Liverpool Football Club boosted the Liverpool City Region economy by £497m GVA during the 2017-18 season, according to a report compiled by Deloitte's Sports Business Group.
The report highlights the economic impact LFC’s matches and day-to-day activities had on the city, the Liverpool City Region and the United Kingdom as a whole for the campaign.
Last season, the city itself felt the impact of £454m GVA (gross value added) and £575m looking at the UK as a whole.
The club’s activities support more than 4,500 full-time equivalent jobs across the Liverpool economy (2.3 per cent of jobs in Liverpool), a number which jumps to 5,700 when looking at this from a Liverpool City Region perspective.
The ripple effect of LFC’s activity on the city is also clear – through local business supply chains and their employees, the knock-on effect is an indirect and induced £108m boost to the economy of Liverpool.
More than 1.5m football fans came to Anfield in the 2017-18 season and the impact of visitors from outside the local area is reflected in their £102m contribution to the visitor economy of the Liverpool City Region – broken down into £42m spend on accommodation, £28m in the area’s restaurants, cafes and bars, £15m on travel, £12m in the region’s retail, and a further £5.4m on groceries and other items.
Beyond matchday, the Deloitte report indicates that concerts due to be held at Anfield in the summer will also have a significant direct economic impact on the Liverpool City Region. The high-profile acts due to perform, such as Bon Jovi, Pink and Take That, could create a £4.1m impact per event through visitor spend on accommodation, restaurants and bars, and travel during their visit to the city.
Peter Moore, chief executive officer at LFC, said: “Understanding how our club impacts our region both from an economic and a social perspective is important. It’s clear that many of our matchday visitors come to Liverpool for the football, but return for the city itself, so there is a longevity and continuous cycle to the impact we’re creating.”
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