FSG repeat Fenway trick to give Liverpool another big financial boost

Hosting world-class artists at Anfield was part of the motivation for Fenway Sports Group in redeveloping the home of Liverpool. On Monday the second major artist for next summer was announced.

Having already secured two dates from British-Albanian pop star Dua Lipa, the Reds have announced the second artist who will perform at Anfield next summer, with legendary American singer-songwriter Billy Joel to bring his talents to Merseyside on Saturday, June 21, 2025.

The ‘Piano Man’ is playing his first concert in Liverpool in 45 years and his Anfield appearance will be one of only two gigs he will be doing in the UK next summer, the other being north of the border in Scotland when he plays at Murrayfield, Edinburgh.

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The two dates are, in fact, Joel’s only European tour dates for 2025, and with demand expected to be high for tickets due to the scarcity of dates, another sell-out evening is expected at Anfield, something that aids the boosting of the coffers at Liverpool as they seek to maximise the revenue opportunities that the stadium provides outside of the regular-season football calendar.

Liverpool’s owners FSG want to turn Anfield into a world-class venue that can host the biggest artists in the world each summer, something that can deliver well in excess of £10m into club funds with a full schedule.

This summer saw US superstar Taylor Swift play three sell-out dates, while pop icon Pink played two hugely successful evenings.

Joel fits the bill for Anfield. He allows for the club to attract another genre of artist that appeals to different demographics, but one who will be tough to see in Europe due to just two dates next year. That means the demand will be there for tickets.

FSG might have leaned into their own connections with Joel to make sure that Anfield got the nod for the latest leg of the ‘Billy Joel in Concert Tour’, which has been ongoing since late 2013.

During the past 11 years of touring, Joel has played predominantly in North America, with New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden the most frequented venue. But he has also toured widely around the US in major stadiums, appearing five times since 2014 at Fenway Park, the home of the FSG-owned Boston Red Sox baseball team.

So successful have those concerts been, the most recent being in 2021, that bringing Joel to Anfield was seen as a major coup.

Last month a report, produced by Turley Economics, 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 this 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 to 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 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.

“I think we are very much on the tip of the tongue of promoters when they're looking for venues to take their artists to in the UK.

“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.”

Liverpool are allowed to stage up to six non-football events at Anfield per season per an agreement with Liverpool City Council. Hosting concerts during the closed season are valuable to Liverpool, worth millions to the club when all is said and done. They aren't easy to put a price on, however, as the nature of concerts means the actual value of what the club can receive can even change on the night, as ticket and commercial sales are all considered and the numbers run by promoters and Liverpool staff during the event itself. At the end a figure is reached and then divided up as agreed.

Liverpool are currently consulting with residents who live in the vicinity of Anfield Stadium over potentially moving an agreed respite period to mid-July to mid-August. Letters were sent out by the club earlier this month.

At present there is an agreement in place where there is a ‘respite period’ of 31 days where there are no live events held at the stadium. That period currently runs throughout the month of July.

The club intends to maintain an unbroken 31-day respite period but is canvassing residents for their views on the possibility of moving that period to start in mid-July and run until mid-August.

The reason for the proposal is that the club wants to build on its growing reputation as a world-class venue for the biggest artists on major world stadium tours, and through conversations with promoters have found there to be a significant demand for concerts to be held in early July, which currently falls in the 31-day period.

The club have the opportunity to bring another ‘major global act’ to Anfield, but that opportunity exists in early July.