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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. This is the Business

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Speaker 1: of Soccer.

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Speaker 2: The APPA DIVERSAA in this country is here to stay.

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Speaker 2: The Global World Cup of twenty six will bring just

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Speaker 2: that the globe to the United States.

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Speaker 1: Every four years, you know, there's this moment where the

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Speaker 1: world wakes up to the incredible athletes that we have

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Speaker 1: on the US women's national team.

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Speaker 2: There are more soccer games available to watch on television in.

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Speaker 1: The US than any other country in the world. Soccer,

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Speaker 1: or as I would call it living in the UK,

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Speaker 1: football is the biggest sport in the world. There's a

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Speaker 1: gap in the market around women's soccer, and we're here

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Speaker 1: to fill that gap. Bloomberg Business of Soccer from Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 3: Hello, Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. We are

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Speaker 3: here with a special edition on the Business of Soccer

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Speaker 3: because soccer didn't just stop after the World Cup. I

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Speaker 3: am Vanessa, Pranoo Maglione and another special treat today is

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Speaker 3: joining me as a special guest host. Today is the

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Speaker 3: Business of Sports inter Caitlyn Polly.

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Speaker 1: Hi. Everyone, welcome and excited to join the show today.

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Speaker 3: Our guest today is CEO of one of the biggest

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Speaker 3: soccer teams in the world. You might have heard of

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Speaker 3: them before. Please welcome to the show, Billy Hogan. He

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Speaker 3: is the chief executive officer of Fenway Sports Group International

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Speaker 3: and CEO of Liverpool FC. Billy, thanks so much for

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Speaker 3: joining us in the studio today.

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Speaker 2: Vanessa Caitlin, happy to be here, Thanks for.

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Speaker 1: Having me so.

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Speaker 3: Like I had just mentioned, something just happened here in

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Speaker 3: the US, this small little tournament called the World Cup.

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Speaker 3: I'm sad about it. I can't get over it. You know,

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Speaker 3: it was so special to have it be here in market,

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Speaker 3: to see everyone coming in interacting with it, new fans,

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Speaker 3: casual fans that turn on every four years, and obviously

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Speaker 3: the diehard soccer fans. So tell us from what you

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Speaker 3: saw how people were engaging with it, what do you

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Speaker 3: think that tournament is going to do for the next

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Speaker 3: few years for the soccer market in the US.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think the World Cup historically has always been,

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Speaker 2: as you said, kind of a four year you know, football,

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Speaker 2: I would say, but soccer celebration. I think this year

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Speaker 2: felt different in that sense. I think you know number

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Speaker 2: of people that that I spoke to who came over

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Speaker 2: for the matches and then came back to Europe, you know,

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Speaker 2: said A they had an incredible experience just being in

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Speaker 2: the US and you know, traveling around to the different cities,

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Speaker 2: meeting different people from the US, and there are all

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Speaker 2: sorts of stories about you know, portion sizes and ranch

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Speaker 2: dressing and all those sorts of things. So yeah, so

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Speaker 2: I think overall, I think that you know, the vibe,

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Speaker 2: if you will, was one of just a celebration of

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Speaker 2: of the of the sport, but also a celebration of

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Speaker 2: the culture around the sport, and I think you saw

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Speaker 2: that with you know, the Norwegian team Fenway Sports Group

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Speaker 2: is based in Boston, uh and uh and famously the

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Speaker 2: Scots who invaded Boston and had an incredible ten days

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Speaker 2: stay there and drank the city dry exactly. So it's

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Speaker 2: good for beer sales, good for Carlsburg. But you know,

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Speaker 2: I think generally speaking, it was a really positive experience.

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Speaker 2: I was at the final and so had the opportunity

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Speaker 2: to just see you know, of course, there were tons

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Speaker 2: of Argentina fans, a lot of Spanish fans, but fans

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Speaker 2: of different countries as well that were there, and I

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Speaker 2: think it was just a celebration and that the amount

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Speaker 2: of joy that surrounded the game over the course of

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Speaker 2: the tournament I think was palpable. So the hope is

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Speaker 2: that that's a great ramp and then it continues the growth.

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Speaker 2: I mean, soccer is obviously growing exponentially in the US anyway,

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Speaker 2: but hopefully the World Cup is just another accelerant to it.

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Speaker 1: So I'm kind of curious in a very large market,

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Speaker 1: Liverpool is now competing with not only other Premier League clubs,

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Speaker 1: but also with American sports teams for fans, sponsors attention,

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Speaker 1: what do you think differentiates Liverpool in that market and

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Speaker 1: how can Liverpool kind of capitalize on these new, let's say,

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Speaker 1: casual soccer football fans.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think from from our perspective, I think, you know, individually,

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Speaker 2: we could talk about the club as well, but I

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Speaker 2: think the opportunity by virtue of the fact that we

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Speaker 2: play in the Premier League, which is the biggest football

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Speaker 2: league in the world, the most watched football league in

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Speaker 2: the world, and we are one of, we would argue,

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Speaker 2: the biggest one of the biggest clubs in that league.

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Speaker 2: And so I think when you take kind of that

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Speaker 2: combination of biggest sport in the world, biggest league in

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Speaker 2: the world, biggest, one of the biggest clubs in the world.

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Speaker 2: That's a really positive foundation obviously to be working from.

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Speaker 2: I think that the club itself has its own unique

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Speaker 2: characteristics and I think, you know, not everybody maybe is

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Speaker 2: a Liverpool fan, but I think there's a tremendous amount

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Speaker 2: of respect for the club in the sport. And you know,

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Speaker 2: we try and we try and do things, as we say,

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Speaker 2: the Liverpool way. We try and do things the right way.

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Speaker 2: Since Fenway Sports Group has owned the club is you know,

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Speaker 2: that's that's been the tenure that I've been at the

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Speaker 2: club now, and we've worked really hard to run the

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Speaker 2: club sustainably and that you know, my principal responsibility at

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Speaker 2: the club is the business side of the club and effectively,

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Speaker 2: you know, what we try and do every day is

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Speaker 2: work really closely with our partners, our sponsors and all

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Speaker 2: of our retail partners, all the commercial elements of the club,

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Speaker 2: and also very closely with our supporters around the world

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Speaker 2: to try and drive revenue that we can invest back

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Speaker 2: into the football club and whether that's on the pitch

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Speaker 2: or that's infrastructure. With all the improvements that we've made

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Speaker 2: over the course of the last sixteen years, so I think,

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Speaker 2: you know, we have an advantage in that sense in

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Speaker 2: playing in the Premier League. Our partners here in the

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Speaker 2: US NBC have been a fantastic platform for the club

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Speaker 2: and for the league. And I think also it's you know,

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Speaker 2: it always helps when you're playing well and when you're

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Speaker 2: doing well on the pitch. So you know, we're we're

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Speaker 2: part of the reason why we're here this summer and

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Speaker 2: you know we get the match tomorrow night against against

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Speaker 2: Wrexham here in the Yankee Stadium is to you know,

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Speaker 2: to promote the club and to bring the club closer

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Speaker 2: to those fans, some of whom are are die hard

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Speaker 2: and hardcore and others who who maybe are casual and

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Speaker 2: having that experience. You know, we're just in Nashville we

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Speaker 2: were talking about earlier. Was a great celebration and a

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Speaker 2: fun night out in Nashville as well. So I think

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Speaker 2: all of our fans really getting the chance to kind

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Speaker 2: of be together and create that community is something that's

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Speaker 2: that's really important to the club as well.

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Speaker 3: Billy on that and on this, you know, the international

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Speaker 3: friendlies that you guys are doing coming here, it's not

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Speaker 3: something new, right, This is obviously something that's a strategic

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Speaker 3: thing over years and years. But is it different do

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Speaker 3: you find have you seen, you know, in Nashville, was

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Speaker 3: it different coming out of the World Cup. Do you

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Speaker 3: expect the crowd at Yankee Stadium to be completely different

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Speaker 3: than you've seen in the last couple of years.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it'll be too different, to be fair,

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, still predominantly Liverpool fans, but I think,

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Speaker 2: you know, to the point earlier, you may have some

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Speaker 2: sort of casual fans that were you know, got interested

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Speaker 2: in the sport because of the World Cup and because

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Speaker 2: we're in Nashville or New York tomorrow night or go

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Speaker 2: on Sunday, you know, they may want to come out

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Speaker 2: and check out a match. So I don't think it

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Speaker 2: will be significantly different. But I do think that the

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Speaker 2: buzz around soccer football here in the US is only

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Speaker 2: a positive and so you know, coming in kind of

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Speaker 2: off off the wave of the World Cup is a

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Speaker 2: positive for us. And at the end of the day,

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Speaker 2: this is about our opportunity, not just to bring the

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Speaker 2: club closer to our fans. You know, we have twenty

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Speaker 2: six million fans here in the US. Many of them

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Speaker 2: obviously will not get the chance to come and see

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Speaker 2: us at anfield, but it's also the opportunity for the

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Speaker 2: team to to get some training in. I mean, preseason

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Speaker 2: is pre season, so it's about them, you know, putting

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Speaker 2: in the hours to get the proper training and the

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Speaker 2: facilities that we're working at and that we're playing in

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Speaker 2: are fantastic and that's one of the great things about

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Speaker 2: coming to the US is that you know, the facilities

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Speaker 2: that we work with, the logistics, the operational ease of

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Speaker 2: kind of moving around the country is something that is

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Speaker 2: really beneficial from a training perspective as well.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to pivot gears for a second because I'm curious. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: you guys are trying to grow internationally looking at the

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Speaker 1: United States. I know it's your number one international retail marketplace.

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Speaker 1: Liverpool has become one of the richest football clubs, largely

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Speaker 1: by expanding globally. Yet your identities obviously very rooted in

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Speaker 1: a working class, local fan base. As you grow revenues

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Speaker 1: through you know, premium seating, international supporters, all of that,

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Speaker 1: how do you make sure you don't lose the culture

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Speaker 1: that made Liverpool special and what it is in the

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Speaker 1: first place.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a that's a great question and it's something

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Speaker 2: that you know, we work on every day. I mean,

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Speaker 2: as I said before, one of the one of the

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Speaker 2: most important things from our perspective, the most important thing

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Speaker 2: is our supporters. And you know, our job at the club,

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Speaker 2: if you will, is to is to try and win

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Speaker 2: trophies and to compete at the highest levels and that

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Speaker 2: is both in the Premier League as well as in

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Speaker 2: European football in the Champions leage. And ultimately investment is

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Speaker 2: needed in order to win. And that's just a simple

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Speaker 2: fact of the matter. And so what we work really

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Speaker 2: hard on on the business side is trying to balance that,

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Speaker 2: trying to balance how do we how do we grow revenues,

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Speaker 2: how do we maintain what is you know unique about

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Speaker 2: the club and that connection to the city, to our

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Speaker 2: supporters and to our supporters globally. You know, there's a

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Speaker 2: really when we do come out on tour, you see

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Speaker 2: you know, similar banners, similar song, similar chants, you know,

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Speaker 2: sung by people who've never been to Liverpool, who've never

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Speaker 2: been to anfield, but have this incredible connection to the

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Speaker 2: club through that community of being a supporter. So that's

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Speaker 2: something that you know, we are we are very cognizant

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Speaker 2: of and at the same time we also want to

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Speaker 2: find you know, almost forty percent of our partners from

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Speaker 2: a corporate sponsorship standpoint, are actually based now in the US,

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Speaker 2: so I think, you know, they have seen the opportunity

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Speaker 2: that is presented by you know, a truly global platform,

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Speaker 2: a club that reaches is every market across the world.

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Speaker 2: You know, we literally have one point five billion engagements

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Speaker 2: across our social media channels on an annual basis. We're

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Speaker 2: the most engaged club in the Premier League. So from

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Speaker 2: a marketing standpoint, and an opportunity to kind of tell

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Speaker 2: a story and to tell that authentically through the club,

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Speaker 2: you know, that's something that's really appealing to our partners.

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Speaker 2: So we try and work on the connection of you know,

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Speaker 2: our supporters to the club, try and win trophies, and

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Speaker 2: then we're obviously trying to grow revenue so that we

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Speaker 2: can continue to invest back into the club and that's

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Speaker 2: something that we take incredibly seriously and we think about

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Speaker 2: in pretty much everything we do.

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Speaker 3: We are speaking with Billy Hogan. He's the chief executive

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Speaker 3: officer of Fenware Sports International, chief executive officer of Liverpool FC. Billy.

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Speaker 3: You had mentioned there obviously the investment part of it,

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Speaker 3: and reports are suggesting that Fenway Sports Group has explored

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Speaker 3: bringing minority investors at evaluation about six billion dollars. What

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Speaker 3: can you tell us about the way FSG is thinking

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Speaker 3: about outside investment and where you are in those sorts

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Speaker 3: of conversations.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I think FSG's always been very direct in the

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Speaker 2: sense that if there's an opportunity that is a benefit

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Speaker 2: for the football club, then they would obviously consider that.

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Speaker 2: I think most recently in regards to these reports, you know,

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Speaker 2: there was a statement put out last week which was effectively,

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Speaker 2: we've been approached by a consortium that's that's led, managed

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Speaker 2: and represented by Amit Batia to make a strategic minority

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Speaker 2: investment in the club. And there's really nothing else to

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Speaker 2: say beyond that. So yeah, that's pretty much it.

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Speaker 1: I'm curious, not necessarily related to this potential investment, but

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Speaker 1: more broadly, what would strategic investment generally kind of unlock

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Speaker 1: for Liverpool that it might not have access to now,

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Speaker 1: And would it bring or would it be football operations

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Speaker 1: or infrastructure, commercial expansion, something else that would kind of

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Speaker 1: be unlocked by new capital in general?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I can only I can only go back to

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Speaker 2: my previous statement, which is, you know the fact that

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Speaker 2: we've been approached about a strategic minority investment and there's

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Speaker 2: really nothing to say beyond that at this point.

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Speaker 3: You had mentioned, like earlier in the conversation about sustainability,

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Speaker 3: when you're talking about you know, growing revenues and also

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Speaker 3: you know, looking at especially under the Fenway Sports Group,

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Speaker 3: you know, umbrella being American you know owners, and the

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Speaker 3: American way of owning sports teams is very different than

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Speaker 3: I think. You know, a lot of the English Premier

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Speaker 3: League had previously had previously done things. So having American investors,

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Speaker 3: how does that, you know, shape the way you're thinking

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Speaker 3: about sustainability, you're thinking about growing the business.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, I wouldn't comment on what other

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Speaker 2: ownerships do or don't do, you know, from our perspective.

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Speaker 2: You know, I've worked for FSG for over twenty years

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Speaker 2: and the mindset and the mantra has always been to

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Speaker 2: try and operate the clubs or teams or whatever property

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Speaker 2: it is that we own as well as we possibly

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Speaker 2: can from an operational standpoint, from a commercial stand point,

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Speaker 2: and then to reinvest back into the team. And that's

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Speaker 2: the same mindset at at the Red Sox, at Roush Fenway,

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Speaker 2: at RFK Racing. It was the same at the Pittsburgh Penguins,

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Speaker 2: which we recently sold. It's the same as our partnership

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Speaker 2: now with the PGA Tour, and so you know, really,

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Speaker 2: you know, my focus of coming from the commercial side

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Speaker 2: has always just been about that sustainability piece, and that's

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Speaker 2: been you know, from John Henry, Tom Warner, Mike Gordon,

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Speaker 2: our principals. You know, the mantra has always been, you know,

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Speaker 2: run the clubs of the teams as well as we

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Speaker 2: possibly can and reinvest back into the product and the

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Speaker 2: product ultimately, which is the which is on the field,

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Speaker 2: on the pitch, and try and win. You know, ultimately,

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Speaker 2: we're you know, we're in this. We're all very competitive.

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Speaker 2: We want to win trophies. That's that's ultimately why we

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Speaker 2: wake up every morning to try and win trophies at

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Speaker 2: whatever property we're at. But we try and do that

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Speaker 2: in a sustainable way.

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Speaker 1: In terms of growing and field sustainably. Because I know

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Speaker 1: you were very involved in the renovation of the stadium.

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Speaker 1: I know now you guys have eleven thousand premium seats

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Speaker 1: in the stadium and looking about growing the actual infrastructure

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Speaker 1: of this of the stadium sustainably. How do you think

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Speaker 1: about growing these higher end experiences without fundamentally changing anfield's atmosphere.

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Speaker 1: I know you were talking before about all the songs

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Speaker 1: and the chance and that local culture. How do you

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Speaker 1: keep that intact while also expanding that premium those premium offerings.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's I think there's an element of

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Speaker 2: I mean, you know, from a from a expansion standpoint,

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Speaker 2: and we've gone through sort of two phases of expanding anfield.

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Speaker 2: When we when Fenway Sports Group first came in as

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Speaker 2: the owners of Liverpool, the overall capacity of anfield was

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Speaker 2: just under forty five thousand. We went through the Mainstand

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Speaker 2: redevelopment and we added nine thousand capacity to that to

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Speaker 2: the mainstand and to ultimately to anfield to get to

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Speaker 2: just about fifty fourth out and then ultimately this second

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Speaker 2: phase which got us to just over sixty one thousand,

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Speaker 2: so you know, one of the larger stadiums now in

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Speaker 2: the Premier League. And again part of that in terms

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Speaker 2: of you know, going back to that sustainable sustainability point,

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Speaker 2: you know, part of the expansion was really driven by

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Speaker 2: how can you increase the matchday revenues and at the

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Speaker 2: same time that allows you to reinvest back into the team.

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Speaker 2: So everything that we do, you know, keep coming back

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Speaker 2: to that point is about reinvesting back into the club

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Speaker 2: and so part of that with each expansion, there were

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Speaker 2: hospitality seats obviously included within that, which necessarily helps the

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Speaker 2: business plan in terms of the return on that investment,

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Speaker 2: and then also GA seats and whether those were match

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Speaker 2: day seats where those are new season tickets. So there's

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Speaker 2: a split between sort of where we've been from a

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Speaker 2: GA perspective general admission seat and where we are as

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Speaker 2: well from a hospitality standpoint. So there's always a focus

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Speaker 2: from our standpoint in terms of making sure that you know,

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Speaker 2: we look at them very differently. Hospitality is one experience

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Speaker 2: and GA obviously is a different one, and so you know,

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Speaker 2: we look at each of the you know, if you

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Speaker 2: came to anfield and you'd see, you know, each of

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Speaker 2: the lounges is very different, Each of the experience is

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Speaker 2: very different. It kind of depends where you are in

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Speaker 2: the in the ground. But yeah, that's something that we

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Speaker 2: look at very seriously as we think about overall match

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Speaker 2: day revenues and again, you know, coming back to that

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Speaker 2: point around competing with our competition set, you know, we

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Speaker 2: need to look at that as well as it relates

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Speaker 2: to the overall landscape of football on a European basis,

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Speaker 2: not just in the UK.

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Speaker 3: Right. Absolutely, I want to get back to the conversation

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Speaker 3: a little bit about growing here in the US and

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Speaker 3: what the next phase of that looks like for you

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Speaker 3: as you already have a lot of fans here in

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Speaker 3: the US obviously, and like you said, you already have

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Speaker 3: forty percent of your corporate sponsors are also based in

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Speaker 3: the US. So what is the next phase and what

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Speaker 3: are you hoping to grow?

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Speaker 2: Yeah continued, I think I would say, first of all,

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Speaker 2: continued expansion probably of our of our corporate partner base.

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Speaker 2: I think that aspect of of you know, US companies

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Speaker 2: that have global aspirations and the platform that football provides

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Speaker 2: something that reaches into you know, every market around the

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Speaker 2: world is something that you know, we are we do

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Speaker 2: every day and we you know, we continue to talk

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Speaker 2: to potential partners about about sort of joining the club,

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Speaker 2: which is something that that our team. Ben LADDIEIR, Chief

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Speaker 2: Commercial Officer, and his team are working on every day.

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Speaker 2: You mentioned retail, and kayl you mentioned this is one

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Speaker 2: of our It is actually our largest international market from

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Speaker 2: a retail perspective. About twenty six percent of our overall

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Speaker 2: sales come from the US, so we have expanded our

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Speaker 2: retail footprint. We have twenty five standalone Liverpool retail stores

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Speaker 2: around the world, which is more than any other sports

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Speaker 2: team in the world. We don't have any in the

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Speaker 2: u US yet, so that's potentially something we're we're looking

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Speaker 2: hard at what that might what that might entail. And

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Speaker 2: then you know, there's you know, we have sixty two

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Speaker 2: official Liverpool supporters clubs that are based here in thirty

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Speaker 2: two states, so the opportunity to expand those and twelve

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Speaker 2: international academies that we have here as well, so and

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Speaker 2: those are really about you know, grassroots and and sort

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Speaker 2: of our coaches being on the ground and representing the

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Speaker 2: club and it is yeah, and thousands of kids in

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Speaker 2: the US wearing Liverpool kit running around playing football or soccer,

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Speaker 2: which is great and obviously more of that would be

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Speaker 2: even better. So, you know, from our perspective, I think

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Speaker 2: that you know, this market has such a huge opportunity

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Speaker 2: with the growth of football, the growth of soccer that

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Speaker 2: you know, we think, we know that Liverpool is one

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Speaker 2: of the biggest clubs in the world is something that

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Speaker 2: you know, we think that there's a huge opportunity here

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Speaker 2: for us. And the other point I would add is

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Speaker 2: also you know, we're here over the course of these

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Speaker 2: two weeks and we you know, we bring the LFC Foundation,

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Speaker 2: our coaches to come out and work in the community.

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Speaker 2: I think that's something also that's really important about the

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Speaker 2: club is that you know, you mentioned it earlier, the

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Speaker 2: connection to the community back at home in Liverpool, but

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Speaker 2: also the connection community wherever we go. So some of

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Speaker 2: our foundation coaches were headed off to one of the

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Speaker 2: Fire Department in New York branches to do a soccer

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Speaker 2: school with some of the kids from from the Fire

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Speaker 2: Department and associated so and associated charitable organizations. We make

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Speaker 2: a wish coming to the hotel this evening and so

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Speaker 2: there's a lot that we do when we're on the

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Speaker 2: ground as well to identify this isn't just about sort

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Speaker 2: of coming in, playing a match and leaving. It's important

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Speaker 2: that we do try and you know, sort of put

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Speaker 2: some roots down and continue to engage even when the

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Speaker 2: club is gone.

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Speaker 3: Busy days, Busy days well our thanks to Billy Hogan,

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Speaker 3: chief executive officer at Family Sports Group International and Liverpool FC. Billy,

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Speaker 3: thanks so much for joining lumber Business Sports. We really

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Speaker 3: appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: Thank you both for having me.

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Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of the Business of Soccer,

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Speaker 1: a special edition of The Bloomberg Business of Sports.

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Speaker 3: I'm Vanesa Prodomo Maglione with Kaitlyn Poley. You're listening to

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Speaker 3: the Bloomberg Businesses Sports from Bloomberg Radio around the world,

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Speaker 3: and don't forget to catch our podcasts on all your

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Speaker 3: podcast platforms and go to Bloomberg dot com to subscribe

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Speaker 3: to the Bloomberg Business of Sports Newsletter to stay up

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Speaker 3: to date on all our juicy insights.

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Speaker 1: Awesome. That's it for this episode of the Business of Soccer,

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Speaker 1: a special edition of The Bloomberg Business of Sports.

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Speaker 3: I'm Vanessa Prodomo Maglione with Caitlyn Polly. Thanks again for

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Speaker 3: joining us, and tune in again next week and stay

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Speaker 3: up to date on all our juicy insights with the

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Speaker 3: Bloomberg Businesses Sports Newsletter.