Everton FC’s chief commercial officer Richard Kenyon says the club is already punching above its weight commercially and the new stadium will be a ‘game changer’, as it signs a new sponsorship deal. Tony McDonough reports

Everton FC’s new stadium will be a financial “game changer” for a club that is already punching above its weight commercially.

That’s according to the club’s chief commercial and communications officer, Richard Kenyon. He was speaking today as Everton announced yet another commercial sponsorship deal.

This latest agreement with online streaming platform KICK will see the business have its branding on the shirt sleeves of Everton’s senior men’s team, Everton Women and Everton Under-21s this coming season.

KICK, which is a sister brand to Everton’s main shirt sponsor Stake.com, is also now featuring across Everton’s digital spaces, as well as at Goodison Park, Walton Hall Park and the Finch Farm training complex.

This comes on the back of partnership agreements announced earlier this summer with Ticketmaster and eToro and a multi-year extension with Destination Sport Travel and Sportsbreaks.com.

Those deals followed nine new or enhanced commercial partnerships announced by Everton in 2022. It included a club record front-of-shirt agreement with stake.com reported to be worth around £10m a year.

In its most recently published accounts for the 12 months to June 30, 2022, Everton’s commercial income from sponsorship, advertising and merchandising and other commercial activities grew by £3.8m to £50.4m, a big chunk of its £181m turnover.

Despite flirting with relegation for the last two seasons in a row the Blues continue to be an attractive draw for commercial partners. Supporter’s are also keeping the faith with a record 98% of season ticket renewals for the new Premier League season.

And despite a national media report this week suggesting Everton was facing delays in its new stadium build at Bramley-Moore Dock in Liverpool Waters, the club insists the £750m project remains bang on schedule.

It will either move from Goodison Park to Bramley-Moore during the 2024/25 season or may wait until the start of the following season. It is consulting fans on the decision.

In an interview with evertonfc.com, Mr Kenyon said Everton’s commercial income has typically benchmarked the club around seventh in the Premier League. This is the highest outside of the teams regularly playing European football.

He explained: “Our current commercial performance is in a good place. We benchmark well when we compare like-for-like with other clubs.

“Some clubs will have all their retail and catering revenues in their numbers, whereas ours, due to our long-standing outsourced arrangements, are accounted for differently.

“Today we have announced a new sleeve partner in KICK. This is the highest value sleeve partnership we have done.

“Last summer, we announced our record front-of-shirt agreement with Stake.com – which was also the highest value we have secured for that asset.

“Stake was one of nine new partnerships or extensions we did last summer, and we are again making progress this off-season with more deals to be announced soon, including deals specifically for our new stadium.

“We are always looking to bring in more revenue, which ultimately helps the team on the pitch.

“The objective is to make sure the position we are in is sustained and then, crucially, to capitalise on the stadium move to deliver the step-change in commercial income that brings us closer to the clubs above us in terms of commercial income.

Mr Kenyon offered a “heartfelt thank you’ to its supporters for their loyalty in renewing season tickets in such large numbers, adding: “We’ve had phenomenal support from our fans.”

Kenyon has reiterated how the stadium – among those selected for the UK and Ireland’s joint Euro 2028 bid – will be a “game-changer”. It would, he said, offer a wide range of new revenue streams on both matchdays and non-matchdays.

“The new stadium will provide us with greater opportunities in terms of more season tickets being available, as well as the increased number and variety of premium experiences.

“The non-matchday opportunities with our new stadium are significant, too. It will be a world-class facility with the capability to be a true 365-day a year venue through tours, events, conferences, and concerts.

“The new stadium will also have a positive impact on the type of partners we will be able to attract and develop.

“Stadium naming rights will be an option that hasn’t been available to us at Goodison Park and with that comes significant revenue, as do some of the founding partnership opportunities we have.

“We are hugely excited by the new stadium and what it will bring for the fans, and what it will bring to the club commercially.”