NewsLFC announces record commercial revenues to support club's growth on and off the pitch

Summary of the financial period:

• Media revenue fell by £19m to £242m
• Matchday revenue fell by £7m to £80m
• Commercial revenue rose by £25m to £272m
• Administrative costs rose by £17m to £562m
• Overall revenue remained static at £594m
• Loss before tax was £9m

During the reporting period for the year to May 31, 2023, commercial revenues increased by £25m to become the biggest revenue source across the club’s three main income streams.

The increase in commercial revenue has balanced the drop in both media and matchday areas, which has resulted in overall revenue for the period remaining the same as the previous year at £594m.

The commercial success was achieved due to a strong growth in partnerships and a hugely successful 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, which is the first of its kind in the football industry. 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.

Since this reporting period, the commercial business continues to thrive, with the popular Nike kit launch this season and the signing of four unparalleled blue-chip partners in Peloton, UPS, Orion Innovation and Google Pixel. This is now the fourth consecutive season that LFC has been confirmed as having the strongest brand in the Premier League with AAA+ brand strength rating*.

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. LFC does continue to be the most-watched team in world football across the past five seasons, with an average per season broadcast audience of more than 724m**.

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.

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.

Shortly after this reporting period, LFC further invested in the women’s team to create the AXA Melwood Training Centre, a fully refurbished elite training facility and Professional Game Academy.

LFC also continued with its incredible support in the community. During this reporting period, the club’s Foundation achieved a 47 per cent increase in the number of people supported – from 83,000 to more than 122,000 people. The charity contributed £5m into the local economy (Liverpool City Region) and delivered more than £32m in health benefits over the 12-month period. For every £1 spent, LFC Foundation created a social value return of £13.

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.”

*Source: Brand Finance Football 50

**Source: Nielsen Sports (Linear TV, OTT & OOH)