Les Otten: Right decision not to expand Anfield Road

Former vice chairman of the Boston Red Sox Les Otten says it is the right decision not to redevelop the Anfield Road stand.

With Fenway Sports Group (FSG) chief John Henry recently suggesting it may not happen and club chief executive Ian Ayre stating that it was “not a smart investment for the business” [ED: Unless the fans paid for it themselves!], it looks like an additional 6,000 Liverpool fans will remain locked out on match-days.

Speaking to ESPN, Otten said: “At the end of the day, it may be the sport of kings but the kings have got checking accounts that need to be balanced.

“Fenway [Park, home of the Red Sox] was able to be done in stages, eventually over a 10-year period of time. Each stage increased the number of seats and increased the viability of the ballpark and allowed ticket prices to go up.

“I’m not familiar with the end outcome but I think it’s safe to say that the investment had less than a 10-year payback. I didn’t get to see the final numbers because, by that time, I had sold my interest in the team.”

He continued: “It’s impossible to put myself in the shoes of what is going on over there. But what I do know is that fans don’t want to concern themselves in the economics of their team.

“How that number [ticket prices] equates to winning and losing is something a fan doesn’t want to take into consideration. Fans don’t look at sports as a business, it’s a whole different emotional devotion.

“What I recognised in Boston was that if you didn’t raise ticket prices then you better stay in the same place. Because if you left the space and went to a space that wasn’t a shire or a place you didn’t want to go then you were giving up a huge piece of the economics.

“It’s very hard to go to a fan and say: ‘I really need $100 instead of $80 because I need that other $20 because otherwise, I can’t afford to put on a team on the field that can win.’

“I think the alignment between the Red Sox and the fans was phenomenal. It was magically saving Fenway Park, which turned out to be an extraordinary part of the team, city and the surrounding community.

“Within a year we were extremely competitive on the field, we were simultaneously staying some place where everybody wanted us to be, and those two things combined allowed ticket prices to go up, which then created even more money and gave us the ability to increase our payroll even further.

“We became completely competitive in 19 months and within two and half years we won the World Series. The fans couldn’t complain about ticket prices going up because we were winning. The chicken and the egg have to occur at the same time and that’s what happened in Boston.

“I don’t know how many similarities there are [with Anfield] but you’ve got to be in a shrine, have people who want to pay more money and then you’ve got to use that money and then win. Then you have the formula that became the Red Sox. I don’t know whether you can duplicate it.”

• There’s more on Otten and Western Asian interest in Liverpool FC in the Executive Lounge on our members’ website. Not a member, please support us by joining here.