The Eagles brought a close to Anfield's musical offerings on Monday night as Don Henley, Joe Walsh and the crew delivered a masterclass in Liverpool.
The US rockers followed on from the Rolling Stones and Elton John in playing Anfield in the past fortnight, some of the world's most iconic musicians bringing their craft to Merseyside and into the home of the Reds.
All three gigs delivered sell-out crowds, fantastic memories and, for Liverpool, some welcome revenues during the off-season by making best use of the world class stadium they call home. After the successes of Take That, Bon Jovi and Pink in the 2019 the trio of gigs for 2022 were a welcome sight post pandemic.
But what happens after the 'Boys of Summer' have gone?
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Liverpool are allowed to stage up to six non-football events at Anfield per season per an agreement with Liverpool City Council, but the logistics involved in putting on music concerts, the dismantling and rebuilding of enormous stages, staffing each event with Liverpool staff and putting on hospitality is no easy task. To do more than three gigs per summer for the Reds would be a stretch, especially with the relatively short turnaround time from the end of the season to the beginning of a new one, with the pitch needing time to settle ahead of pre-season friendlies and a gruelling Premier League season.
Concerts are valuable to Liverpool, worth millions to the club when all is said and done. They aren't easy to put a price on, however, as the nature of them means that the actual value of what the club can receive can even change on the night as ticket and commercial sales are all considered and the numbers ran by promoters and Liverpool staff during the event itself. At the end a figure is reached and then divided up as agreed.
Three sell out gigs, three global bands and three nights of merchandise and hospitality sales means that the numbers are significant, and for a club like Liverpool allows them to bring in the kind of important revenue streams that were denied in the summers of 2020 and 2021 as COVID impacted life so significantly.
The return of live music to Anfield provided a boon to both the club and the city, and there are plans to continue with such summer events for the coming seasons, although some question marks remain over the ability to do it next summer given the work that will be going on to get the Anfield Road End redevelopment completed in time for the beginning of the 2023/24 season.
Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group 's continued redevelopment plan for Anfield had the maximisation of the facilities to help generate revenues during the off-season as key part of the plans. FSG have used the home of their Boston Red Sox baseball team, Fenway Park, as a venue for music concerts, with Def Leppard, Lady Gaga, Aerosmith and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers among those to be performing in Boston before the end of this year.
The value in live music is something that FSG have previously recognised and last year they laid the final beam of a 5,000-seater music theatre venue adjacent to Fenway Park Stadium, a build that has been done in conjunction with global entertainment company Live Nation.
More big names will be heading to Anfield in the future to deliver more spectacular nights of entertainment. For the city and the club it's win-win and a brings back on board another revenue stream that was snuffed out during the past two years.
