Tottenham Hotspur, who epitomise the trend, have staged 29 concerts at their plush home in the last two years, with Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Jay Z among those to take over a stadium opened in 2019.
Liverpool have also shown an increasing willingness to
repurpose Anfield. The last two summers have seen concerts staged over eight
nights, hosting Bruce Springsteen, Dua Lipa and the Foo Fighters.
None of this is new to Manchester City, either. Aside from
the years that have brought redevelopment work to the Etihad Stadium, concert
season has become part of the club’s development strategy, with artists such as
Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and One Direction among their guests.
Arsenal are another to have dipped their toe into those
waters, along with Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Ipswich Town.
Almost half of the Premier League’s 20 clubs have staged at least one concert
in the last three years.
“The clubs have to sweat this capital asset,” Ian Nuttall,
sports and entertainment facility consultant and founder of the trade website
TheStadiumBusiness told The N w York Times.
“These venues are hugely demanding from a financial
perspective. All the time your stadium is empty, it’s costing a huge amount of
money in finance, maintenance, staffing and overheads. The more events, the
more people you have visiting, the more revenue you’re bringing in.”
Live music is increasingly big business. The industry was
estimated to have generated revenues totalling £7.6billion ($10.1bn) in the UK
alone in 2025, according to the annual report of LIVE (Live music, industry,
venues and entertainment). SJM, the promoters behind Oasis’ latest tour,
reported revenues of £487m in their last accounting period, the equivalent of a
top Premier League club.
Stadium concerts are nothing new but football clubs, who can
offer scale, safety and security at their modernised homes, are eager for their
slice of an expanding pie in an age when spiralling premiums are attached to
live experiences.
Who gets what
The numbers make it clear why. Although there is no set
distribution model for the finances behind a concert, clubs are offered ample
incentives without the risk carried by a promoter.
The cost of general admission tickets all goes to the
organisers and artists but F&B (food and beverage) proceeds are taken by
the venue. The profit on every pint bought is the club’s and that can commonly
run into seven figures.
“It massively depends on who the act is,” says one chief
executive, who has staged a marquee show in the last 12 months, speaking with
anonymity to protect relationships.
“Is it Little Mix, with a prosecco for the mums and sweets
for kids? Or is it a band that’s going to have a lot more people drinking? For
the latter, I would suggest you’re taking between £15 and £20 a head for every
person there. That’ll vary depending on the venue and artist but it’s a pretty
good rule of thumb.”
One senior figure, who has previously seen the impact of an
Oasis gig first-hand, can recall that almost as much was made on alcohol sales
in a single night as there had been over the course of a Premier League season
at the hosting club.
A football fixture, on average, might see two pints bought
for every five people in attendance across a matchday, with fans unable to
drink for the majority of their time inside a stadium. A major concert can see
fans on site for six hours, drinking throughout. The cost of alcohol, too,
tends to be higher than when staging a football fixture.
Hire fees for use of a stadium are also common, though a
competitive marketplace can see that waived if it can secure a sought-after
artist that will guarantee a capacity crowd. Then there are the smaller
bonuses, such as parking and cuts of merchandise sales.
A single concert can earn over £1m
Take away the staffing costs and several executives who
spoke to The New York Times, said a stadium with a 50,000 capacity can
see clubs earning anywhere between £1.2m and £1.6m per night when staging a
single concert.
Tottenham Hotspur has shown what is possible, even if the
additional revenues have been poorly invested in a team that has finished 17th
in the last two Premier League seasons. A new stadium has been financially
transformative, boosting commercial and matchday revenues.
Tottenham do not disclose the value of their concert
operations but the most recent set of accounts, covering the 2024-25 season,
outlined that it was a primary driver of non-football revenues that stood at
£77.3m, up from £64m the previous year.
No other Premier League club has leaned into stadium
diversification like Tottenham since the opening of their new home in 2019. NFL
games each autumn are the norm, while they now hold a licence to stage 30
non-football events each year. Seventeen of those were concerts in 2025,
including six nights of Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter tour that grossed over £45m in
sales. Another 12 major concerts have been staged this year, including Bad
Bunny, BTS and Jay-Z.
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