People enjoy goals … Meanwhile, Liverpool as well as all football clubs, converts popularity of players and scored goals into business opportunities. As we mentioned in the previous article about Real Madrid, football means business, which is called the Football Industry. Beside the football team, an equally important business team works away from the lights to raise the revenues coming to the club. Students in Business schools learn case studies related to football. There is even a specific MBA certificate for the football industry called The Football Industries MBA (FIMBA).
In a short sentence: The better performance means more fans, and consequently, more revenues. For details, let us get more info about Liverpool and Business.
This article will address the following
- Overview about Liverpool FC
- Liverpool Revenue streams
- The club and the community
- Mo Salah phenomena
- Finally, the Band value of Liverpool FC.
1. Liverpool FC (LFC)
This is a quick overview about Liverpool FC.
History
Liverppol club was formally recognized by the Board of Trade on June 3-1892, making it the official birthday of LFC. During the long history of 125 years, The club has won 5 European Cups, 3 UEFA Cups, 3 UEFA Super Cups, 18 League titles,7 FA Cups, 8 League Cups, and 15 FA Charity/Community Shields.
An image for the historical certificate of establishing the club
Anfield
Anfield stadium is the home stadium of Liverpool FC. it is located in Anfield district, Liverpool city. The stadium has a capcity of 54,000 (all seated).
Value
According to Forbes, Liverpool is occupying the 8th position among the most Valuable Soccer Teams in 2018. An interesting note is that all the 20 teams are in Europe.
2. Liverpool Revenues.
In the season 2016-2017, Liverpool football club (LFC) achieved a huge jump in revenues from by £62m to £364m. The reported profit after tax was £39m. expectation for the 2017/208 is to hit £500m.
Generally the main revenue streams for football clubs are as follows:
Gate and match-day
A main source of revenues is selling the match tickets. In 2016-2017, match-day revenue increased by £12m to £74m The revenues were positively affected by a recent expansion in Anfield stadium increasing its capacity by 8,250 and taking the capacity of the stadium to 54,742.
Liverpool has an online guide for the fans explaining the transportation options, stadium entrances, stadium facilities (toilets, baby changing, WiFi, Faith rooms …), and the available activities (photography, shopping, dinning…).
Hospitality
Hospitality is a main source of revenues as well.
Liverpool FC provides hospitality facilities for elites to enjoy match-day in lounges and decent areas with catering service for premium rates. there seasonal packages as follows:
- Executive Box
- Executive Lounge – from £11,132 per season
- Premium Lounge – from £4,630 per season
- Centenary Club – from £3,888 per season
- The Carlsberg Dugout – from £3,017 per season
- Premier Club – from £2,623 per season
Hospitality facilities are not limited to football matches. They re available for other events such as meetings and conferences. LFC can host a large event for 2,000 guests or a smaller more intimate party or dinner the team. Rooms offer a glazed front with outstanding views of the Anfield Stadium, creating a memorable backdrop and talking point for conference guests and delegates. The lounges are able to host up to 500 guests for a corporate dinner or 700 guests in a theatre style setting for a meeting and have been designed to offer a versatile space that can adapt to numerous conference, meeting or corporate dinner configurations.
Moreover, you may even have your wedding party at LFC and make it a special memory for guests. You can select a wedding Breakfast or Evening Buffet Packages, in a venue that is decorated and laid out to suit your taste.
Away from matches, conferences and weddings, you may visit Anfield on a casual day and have a nice experience.
There are two Experiences to choose from:
The Anfield Experience
The Anfield Experience provides the opportunity to relax in the company of chosen LFC Legends and listen to their personal insights and memories of playing for the Club.
The Ultimate Anfield Experience
The Ultimate Anfield Experience offers the chance to train with the coaches and LFC Legends at The Academy.
Fans can book theie experience online for themselves or offer it as a gift for others.
Hospitality images are from LFC’s official website.
Recently, there are plans to open Anfield to music concerts and other sports events. The club said that the proposal to broaden the uses of Anfield is consistent with Liverpool City Council’s aspiration to use music and sport to attract more visitors to the city.
TV & Broadcast
premier league is the most popular around the world with millions watch it in the different countries. More watchers means more money for football clubs coming from TV & broadcast deals. In 2016-2017, revenues for football clubs reached around €7.9 billion. The number jumped in the following year to reach €8.4 billion.
Liverpool FC achieved revenues of £154m (around €173 million) from broadcast deals in 2016-2017 season.
Sponsorship
Football clubs build strategic partnerships with famous corporates such as Airlines, Financial Services, Telecom operators, nd others.
That is a win-win deal. Football clubs generate revenues the sponsorship packages paid by the corporates. For the corporates, that represent a remarkable marketing and advertising activity for their brand.
In 2016-2017, Liverpool FC achieved £136m following a successful year announcing 12 new partnerships including Malaysia Airlines, Konami and Joie. Other partners also renewed their deals. We can notice the revues from sponsorship deals are almost double the revenues from match-day.
Commercial stores
LFC has its commercial stores where fans can buy items with LFC logo. In additional to the Clubs inside UK, LFC has some international stores abroad.
In additional to the physical stores, fans can access the online stores and do their shopping through the internet.
Liverpool Fashion
Players can participate in promotions for Liverpool Fashion offers.
Moreover, LFC has an online pictures store where fan can printed pictures they select.
LFC Membership
LFC fans in UK, Europe, or worldwide can pay for an official membership, which has multiple types and levels. Annual memberships fees vary from £18.99 to £44.99. Accordingly, members get some benefits, according to membership type, such as receiving LFC Official Membership Card, discounts on tickets & LFC stores, and offers from LFC partners.
Players Trade
These are football clubs. So, they can sell players. as simple as that.
3. Liverpool & community
LFC serves the community through Liverpool Foundation, the club’s official charity. the foundation has programs in sports, health, education, and employment.
According to LFC foundation, they currently work with 3,000 children and young people a week, helping to improve their health, education and overall chances in life.
They has a six-step plan outlines to achieve this:
- Work with Liverpool Football Club to unlock the power of the Club crest.
- Engage with children and young people in Merseyside county and beyond.
- Improve the health and wellbeing of children through sports participation and physical activity and raise the aspirations and skills of young people for a better life, through learning and training programs.
- Engage stakeholders and supporters to inspire action towards a tangible movement of fan-driven change.
- Communicate the impacts they make and celebrate the successes of young people they work with.
- Operate transparently, honestly and with the strong governance to ensure impacts are maximized.
4. Mo Salah
Mohamed Salah has become one of the most popular players worldwide. In his first season with Liverpool he could harvest many titles and awards:
- Premier League Golden Boot.
- African player of the Year.
- BBC African footballer of the year
- PFA players’ player of the Year.
- Premier League Player of the Month (Multiple times).
- FWA Footballer of the Year.
- Liverpool Players’ Player of the Year.
- Liverpool Player of the Season.
Because of the impressive performance, Salah got millions of fans from all over the world. That is in additional to millions of fans in Egypt (home country) and England. Many of these millions have become Liverpool fans. Accordingly, the Club won lot of new followers and reached a new level of international popularity.
From business perspective, that will help Liverpool achieve more revenues through the previously mentioned streams. if you looked at the sponsors list, you will find two Egyptian companies are now Liverpool sponsors. that is a direct result to the percent Liverpool’s high popularity in Egypt.
5. Liverpool FC Brand Value
In a recent report about the brand finance f the top 50 clubs, Liverpool scored the highest increase rate in brand value among the top 10 clubs. Liverpool scored 33% increase in brand value to be USD 1,204 m in 2018 compared with USD 908 m in 2017. That increase improved the cub ranking from the 9th to the 6th position among the top brand values.
The second highest increase was scored by Manchester City FC with 30% increase and moved from the 6th to 5th position.
We can notice that 6 of the top 10 clubs are coming from the premier league.
A writer & GIS consultant … Studied the Management of Technology … dreaming of a better world.
