Record commercial revenues offset TV income drop at Liverpool FC
Liverpool Football Club increased commercial revenues by £25m to £272m last season to become the biggest revenue source across the club’s three main income streams, above matchday ticket sales and media revenue.
However, the accounts for the reporting period to May 31, 2023, revealed a loss before tax of £9m.
The increase in commercial revenue helped by deals with kit supplier Nike, Peloton, UPS, Orion Innovation and Google Pixel lifted commercial income, while matchday sales dropped £7m to £80m and TV and media revenue fell by £19m to £242m, mainly due to last season’s exit from the Champions League in the last-16 stage, compared to reaching the final in the previous season.
Overall revenue for the period remained the same as the previous year at £594m.
The drop in media revenue is mainly due to last season’s exit from the Champions League in the last-16 stage, compared to reaching the final in the previous season.
The Reds currently top the Premier League with 12 games to go and are seeking a new first team coach following the shock announcement that Jurgen Klopp is to leave in the summer.
Matchday revenue also fell by £7m due to fewer matches being played across last season. Work has continued on the club’s £80m investment to redevelop the Anfield Road Stand and saw a record league attendance at Anfield earlier this month as part of its phased opening schedule.
The commercial activity included a pre-season tour, playing games in Thailand and Singapore. LFC’s retail operations also had a record year for revenue with seven new stores opening across Asia and more than 350,000 downloads of the new LFC Store app.
It was also a record year for footfall across all of the club’s global LFC stores, peaking at 2.5m shoppers, which includes more than 10,000 every matchday at Anfield.
From a digital perspective, it was during this reporting period that LFC became the first club in the Premier League to reach 8m YouTube subscribers and surpassed 40m followers on both Instagram and Facebook. LFC now has more than 173m cumulative social followers across its men’s and women’s social media channels.
On the pitch, the men’s team added four new players during this period – Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Calvin Ramsay and Kornel Misciur – and 12 players were transferred out, including Sadio Mane, Divock Origi, Takumi Minamino and Neco Williams. A total of 21 player contracts were renewed, which included Mohamed Salah, Joe Gomez, Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones, Jarell Quansah, Stefan Bajcetic and Ben Doak.
For LFC Women, it was during this period that the team returned to the Barclays Women’s Super League having won the Women’s Championship in 2022. Seven new players were added to the squad, including Shanice van de Sanden, Eartha Cumings, Sofie Lundgaard, Fuka Nagano, Faye Kirby, Gemma Bonner and Miri Taylor; and three players renewed their contracts in Jasmine Matthews, Yana Daniels and Missy Bo Kearns.
Andy Hughes, LFC’s managing director, said: “Operating this great club in a financially sustainable manner and in accordance with football’s governing principles has been our priority since FSG acquired LFC in 2010.
“Despite the significant growing costs of football, the success of our commercial operations demonstrates the strength of our underlying financial position so we can continue to operate sustainably while competing at the highest levels of football.
“We’re really excited to see the completion of the new Anfield Road Stand in the coming months. Having a record league attendance this year demonstrates just how far we’ve come since starting the significant capital investment to redevelop Anfield 10 years ago. Matchday revenue is a hugely important part of our overall financial sustainability model. Having the ability to grow our controllable income streams is a crucial part of our long-term plans, which enables us to continue reinvesting both on and off the pitch to support both our men’s and women’s teams’ ambitions.
“While these financial results are a moment in time on our journey, what remains constant is the growing global appeal of the club and, thanks to our amazing support, LFC continues to be the most-globally-followed club in the Premier League. We look forward to the remainder of this season with our men’s and women’s teams finishing as strongly as possible with continuing success.”
