Fenway Sports Group own multiple teams in multiple time zones but, whichever way you cut it, Liverpool are still their best investment to date
FSG, whose takeover in 2010 saw them pay Tom Hicks and George Gillett a paltry £300m, have seen their asset appreciated in value many times over.
According to most analysis, Liverpool are now worth about £4bn, which also tallies with the price paid by Dynasty Equity for a small minority stake in the club in September 2023
That means that Premier League champions elect Liverpool are the most valuable franchise in the Fenway portfolio, with a healthy advantage over the Boston Red Sox, who are usually appraised at about £3.5bn.
It speaks to the strength of the Liverpool brand and their cash generative power that, despite being the only FSG outpost on this side of the Atlantic, they are still top of the pile.
Unlike in European football, profits are all but guaranteed and expenses are capped in US franchise sports leagues where the Red Sox and Pittsburgh Penguins operate.
With Liverpool, however, FSG are working in a context where revenues can be volatile from season to the next, while the recruitment and retention space race means they feel they have to be more risk-averse.
That is at least partly why there has been resistance to address Mohamed Salah Virgil van Dijk’s contracts situations by simply bowing to their demands in terms of basic and variable pay and desired deal lengths.
It is a conservative approach that has infuriated Liverpool fans at times – despite the success that the inspired appointment of Arne Slot has yielded at Anfield
If any of their big earners vacate the wage bill this summer though, there will surely be a recalculation and, even by FSG’s risk-averse standards, an acceleration in the transfer market.
In the States, there have been similar complaints about the Boston-based investment group’s perceived frugal approach
With one of their franchises, the Pittsburgh Penguins, FSG are in fact trying to sell a significant stake, having only acquired full control in 2021
Like Liverpool, the value of the Penguins – the NHL franchise who won the divisions championships in FSG’s first season at the helm – has only gone up in recent years.
However, Fenway Sports Group are not ready to cash in entirely just yet. And the latest news from across the pond could be telling in their long-term plans for Liverpool too
The Merseysiders are one of football’s biggest global brands – and many football finance experts insist that monetising their international fanbases is the golden ticket to unlocking profits and increasing value.
This summer ahead of 2025-26, Liverpool will visit Japan and Hong Kong for pre-season. They have also visited the US on a number of occasions.
However, in Liverpool’s 133-year history, they have only played a handful of competitive matches outside of Europe, at the 2005 Club World Championship and 2019 Club World Cup, and 1981 and 1984 Intercontinental Cups.
Every competitive match Liverpool have played outside Europe
In this respect, football is lagging behind its competitors in American sport, where there is less resistance to going global
This week, for example, it was announced that FSG’s Pittsburgh Penguins will play in the NHL Global Series in Stockholm this summer
It will be the first time in almost 20 years that the Penguins have played internationally in the NHL regular season. Their opponents for the occasion are the Nashville Stealers.
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Liverpool replace executive with 14 years at Anfield
While Tom Werner was candid about his ambitions for Liverpool to play in the US, John Henry – Liverpool and FSG’s principal owner – has distanced himself from those comments
The ostensible difference in opinion is exactly the sort of situation where a communications or PR executive comes in useful to help finesse the ownership’s narrative
For the last 14 years, Susan Black has been director of communications at Anfield.
She is also a director for Liverpool Women and the LFC Foundation.
Black is seen within the industry as a brilliant asset for FSG. She has been with the club for almost the entirety of the ownership’s time in L4.