With the redevelopment of Anfield well under way, rumours have continued to swirl that club owners Fenway Sports Group will look to offload Liverpool in the near future after making them more commercially and financially viable — a suggestion that Reds CEO Ian Ayre has adamantly dismissed.
The departure of a number of high earning players, the lucrative deals with commercial partners, the expansion of their historic stadium and a perceived disinterest in the day to day affairs of the club from John Henry, the public face of the ownership group, has lead a number of people to speculate that the bottom line is being shored up to ready the club for sale. While it’s hard to discount the theory since no one outside of the tight circle that is FSG knows for sure what they’re planning for the future, Ayre either isn’t convinced, or he isn’t privy.
“Fenway are not going to dispose of the club as they are clearly demonstrating” he said in a recent interview with FC Business magazine in reference to the on-going expansion and development of Anfield. The construction, which is operating on an interest free £115mil loan to the club from the owners, should be paid back in “five or six years” according to Ayre with the 4,000 general admission seats and 4,500 hospitality places expected to generate an additional £20mil per year.
On top of that, the club has upped their expectations for the revenue that can be generated from finding a sponsor for the newly expanded Main Stand with initial estimates of £1mil per year rising to upwards of £5mil instead. “The commercial department is in talks with various people. We didn’t think that looking for a naming rights deal on a stadium as iconic as Anfield made sense, but there are real value and benefits to be had around a naming rights deal on the new stand” explained the Reds CEO. “It is not just a question of how much a deal is worth, but more about which deal would allow the club and partner to enjoy the most benefit.”
