The true financial boost Taylor Swift handed Liverpool FC as Eras Tour ends

Next summer, Liverpool will host four world-class artists over six separate nights. Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Dua Lipa, Billy Joel, and Lana Del Rey will all take the stage at the home of the Reds.

Maximising the potential of Anfield has been a key part of the plan for owners Fenway Sports Group when it comes to creating new revenue streams, with the redevelopment of the Main Stand in 2017 and the Anfield Road End last year a symbol of that.

This past summer saw Anfield play host to the world’s biggest music artist right now, with pop superstar Taylor Swift performing three sell-out nights at the stadium. That was followed by two dates played by another American pop icon, Pink, in the weeks that followed.

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Swift wrapped up her phenomenally successful Eras Tour last weekend in Vancouver, Canada, with the tour by far and away the highest grossing tour of all time, with New York Times data showing that 149 shows grossed almost $14m per show.

It was lucrative for Liverpool, too, and a reason why summer concerts are likely to be a regular fixture moving forward as they become ever more valuable to clubs who have ownership of their own venues.

Anfield was one of around a dozen sports-team owned venues to appear as part of Swift’s global tour, with three nights played only surpassed by the six-night runs that took place at the Rogers Center in Toronto, and the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

According to estimates, Swift’s three nights likely bagged the Reds between $9m and $12m (£7m and £9.5m), although the economics of the concerts can vary due to region given US ticket prices carried a premium.

Liverpool were handed a rental fee for the stadium by promoters AEG, while the club stood to make as much as £1.2m per night in merchandise sales, with that sum averaged out across the 149 dates that Swift played.

On the evening of the concerts themselves it was a running total with the club not knowing what it had taken until the final concert was completed and all the merchandise and ticket sales collated.

The clubs, in some cases, can also sell their own hospitality packages for their suites to generate additional income.

As per the Wall Street Journal, the average Eras Tour show generated about $10m (£7.8m) in ticket sales, a number slightly larger for the bigger venues and a little lower for the smaller ones, as expected. However, as Swift didn’t participate in dynamic pricing, something which the promoters of Oasis’ comeback gigs were accused of earlier this year, the increase in ticket prices over time was solely due to demand on the secondary market.

From a club perspective, the hosting of music concerts and other major events outside the football calendar, of which they are permitted six per year by Liverpool City Council, can deliver north of £10m after all is factored in, depending on the size of the artist.

But what of the impact on the local economy?

A new report, produced by Turley Economics has revealed that the extent of the financial benefit for the local economy of having world-famous stars play in front of hundreds of thousands of people at Anfield has delivered £31.3m to the local economy and created thousands of jobs for local people.

Since 2019 a total of seven artists have played 11 concerts at Anfield, with close to half a million people visiting the stadium.

Half of those visitors came through the Anfield turnstiles this summer alone, with three hugely successful nights of Swift as part of her Eras worldwide tour and two nights of Pink’s Summer Carnival 2024.

When speaking exclusively to the ECHO during the summer, Liverpool chief commercial officer Ben Latty said: “We had roughly 250,000 people that came to those concerts and I think you just have to think about what that does for the city and the local economy.

“It was really apparent that these were people that were coming into the city to stay in the hotels, eat in the restaurants, make use of the local transport links, etc. I just think it's amazing for us to be able to bring those events to the city.

“I actually think that's a responsibility as well to try and bring these huge ‘Class A’, should we say, acts to the city of Liverpool and continue to make Liverpool famous for what it is famous for, which is music and being the sort of the centre of entertainment in certainly in the UK, perhaps even in Europe.

“It was hugely successful. It's been something that's been a long time planning. These things don't happen overnight. It is sort of 12 months out when you start having conversations.”

For both the Swift and Pink gigs, Liverpool likely pushed past the £10m mark in terms of revenue, something that provides a welcome summer cash boost and working capital during a busy period.

It is something that the club plan on keeping as a fixture moving forward.

Added Latty: “I think Anfield's right up there now and I think that's kudos to the city. We put on a good show when we bring major events. There was great work from the team as well behind the scenes at Liverpool to make sure that it's a seamless visit from these huge, huge acts.

“I think for us it's something we will continue to look at.”