Thousands of fans saw a helicopter taking off next to Hill Dickinson Stadium before Everton's game against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday
Details behind the helicopter spotted by Everton fans attending their home game against Tottenham Hotspur at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday have now emerged.
The Blues’ move from Goodison Park, the first purpose-built football ground in England, venue for the most top flight matches and host of two FA Cup finals and five World Cup games, including a semi-final, after 133 years in Walton came this summer as they relocated to the Mersey waterfront. Financial experts have calculated that the move will bring in approximately £60million a year in additional revenue for the club who, if they keep filling the 52,769 capacity arena, will be able to play in front of the biggest regular crowds in their history.
Although Goodison attracted no fewer than 16 attendances of 70,000 plus between 1948-62 for Everton games, the Blues have only ever enjoyed an average home game north of 50,000 over a season (51,603 for the 1962/63 title-winning season). But even though Everton suffered their first home defeat at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday as Spurs triumphed 3-0, there are other things taking off down by the river – literally – like the chopper that was seen by thousands of those attending the game, including this correspondent, when it whirled into the Liverpool skies at 1:52pm on Sunday, just over two-and-a-half hours before kick-off.
The helicopter took off from Nelson Dock, which is southerly adjacent to the Bramley-Moore Dock site of Hill Dickinson Stadium, and although it’s understood that there is no purpose-built heliport on the land, it is leased by the club and used as a matchday car park. Senior Everton insiders have told the ECHO that it was members of the owner’s family, specifically his wife and daughter.
OPINION
Debra Lynn Friedkin has supported her husband Dan on a number of conservation, ecological and archaeological initiatives over the years and the couple have four children, including son Ryan, who attended Everton’s inaugural first team game in front of fans at Hill Dickinson Stadium against Roma, who are also owned by The Friedkin Group, and who joined his father to play golf at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland earlier this month.
As previously reported by the ECHO, although Friedkin senior, who is Everton chairman, was in the UK the day before their home game with Crystal Palace, he has still not attended a game at Hill Dickinson Stadium, although there are representatives of TFG at all matches. After the billionaire, described as an avid golfer made what has become an annual pilgrimage for him in recent years to St Andrew’s, he then flew to Rome for the 32nd General Assembly of the European Club Association between October 7-9.
Friedkin, currently placed at number 307 with an estimated fortune of $11billion (approximately £8.26billion) by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s wealthiest people, has been a member of the ECA’s Executive Committee since 2021. While in the Eternal City, the 60-year-old visited Roma’s Centro Sportivo Fulvio Bernardini training complex and was photographed shaking hands with head coach Gian Piero Gasperini and player Stephan El Shaarawy.