Architect Dan Meis has revealed he knew he had got the design of Hill Dickinson Stadium right when he overheard a conversation between a couple of Everton stewards. Appearing on a special edition of the Royal Blue podcast to mark the publication of Christopher Beesley’s second book, On the Banks of the Royal Blue Mersey: Inside Everton’s First Season at the Dock, Meis reflected on the historic move.
A sensitive move from Goodison
The American admitted he was wary of the huge emotional attachments to Goodison Park that the fanbase possessed. Meis told the ECHO: “I think it was one of the unique aspects of this project. From my first conversation with Robert Elstone, then on to Bill Kenwright and Farhad Moshiri, the recognition that none of this was going to be easy.
“Everyone realised that Goodison was tired and it would be too difficult to renovate. But no one in the process took that lightly that we were walking away from a beloved home that had an incredible reputation throughout football of being a difficult place to play for an away team.”
Meis said he was very sensitive to the history, noting that some new stadiums had left their history behind. “West Ham have really suffered from going into a stadium that’s not football specific. Even the Emirates Stadium with Arsenal, it felt like they were becoming newer NFL stadiums,” he said.
Capturing the magic of Goodison
“They felt like big, shiny objects but not necessarily grabbing what was really magical about English football and the quirkiness and character of historic English grounds. So, that was hanging over us from the very beginning through to the end. We knew even though this was going to be a new building, we were going to have to capture the magic of Goodison, or we’d have failed.”
Meis recalled his first regular season game at the stadium: “I was really lucky. The first regular season game that I attended, the club took me out on the field when the stands were full.” He added: “The idea that hit me then and I will never forget this now and I’ll think about this for every building that I do going forward, is everything that goes into making a structure, it’s not really a stadium until it’s full of people – particularly in football.”
A unique fanbase
Meis now considers himself an Evertonian and acknowledges that could cause him problems with future projects. “There’s nothing like it. The hard part is that I hope to do this for a while longer and I don’t know that I’ll ever have the experience again,” he said, comparing the Blues fanbase to others he has worked with, including Lakers fans at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and Italian football fans during his work with Roma.
Part of the bond Meis built with Evertonians came through his regular interaction with them on Twitter (now X). He recalled Bill Kenwright’s early warning: “You know, you need to be careful, you can be Jesus Christ one day and Satan the next.”
Meis described one of his best experiences: “I was walking into the bowl and one of the stewards held the door for me. I didn’t recognise her but as I walked by, I heard her say to the other steward: ‘He listened to us.’ I thought: ‘What a powerful thing.’ I don’t know this person, but she obviously saw the communication and followed the process and that’s what you really hope for as an architect.”
