When Liverpool signed their first sleeve sponsorship deal with Expedia in 2020 the football landscape was very different.
It was early in the pandemic and football, as well as business, was worried about just what the future would look like. Stadiums were off limits to fans and companies were looking at where they could save money during tough times, with many marketing budgets taking a hammering.
To try and bring about new sponsorship deals in such a climate, and to see them increase in value, was no small task for the commercial departments of football clubs.
Liverpool did, however, managed to get themselves a bump in value for their sleeve deal when they inked a three-year contract with travel firm Expedia, getting a £2m rise on the previous £8m per year deal that had been in place with Western Union.
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Liverpool managed to get what they wanted from their main front of shirt sponsorship deal last month, sealing a four-year extension to their partnership with long-time sponsors Standard Chartered, a deal understood to be worth more than £50m per year and a more than £10m per rise on the contract that had been signed back in 2018.
Standard Chartered had a year remaining on their deal. Now that has been safely put to bed the focus shifted on to Expedia, whose current three-year deal ends next summer, and whether that partnership continues.
Speaking in the August edition of FC Business Magazine, Liverpool CEO Billy Hogan said: "Our partnership with Expedia is working great.
"The process will be similar to that of the principal partner. We are speaking with companies and it is an ongoing process."
For Standard Chartered things had changed from their last conversations with Liverpool over a renewal in 2018, with the Reds having won both the Champions League and Premier League and increased their brand value globally. All those factors helped Liverpool drive the price up.
For Expedia there have also been changes, with there now more security over football's future post pandemic, travel having opened back up, Liverpool having grown in stature and deals struck at other clubs for the same sponsorship space having provided the Reds with some leverage and examples of the strength of the market at present to take into negotiations.
Manchester United recently secured a £20m per year sleeve sponsorship deal with DXC Technologies while Chelsea signed a multi-year deal with cryptocurrency firm WhaleFin for a similar value.
Liverpool will likely want to be on par with their rivals when it comes to the value of their sleeve sponsorship, and if the strength of the Standard Chartered renewal is anything to go by they should have plenty of confidence about achieving a considerable rise.
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