Football financial expert Kieran Maguire has claimed that Everton need to be playing in European competition to reap the full benefits of playing at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
The recently punished Deloitte Football Money League placed Everton in 23rd place with a calculated revenue of €234m (£204m) for the 2024-25 season – their final campaign at Goodison Park.
Having since moved into a new state-of-the-art stadium, Everton are now in a position to generate more revenue due to their bigger capacity, increase in hospitality offerings and the ability to host non-football events.
However, Maguire believes that the Toffees need to secure European football if they want to completely transform the club into one of the top players in the Premier League.
“I think that with higher matchday and commercial figures, estimates of around £50million-£60million a year sounds feasible,” Maguire told the Liverpool Echo.
“Then, Everton need to start delivering on the pitch because what they need is the team playing back in Europe. That can be worth between £100million-£150million for clubs who have a history in such competitions and that can be transformative.
“Aston Villa’s figures (14th on the Deloitte Football Money League) are on the back of Champions League football. I think they were charging £97 for a ticket when they played Bayern Munich, and that was in the group stage.”
With that said, Maguire has warned that qualifying for the Conference League could actually prove to be a hindrance, meaning the Europa League and Champions League should be the ultimate goal.
“I was speaking to another club not that long ago and they said that they wanted to get into Europe, but what they didn’t want to do was to get Europa Conference League,” Maguire added.
“They’re a much smaller club than Everton, but the problem with the Conference League is that you have to comply with UEFA rules and can only spend 70% of what you bring in on wages.
“You don’t make a lot from the Conference League because, with the greatest respect, how many people are going to pay top dollar for a ticket to go to a game against the third-best team in Denmark on a Thursday night?
“You don’t make a lot of money from it, and you need a bigger squad because you’re playing Thursday/Sunday, Thursday/Sunday.
“They told me the fans would be absolutely delighted, but in the boardroom, ‘we’d rather we didn’t.’ But they couldn’t go public on that because it just looks like the moneymen are sacrificing ambition.
“Of course, they wanted their team to do well, but from a pure financial position, they’d actually be worse off.”
FGG says: Europe should be the aim for ambitious Everton
The Toffees' owners, The Friedkin Group, already have one of their clubs in European competition, with Roma currently competing in the Europa League.
They will now have ambitions of bringing European football to the Hill Dickinson Stadium, although that will be easier said than done for a club that has not played in UEFA competition since the 2017-18 Europa League.
The Toffees do not currently have the squad to compete for Champions League qualification, but they may have hopes of making a push for the Europa League and Conference League.
While the Conference League may not be as lucrative as the other two competitons, it would allow the club to slowly adapt to balancing European obligations with the domestic schedule, as well as offering a potential route into the Europa League for the winners.
David Moyes's side certainly have work to do in the second half of the season if they are to secure European qualification, with the Toffees sitting in 10th place in the Premier League table.