re more in their category. If you put all that together, and it’s a human agony. How many more days are there left of the summer window? Joe Thomas could be starting at right-back against Crystal Palace.”
Reflecting on Everton's silverware drought, Bennett said: “I’m actually incredibly dark and sometimes I think it’s only Everton Football Club that’s keeping me above the waterline. I’d love to see Everton win a trophy again in my lifetime. Look at Crystal Palace and the joy that they’ve experienced. But I do believe that football is about more than just that. I think it’s about the sense of connection, I think it’s about the generational connections and the memories. I have so many that are connected to this club and that’s the deeply energising part. Everton have taught me to find joy wherever it is to be found. It’s the perfect way to approach life in this chaotic world. Beto scoring. His joy, his journey from being the gent working behind KFC, now scoring goals in the Premier League. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, a late developer in football after he had a very late growth spurt. Coming here and saying: ‘This is the best I’ve ever played and connecting it to the fans.’ When I watch Ili, now my dad is no longer with us, I think about all the players he used to love. When I watch games, I have my dad’s voice in my head and he used to love wingers like Dave Thomas, Alan Irvine, Pat Nevin. The score doesn’t always go the way you want it, but it’s the layers of memory from watching it and the fleeting joy. Winning a trophy can only enhance that – I’d bite your hand off for a Carabao Cup!”
