The Political Economy of Football V2

Anfield’s local community has become increasingly fluid in the era of Airbnb. It is difficult to tell how many homes are being rented out like this, because Airbnb is notoriously protective of its data and did not respond to  The Athletic ’s request for information about its footprint. On the face of it, parts of Anfield — a traditional working-class neighbourhood, which just happened to have a world-famous football ground in it — have never looked smarter,   Yet there are also unintended consequences which are not quite as positive because there are now many properties where no one lives permanently, having been bought up by groups or individuals with little or no connection to the area. According to the 2021 Census, the Anfield ward has a population of 14,730, but four times as many people now visit around 30 times a season for matches, and through the summer after Liverpool FC were given permission to host concerts. Labour MP Ian Byrne is a long time resident of ...

There has been a lot of debate in recent weeks about stadiums with Manchester United unveiling their ambitious and as yet unfunded plans, Chelsea’s board divided about Stamford Bridge, and Everton starting to move into Bramley Dock. Stadiums are an expensive capital asset that cost money to maintain and are used for football at best an average of every 10 days.   The new Tottenham Hotspur stadium is designed to maximise use for purposes other than football.    Some continental clubs have built their stadiums so that there are shops and other commercial premises around the ground floor. I don’t want to start choosing the most iconic stadium I have visited, but Anfield is up there. Anfield has been transformed since Fenway Sports Group (FSG) bought Liverpool in 2010. Where houses were once tucked tightly up to all sections of the ground, now there are wide walkways on either side of the newly-built Anfield Road Stand (which opened in 2023) and Main Stand (expanded i...

Liverpool swung from a £7m pre-tax profit to a £9m loss, as revenue was static at £594m, but operating expenses rose £20m (3%) to £632m and net interest payable was up £2.0m to £4.5m. This was partly offset by profit on player sales increasing £6m from £28m to £34m. Although a loss is rarely good news, Liverpool’s £9m pre-tax deficit is actually the third best result to date in the Premier League, only surpassed by the profits made by Manchester City £80m and Brentford £9m. Their sustainable approach is in stark contrast to many other clubs, as some very large losses have already been reported for last season, including Aston Villa £120m, Southampton £87m, Newcastle United £73m, Wolves £67m and Arsenal £52m. Last season was the first time that Liverpool reported a loss (since 2016 outside of the COVID years). In fact, in the five years up to 2019 they had managed to generate nearly a quarter of a billion of profits.     The last three years have not been so impressi...

Jürgen Klopp’s farewell tour is going well despite injuries to key players and Liverpool’s 2022/23 accounts show a sustainable club that has been investing sensibly to increase reveue. Commercial revenue increased by £25m to £272m to become the club’s biggest source of income — balancing out the drop in media and matchday revenues across the season. There was strong growth in partnerships and a lucrative pre-season tour to Thailand and Singapore. The club’s retail operations enjoyed a record year with seven new stores opening in Asia. Footfall across all of the club’s global LFC stores hit 2.5million as the kit deal with Nike continued to reap significant rewards. Since this reporting period — which covers owners Fenway Sports Group’s search for new investment, and saw them consider selling the club before deciding they would instead seek minority investment — the club have brought in four blue-chip partners in Peloton, UPS, Orion Innovation and Google Pixel. Medi...

The collapse of the Buickingham Group has seriously delayed Liverpool’s Anfield Road end rebuild. Replacement contractor, Rayner Rowen, has since put its own stamp on the project and is working hard to deliver the project as fast as possible for Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group. But it is a far from ideal situation on the back of delays described as “really complex and deeply frustrating” by Liverpool CEO Billy Hogan. Lost revenue is racking up and with 11,000 seats unavailable and the stand’s upper tier still closed, Liverpool are finding it increasingly difficult to relocate supporters who had purchased tickets in the unfinished section of the stand all the way up until the New Year. Liverpool chose Tier 1 contractor Buckingham Group in 2021 after extensive research into some of their other projects, which included delivering new stadiums for Brighton & Hove Albion, MK Dons and Brentford, as well as new stands at The Oval cricket ground in London. Buckingha...

Liverpool want to push towards £500m in annual turnover, the benchmark that would allow it to compete with the two Manchester clubs and Real Madrid. Owners Fenway Sports Group do not have the deep pockets of the Arab investors in Manchester City and Paris St Germain. One idea is to stage rock concerts, but the big trucks need to set up stages cannot pass through pitchside tunnels built in 1892. The last big concert at Anfield featured Sir Paul McCartney in 2008 and cranes were need to lift the stage over the top of the stands. Anfield's capacity increased from 44.000 to 54,000 when its main stand was enlarged in 2016. That has added £12m annually in match day revenue and increased lucrative hospitality places to 7,500. Around £200m has been spent on the stand, a £50m new first team training centre, and improvements to the pitch and access to Anfield. The club has planning permission to expand the Anfield Road stand by 6,000 seats before September 2019 but is still assessing ...