Liverpool's commercial department will have a busy time of it over the next 12 months or so.
At the top of the 'to do' list for the Reds is sorting a new front-of-shirt sponsorship deal from 2023, with the current agreement in place with long-standing partners Standard Chartered to come to an end following this coming season.
Standard Chartered, who have been Liverpool's main shirt partner since 2010, have been in talks over extending that partnership further, although the club has been seeking expressions of interest and testing the market to try and find out just what it may be able to raise for the next deal cycle.
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At present, the Standard Chartered deal delivers around £40m annually. The financial services firm have the option to extend but the fee they are paying currently will likely be significantly increased from what it was at the last renewal in 2018 - given the rise in the value of Liverpool's global brand thanks to the success that has been seen for Jurgen Klopp's men on the field.
The Reds' current kit partnerships bring in a combined £80m per year guaranteed. The deal with suppliers Nike delivers a £30m flat fee but having the potential to more than double that through the 20 per cent fee Liverpool receive on the sale of Reds/Nike branded merchandise globally. The next set of accounts is likely to show the first true reflection of that deal.
Then there is the sleeve sponsorship from travel firm Expedia, a deal struck in 2020 for around £10m per year, which was a £2m per year rise on what had previously been in place with former sleeve partners Western Union.
Like Standard Chartered, Expedia's deal expires at the end of the 2022/23 season and decisions will have to be made on whether to extend the current partnership or see what the market can offer now that it is more buoyant post pandemic. The previous sleeve deal was signed during a severely Covid-impacted 2020 when football had been shuttered for a period and there was much uncertainty around what the future would hold. What was a flat commercial market in 2020 is now far stronger, with numerous clubs having inked improvements to the commercial value of their key partnerships this past year.
The most recent to do so are Manchester United, who have signed a £20m-per-year sleeve partnership with IT services provider DXC Technology, with the company also taking on the title of the club's official digital transformation partner.
For Liverpool, who have been speaking to firms from a variety of sectors in order to get a feel for the true market value of their sponsorships, the value of the sleeve sponsor could find itself doubling from £10m to £20m. With Chelsea having signed a sleeve sponsorship deal for the same value as the United one with cryptocurrency firm WhaleFin, the Reds will likely seek at least the same value from their next deal, especially given that they can offer greater exposure and chance of on-field success than the two clubs who have managed to get double the value on their latest deals.
The commercial market is more buoyant than it was and Liverpool could find themselves generating far greater annual commercial revenues by the time the 2023/24 season kicks off. The ECHO understands a decision on the front-of-shirt sponsorship may yet take until the start of 2023, with the club continuing to engage with potential partners over the deal.
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