Everton have abandoned plans to build a new stadium in the Walton Hall Park area of Liverpool.
The club hope to move from Goodison Park and build a larger, purpose-built ground.
But with their plans for Walton Hall Park based on retail investment in the area ultimately deemed too ambitious - with objections to the scheme also raised by local protesters - the plan has been scrapped.
"Liverpool City Council and Everton Football Club can confirm they have been working together over recent months to investigate alternative plans for a new stadium for Everton Football Club," the two bodies said in a joint-statement.
"These new plans no longer focus on Walton Hall Park but on two other potential brownfield sites within the city boundary.
"The proposed scheme at Walton Hall Park was always an ambitious one. It was a regeneration scheme that relied heavily on retail investment into the site.
"Most of the current investment into retail is focused on city centres and larger district centres and not on out-of-town developments like this would have been."
Mayor Joe Anderson had originally backed the scheme but he also now feels it would be untenable.
"Most people will be aware that I did give a commitment to Everton to support a potential scheme at Walton Hall Park with the aim of regenerating the area and creating new jobs," he said in a statement.
"However, through the work that the club and the council have done, we have concluded that effectively building a new village in north Liverpool with lots of retail space is a step too far in this current economic climate.
"On the subject of the park itself, I can now say that the park will remain a park and will be designated as such in our Local Plan, which will be out for consultation this summer."
Mayor Anderson later told BBC Radio Merseyside: "I'm confident the new stadium will be up and running in three years."
Everton and Liverpool City Council confirmed they are now considering two other potential brownfield sites within the city boundary.
Robert Elstone, chief executive of Everton, said: "Our work with the council, particularly over the last few months, has been positive and progressive.
"While our work evaluating the alternatives is at an early stage, we are hopeful that the new sites provide us with a much more straightforward, deliverable opportunity to build a new stadium."