Manchester United may have walked off with the Bangkok Century Cup on Tuesday night, but for Liverpool the visit to the Far East is already proving a huge success.
Having spent two years off the road due to the pandemic – and been away from Asia since the trip to Hong Kong in 2017 – the Reds have been received in raucous fashion by fanatical supporters who have been watching from afar as Jurgen Klopp masterminded their team to a glut of silverware.
On and off the pitch, Liverpool have meant business for some time, with the triumphs of Klopp’s side backed up by a burgeoning commercial department and an ongoing increase in both number and value of sponsorship partnerships.
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Fans in Thailand, where the Reds spent the first leg of the tour before jetting to Singapore on Wednesday, had waited seven years for their heroes to return. And the value of such trips, at least from a wider perspective, isn’t lost on chief executive Billy Hogan.
Not least given the message it sends to their main rivals, the support for Liverpool clearly edging that for United this time around.
“The tours give you a great example of how big the club is,” Hogan tells the ECHO. “When you think of the biggest sporting institutions in the world, Liverpool Football Club is in that conversation.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to work in sports for 20 years, and before I worked for Liverpool I thought I understood how big sports teams and clubs work. Then one of the first business trips I took having joined the club was to come to Asia and I was blown away by the reception, the reaction and just how popular the club is.
“During the last 10 years I’ve worked at the club, you can go anywhere in the world and find Liverpool fans. This tour has been a great opportunity to see that, and across social media the opportunity of fans everywhere to be able to see the reaction we get when we come to a market such as Thailand, hopefully it impresses on people how big the club is.”
Being regular visitors in Asia over the past few decades – this was a seventh trip to Thailand alone – has allowed Liverpool to build a lasting presence. There is an official club shop in the Siam One Square shopping mall in Bangkok while former players have been taking part in several initiatives with local children and charities through the LFC Foundation. They will do the same in Singapore before the team travel home after Friday’s friendly against Crystal Palace.
“It was certainly a busy few days when we were in Thailand,” says Hogan. “Having not travelled the last two years due to the pandemic, having the opportunity to get back on to the pre-season tours is great. Everybody has really enjoyed the experience.
“The reception has been incredibly warm, enthusiastic and it was great just landing at the airport in Bangkok when there were thousands of fans waiting for us, along with those outside the hotel. Every event we go to, the supporters are there. The reception has always been tremendous whenever we come to Thailand, and this time was no different.”
Oppressive weather conditions, a hectic schedule and many hours of air travel may not be the ideal preparation for players ahead of another arduous Premier League season, but it has long been accepted as part of the bigger long-term picture. While almost impossible to put an exact figure on the financial gain of a tour, the positive impact can be wide-reaching.
And explaining the importance of such pre-season tours, Hogan adds: “There are couple of different reasons to tour. Certainly there is financial opportunity within the tour, but most importantly it has always been about bringing the club to the fans on a global basis.
“The match, obviously, is the big event. But we spend a lot of time engaging with supporters through community events, such as the Side By Side programme we run out here through our partners Right To Play and the LFC Foundation.
“As well as an opportunity to engage with the supporters and the community, tours also offer a chance to engage with our partners. There really are multi-faceted reasons for us to come out and tour. It’s why we are excited to be back out there.”
Preparations are already under way to take Liverpool back on the road next summer. Asia is again a possibility, although North America – which has become a more regular destination under the ownership of Fenway Sports Group – has particular appeal having not been visited since 2019.
“Touring is never about short-term financial gain,” says Hogan. “In fact, we try not to make short-term financial decisions because that can leave you in difficult places.
“It’s about the overall impact of bringing the club out to these markets. It takes more than a year for a tour to come together. We look at which markets are important for the club, our supporters and our partners, and we try and put all that together.
“We sit down as a commercial team with commercial director Ben Latty and look at what are the most important markets for the club and we try – although it doesn’t always come off – and work out ways to bring the club to those markets.
“We are already starting to look are where we could go next year. Asia has always had a massive Liverpool supporter base, and it’s a big place so there are lots of places to go. We’ve looked at a number of different markets. North America is another one and the US is a partner that continues to grow.”
Back on Merseyside, meanwhile, came a significant landmark in the £60million Anfield Road redevelopment with the installation of a 300-foot roof truss.
Liverpool expect construction to be completed in time for the start of next season, which would take capacity to over 61,000. At present, only Manchester United’s Old Trafford and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium can claim possible higher attendances in English club football.
No decision has yet been made on the structure of ticket prices, while the club are holding talks with supporter groups over the extent of the provision of rail seating after the Government earlier this month confirmed all Premier League clubs could operate such licensed areas.
“We are still on track for it being ready for the start of the 2023/24 season and the truss going up is the next big visible achievement in the project,” adds Hogan.
“Overall, the project has been on track, on budget and on time and Buckingham, our partners on the construction, have been great. Thankfully, we had a fixed-cost contract, and while there is the impact of the pandemic and supply chain issues affecting everyone across the world right now, we haven’t been overly impacted.
“In terms of ticket prices, that’s an ongoing conversation. We will get into that in the middle of this season when we go through ticket renewals. We are also continuing conversations over the amount of rail seating we include. That started as a trial which took place over the past year.”
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