Work on the redevelopment of Liverpool's Anfield Road end has been underway for some time now. When Reds boss Jurgen Klopp put the ceremonial spade in the ground on the £80m plan on a rainy morning at Anfield in September last year it marked the beginning of another important phase for the club and owners Fenway Sports Group.
The steel framework has risen since then the project has moved on significantly - a 300 tonne roof truss lifted into place in July - with an additional 7,000 seats to be available to help service the huge demand for matchday tickets, as well as the additional revenue streams that will arrive from conference spaces and other means.
For Liverpool, a club that places considerable importance on having a strong balance sheet to sit alongside on the pitch success, it will prove valuable in the years to come, the Anfield capacity to edge past the 60,000 mark following the Main Stand work that was completed back in 2016.
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It is something that the Reds had to do to make sure that they were maximising the revenue streams that were available to them at a time when some of their rivals were moving into new state of the art stadia, such as Tottenham Hotspur's £1bn home that they took residence in back in 2019 but were unable to reap the rewards of due to the pandemic.
But according to a new report from analysts at respected football business website Off The Pitch, Spurs look set to break the £100m barrier for matchday revenues (£105.9m) alongside Manchester United (£110.7m). Those forecasts put them well ahead of Liverpool at present, with the report forecasting that the Reds will deliver £89.7m in matchday revenues when the 2021/22 accounts are revealed for the most recent financial year.
Of course, with the 2020/21 financial year taking into account a Premier League season played behind closed doors there is a major rise in matchday revenues across the 20 member clubs, with Liverpool's rising 2,391 per cent from £3.6m to £89.7m.
While commercial revenues, prize money from on-pitch success and more efficient cost management has allowed for Liverpool to reach second in the projected revenues for 2021/22, overtaking Manchester United for the first time, it is matchday revenue where they trail, and the need to expand and maximise the potential for Anfield has heightened in its importance.
The completion of the Anfield Road development, slated to be done by the beginning of next season, will deliver a considerable boost in matchday revenues that will likely be seen in the 2023/24 accounts that will be published in two years' time.
The anticipation is that the development and the extra capacity it brings to help service demand, as well as the additional revenue streams attached to the work through conference and other sales, will see Liverpool push through the £100m barrier, something only Spurs and United are forecast to have managed.
Arsenal (£82m), Chelsea (£63.3m) and Manchester City (£57.1m) are all projected to fall well behind Spurs, United and Liverpool, with Liverpool the only club really to have the chance to grow their matchday revenues from the teams behind them in next couple of years.
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