Two days ago I worked as crowd steward at the new Everton Stadium during the second 'test event', a football match between Everton under 21s and Bolton Wanderers B team.

There were some25,000 fans inside the stadium occupying 2 sides fully and two side partly.  When full the stadium will hold 52,888 fans.

The test event is for the benefit of the local council and premier league for the purpose of EFC being granted the licence to enable them to operate in the premier leage from season 2025/26.

I timed the evacuation on my iphone and it was approximately 10 minutes.  Everyone behaved themselves and left the stadium in an orderly manner at a very casual pace.

My position was top of a vomitory and I could see the delight in everyone's face as they saw the 'bowl' for the very first time.  The were smiles from ear to ear which remained for quite some time and the number of "WOWs" were many. Most supporters had their cameras out taking photos and videos.  I had to keep moving them on to their seats.