Everton being handed the keys to the club’s stunning new stadium is a moment that should be celebrated by the city, not just the football club. The move towards the Liverpool waterfront could be the catalyst for the revival of one of football’s sleeping giants but, more importantly, it could have a transformative impact on Merseyside.

It is more than a sports stadium, it is an opportunity to inspire the regeneration of the city’s northern docklands and the area that surrounds it.

There is already evidence of that. While construction of the landmark has been a three-and-a-half year process, the outer shell has long been complete. The blue lights may have been switched on recently, but Liverpool’s Fourth Grace altered our world-famous skyline a long time ago.

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The effect goes deeper, however, and work on the first new businesses that will breathe life into the industrial streets that surround Everton Stadium is already underway. More will follow, fuelled by the belief that will grow with every milestone ticked off as we inch towards the start of the next football season and the beginning of a new era for Everton.

Over the next six months the stadium will continue to buzz with activity.

Contractors Laing O’Rourke will retain a presence as the fit-out begins. From the audio-visual effects to the bars and restaurants that will serve the 52,888 match-goers, the venue will quickly morph from a construction site into something that looks and feels like a new home for one of football’s oldest clubs.

Three test events will be staged to prepare for the summer move from Goodison Park to the banks of the Mersey and excitement will grow as preparations gather speed and complexity.

Everton supporters can be forgiven for rubbing their eyes in disbelief right now. A club that has endured the most miserable of times over recent years looks in danger of enjoying a period of sustained positivity. This season will no doubt continue to bring challenges off the pitch but the completion of the takeover by The Friedkin Group marked the end of a sorry 30-month saga as Farhad Moshiri, the billionaire who spent hundreds of millions only to see the club regress into civil war, relegation fights and punitive battles with the Premier League, sought an escape route.

Moshiri’s twin ambition was a club fit for European football playing in a new home befitting such prestigious occasions. In chasing both at the same time he put the future of the club at risk - the businessman himself describing the threat to the club as “existential” at one of too many low points.

He will seek to claim the stunning £760m new stadium project, the final funding for which came from the new owners in the summer, as his legacy. Whether his tenure will be looked on so kindly remains to be seen. His was a spell in which the club lurched from crisis to crisis, often self-inflicted. If the dying days of his eight years in charge prove to have seen the laying of the foundations for the better future the club is desperately hoping for then that may improve his image.

When the club hit its nadir it was the supporters who pulled it through. They will now hope to reap the benefits this new stadium, and the club’s new ownership, should bring - first stability and then, hopefully, success. For years, the turmoil afflicting the club has made the new home seem an impossible dream. The oft-repeated barbs that it would be the best stadium in the Championship stung even as the stadium rose from the docklands.

Everton’s loyal support will take immense pride from the completion of the landmark and the enjoyment, satisfaction and thrill of the move set to come will be one they deserve to enjoy.

But for all that the stadium may have been built for a football club, it should not be lost on anyone that it will be a city that benefits.

The club took control of the site in July 2021 but for Laing O’Rourke it has been a five-year journey that has involved thousands of staff. Project director Gareth Jacques best summed up the scale of the development when, after the ceremonial handover of the site, he reflected on a “momentous day”.

“We’ve spent 178 weeks on-site, and a year-and-a-half before that in pre-construction and planning”, he said. “All those people, everyone from Everton and all the fans who have been ardently watching the progress have all been a big part of this, so to deliver it, as we have, on time, is phenomenal. The team has taken an old disused dock and created what is, I believe, the best stadium in this country, so I couldn’t be prouder.”

In doing so, all involved have completed the largest single-site private development in the country, a venue that will bring crowds to the northern waterfront all year round and, it is predicted, contribute £1.3bn to the UK economy. Thousands of jobs have been created.

Ultimately, a project that has seen 450,000 cubic metres of sand dredged from the Irish Sea and compacted to provide solid foundations on a once semi-derelict dock will provide a foundation for a stronger Merseyside economy for generations to come.

Everton supporters will hope it leads to a stronger future on the pitch. Whatever happens, it will lead to a stronger Liverpool. That is something the whole city can celebrate.