Ian Mallon: Irish Premier League tourists to spend £25m this year
FANBASE: Liverpool fans in the stands. Pic: Richard Sellers/PA Wire.
AN ESTIMATED 120,000 Irish football fans have gone to, or will visit, Premier League matches and other football games in the UK this year.
They will spend approximately £25m in the process of watching their favourite teams, representing the largest inbound visitors to the UK of all international soccer tourists.
Those numbers will be down from a high of 175k in 2019, and are in line with forecasts by The Pitch which takes into consideration a sharp decline in visitor numbers to the UK for the first quarter of 2022 and a missing month due to the World Cup.
While the most recent tourism statistics into the UK for Q1 showed a 36% drop rate, it is expected that the deficit for the remaining three quarters will not be as sharp with confidence returned to the marketplace.
Ryanair, a major carrier of football supporters to the UK, just posted record profits as passenger numbers surged beyond expectation as the year progressed.
While the numbers will be down when official stats are revealed next year one thing that won’t change is the most popular grounds and destinations for Irish citizens.
Of the 1.5m international visitors who attended games in Britain in 2019, Old Trafford was the most popular destination amongst 226k travellers.
Anfield was next with 213k, with the Emirates Stadium (189k), Wembley Stadium (122k), Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (114k), Stamford Bridge (107k), the Ethiad (87k) and London Stadium (65k).
Overall, 93% of visitors went to games in England – primarily in the Northwest and London - while 7% attended a match in Scotland or Wales.
The total amount of money spent in the UK by international fans three years ago was £1.4b, with that figure likely to slip to around the £1b mark for this year.
After Ireland’s 175k visitors in 2019, 126k visitors from Germany and 113k Americans made the trip, followed by France (93k), Norway (78k), Netherlands (77k) and Australia (63k).
Football is far the most popular sport for travellers into the UK, with figures showing Cricket (225k) was second, followed by Rugby (203k), Tennis (166k) and that other popular segment amongst Irish visitors – Horseracing (78k).
Global football tourists into the UK spent an average of £909 during their football visits according to the data, with trips taking anything from one day to two weeks.
Almost half of supporters spent between one to three nights per trip, with a third of those opting for four to seven nights (30 per cent). A small fraction were day trippers, with just 2% returning home on the same day.
Football supporter-spend lags behind other sports when it comes to guests across a range of fan groups, with golf visitors spending an average of £2,100 per visit, with cricket fans forking out £1,550.
Unsurprisingly, horseracing ranks high in the spending charts, coming in third at £1,514 per visit, with Tennis £1,316, while visitors for the London Marathon spent £1,065.
Football tourism is most popular between January to March (30%) and October to December (31%), with 24% attending a live football match from April to June, whilst only 15% do so from July to September – due to the seasonal break.
The gender breakdown of football tourists works out at 83% male v 17% female, with 71% of visitors between the ages of 25 and 54 years.
The data provided for this article is based on the last completed VisitBritain ‘Football Tourism in the UK’ report, supported by data from the Office for National Statistics’ International Passenger Survey in 2019, combined with travel data for Q1 2022, from the same sources, as directed by Visit Britain.
PARALYMPICS IRELAND will begin the formal process of interviewing candidates for its recently vacated CEO role in the coming weeks, amid growing confusion surrounding the swift departure of Miriam Malone.
On the face of it, Malone was a successful leader, one who oversaw those two key benchmarks of any strong NGB chief executive – sporting achievement and commercial success.
Before her departure, Malone oversaw a number of key deals at the organisation which saw the arrival of a major blue chip headline sponsor, Permanent TSB, and an associate partnership with Aer Lingus.
At the Tokyo Games, Team Ireland achieved its target, winning four golds as part of an overall seven-medal haul, crossing off another key performance indicator.
However, for reasons that remain unknown the Board at Paralympics Ireland decided to part company with Malone at the end of the summer, after five-and-a-half years. The now ex-CEO said it was ‘the time to move on’, but sources close to the Kildare native say her exit was a shock and out of the blue.
In a statement announcing the departure - which interestingly didn’t include any quotes from Malone - Paralympics Ireland acknowledged her “hard work and energy over the period of her leadership".
When contacted by The Pitch this week the NGB declined to comment on strong speculation that she had been removed due to Board politics.
Paralympics Ireland is the envy of many NGBs given the calibre of high-end brands on board, and along with PTSB and Aer Lingus, it lists Allianz, Citi and Toyota, as associates.
Malone is regarded highly internationally and continues to be a board member at the powerful European Paralympics Committee, until 2025 at least.
Such sudden actions by a Board to dispense with an impressive lead executive generally reflect that all is not well within an organisation. Though sources at Paralympics Ireland insisted to The Pitch that the Board at the organisation is extremely strong and united, while Miriam Malone refused to comment when contacted.
FOR a better indication as to why Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is selling Liverpool FC, look west at what happens next between the Boston Red Sox and Arron Judge.
Judge is the Mo Salah of Baseball, having this season hit a historic record-breaking 62 home runs for the New York Yankees, beating a 61-year-old record in the process.
He is now a free agent, having refused to sign a $213m seven-year contract with the Yankees at the start of the season, opting instead for a one-year extension, and the option of becoming a sole trader right about now.
Waiting in the wings, along with one or two others, are the Red Sox - the favourite child of FSG, with a speculated $300m contract in place to lure the star over to Fenway Park.
While Judge makes up his mind about how many hundreds of millions of dollars is the right move for him, FSG’s other key sporting asset priority is the establishment of one of two new NBA franchises made available by basketball’s governing body.
LA Lakers star LeBron James is set to join forces with FSG for what may be $3 billion investment in a Las Vegas franchise, with sources in Boston telling The Pitch that this has become a strategic priority.
As recently as last week sources at Anfield told The Pitch that Liverpool were planning a swoop for teenage sensation Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund in January, and not next summer.
Such a move now looks unlikely following indications that FSG’s priorities lie elsewhere.
