'The stadium should feel like it grew out of the dock'
Dan Meis, the architect who designed Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium, said he was initially sceptical a club like Everton would engage a firm in the US for the project, let alone one based in Los Angeles, but dived into the history of the club and city. He also communicated closely with fans. "I learned pretty early through fan engagements how passionate they were about this.
It was not always super friendly," said Meis. One of the big debates was about capacity. The new ground seats more than 52,000 fans - an increase of more than 12,000 on Goodison Park, but that is 9,000 below Liverpool's Anfield.
"I can't tell you the number of tweets I got from fans saying: 'It's OK as long as we have one more seat than Anfield,'" recalled Meis. "In the end, fans felt like they were talking to the club. Hearing from them really made me think about these things - making sure they were right on top of the pitch, making sure we weren't sacrificing that football-first energy in any way, while delivering revenue.
" After options were explored for different sites, the proposal of a stadium built on Bramley-Moore Dock was mooted. "The idea really blossomed from all that," he said. "Bill Kenwright said he wanted something that was both historical and forward looking - that was a bit of a challenge.
"I really believed in this idea that the stadium should feel like it grew out of the dock. I did one little sketch that was based on the idea of the Mersey washing over the dock. You had this rough scribble of a brick base with a curvy wave over the top of it.