Liverpool FC CEO Billy Hogan Talks US Fan Base

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**Dani Burger** (0:07)
Liverpool FC is looking to grow its global footprint with its site set on the US. The club is launching its latest away kit today in Brooklyn at an event attended by both super fans like John Oliver and players. Joining me now, so pleased to say, is Billy Hogan. He is the CEO of Liverpool Football Club and Fenway Sports Group International. Billy, thank you so much for stopping by.

**Billy Hogan** (0:27)
Hey, thanks for having me.

**Dani Burger** (0:28)
And look, this is a really cool event, and you've also noted that the US is becoming one of your largest international markets. It's a tough market for sports just because it is so dense in its variety of sports fandom. What has changed to make Liverpool FC so popular here in the US.?

**Billy Hogan** (0:42)
I think, thankfully, we have been popular here in the US. We've got about 26 million fans that follow the club here in the US., and actually about 40% of our corporate partners are actually U.S.-based companies.
I think as a football club, we have a big following here. We have been coming to the US pretty regularly over the course of the last 20 years. We typically alternate between North America and Asia. We're back this summer. We played in Nashville the other night against Sunderland. We play against Wrexham at Yankee Stadium tomorrow night, and then we play against Leeds in Chicago on Sunday night. It's a great opportunity, number one, for the team to train. Obviously, that's an important part of this experience, but it's also for us to bring the club closer to our fans, those 26 million fans. Not all of them are going to get to Anfield, so it's our opportunity to bring the club to them.

**Dani Burger** (1:32)
Although I know Anfield is an incredible experience, I'm sure a lot of them are looking to get there too. How much has the World Cup made a difference for you? Because obviously, so many more Americans were exposed to the sport of football, but when you think about the stars who really caught fire, be it Harling or Bellingham, I mean, they're not Liverpool players. So how has it translated directly into just your fandom?

**Billy Hogan** (1:51)
I think generally, any growth for football or soccer is a good thing.

**Dani Burger** (1:57)
We're allowed to say football on Bloomberg TV, by the way, just to let you know.

**Billy Hogan** (2:00)
We'll stay with football. No, I think generally speaking, it was great for football.
I think that overall, the experiences that people had, particularly traveling to the US and traveling around to the different cities. Fenway Sports Group, which owns Liverpool, is based in Boston. Famously, we had the Scots invade Boston and drink it dry.
I think it's just generally speaking, there's a tremendous amount of joy around the culture of football. That can only be a good thing. So I think that wave from the World Cup will obviously help football more generally. We're privileged as Liverpool Football Club to play in the biggest league in the world, in the Premier League. I think the most popular sport in the biggest league, in one of the biggest clubs in the world, that hopefully is helpful for us as we continue to expand here in the US. And we do that through, as I said before, our corporate partners, but also through our digital platforms. The US is our largest international e-commerce region. And so that's something that we're continuing to look at in terms of expansion of the overall club from a commercial standpoint.

**Dani Burger** (3:04)
That was probably one of the most incredible things to see in the World Cup, just international fans coming to the US and the US just embracing them with full arms. But part of the criticism that the World Cup did get was increased commercialization.
More games and FIFA talked about expanding it for the next World Cup and Bloomberg reporting out this morning suggesting that FIFA for the first time is looking for outside investment too. Do you think that those fears are real, that it sort of ruins some of the magic of the World Cup and the aims that FIFA supposedly is trying to achieve?

**Billy Hogan** (3:34)
I think, look, that's a fair question. I think the biggest issue from our standpoint is looking at it, going back to that sort of the experience and the joy and the cultural experience around those matches. And I was privileged to go to the final, obviously a tremendous amount of Argentinian fans, a number of Spanish fans, but fans from other countries that were there, that were just there to experience it. I do think that there is an element, particularly around the number of games that our athletes, our football players play.