Liverpool Football Club of Boston members watch a match Jan. 18 at the Phoenix Landing bar in Cambridge’s Central Square. (Photo: Julia Levine)
After nearly 30 years at Central Square’s Phoenix Landing bar, the Liverpool Football Club of Boston announced its exit for Boston on Dec. 28. The club was on its way back to Cambridge within a week, though, announcing that the club would have two official bars: Phoenix Landing and The Greatest Bar, a four-floor establishment near North Station in Boston.
Many LFC Boston members have been unable to attend match watch parties of the British soccer games because Phoenix Landing, at 512 Massachusetts Ave., reaches capacity before they arrive, club secretary Patrick Delaney said. “The Phoenix Landing is an intimate location where we’ve shared a lot of great memories,” the LFC Boston Committee said in its December statement, “but it cannot accommodate our current membership of over 750 members.”
“While change is difficult, we believe that this will provide more LFC Boston members the ability to watch, cheer and support the Reds together as a community,” the committee added, announcing its move to the The Greatest Bar.
The announcement was a surprise to club members – who pay a yearly fee to belong – who expressed heartbreak at the news and disappointment that membership was not polled about the exit in comments below the committee’s Facebook post.
Phoenix Landing has hosted watches of LFC matches for nearly three decades as local club membership has grown to more than 700 people. (Photo: Julia Levine)
It was not a complete shock, however: Phoenix Landing has a capacity of only 160 people, and during the most popular games, crowds have overflowed onto the street. “Our problem is we don’t have enough space for the Liverpool fans. And so we take over part of The Middle East, Sonia’s, and we use that as an overfill,” said Kevin Treanor, owner of Phoenix Landing, adding that fan numbers are “growing and growing.”
During that interview with the “Simply Sublime” podcast posted Dec. 20, he was unaware that the club was about to solve the bar’s problem for it in a unilateral move.
When the decision to leave was announced, Phoenix Landing vowed that “As long as we are open, we will welcome Reds supporters from all around for every LFC match.” The Phoenix Landing did not respond to a request for comment.
LFC fans wait for a result during a football game Jan. 18 at Phoenix Landing. (Photo: Julia Levine)
But LFC Boston and the Phoenix Landing found their peace. In a joint statement Jan. 4, The Greatest Bar and Phoenix Landing were identified as both being “official” bars for the club following “open and honest dialogue” to reaffirm a “shared commitment to serving the Liverpool FC community.”
“People can now have a choice for what works best for them while still experiencing the Liverpool community up close and not from the sidelines,” Patrick Delaney said.
Martin Cohen, an LFC Boston member for four years, said he was “extremely relieved” that changing locations “didn’t entail leaving the Phoenix Landing, which has served as a second home for me during the last few years.” He added, though, that he was “highly looking forward to attending his first match day at The Greatest Bar.”
Watches at Phoenix Landing attract families and fans of all ages. (Photo: Julia Levine)
Phoenix Landing opened in 1995 with music as its main attraction. Treanor, a Liverpool fan since he was a child in Ireland, showed football matches on the televisions mainly for himself, international travelers and some British expats. But as Americans’ knowledge of the game grew, so did the crowds who came to watch the game. The local LFC is now one of the biggest on the East Coast.
“It’s like night and day from when you went from 2000 to now,” Treanor said. “They’re lining up in all these different bars to go and watch the teams, which is phenomenal.”
Liverpool, founded in 1892, has a long-standing and fierce rivalry with the Manchester Football Club; Treanor said he had to “get rid of” the Man City fans after fights broke out.
An LFC Boston club decision keeps Phoenix Landing as an official watch location while adding The Greatest Bar in Boston to fans’ options. (Photo: Julia Levine)
A visit to Phoenix Landing during a Jan. 18 match showed that enthusiasm for the bar among LFC members hasn’t waned – the place was filled.
Keeping Phoenix Landing is the smart play considering that The Greatest Bar – with an occupancy of around 400 – is still nowhere close to being able to accommodate all of LFC Boston.
“The Greatest Bar will be a home away from home for this community,” Julie Fairweather, co-owner of The Greatest Bar said, “and we are happy to have them here.”
This partnership with LFC Boston is the first time The Greatest Bar has hosted Liverpool watches. Fairweather said the bar will extend its traditions of serving food and playing music from the team’s country for their World and Euro Cup watch parties to LFC matches.
In addition to match watch parties, Delaney said LFC Boston hosts a recreational soccer league and community charity drives, all in the name of the team’s anthem since the 1960s, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
“When LFC Boston soccer fans are in the house, the bar transforms into an electrifying sea of red, filled with passionate chants, cheers and camaraderie. The Liverpool fans create an atmosphere that feels like a slice of Anfield in Boston, complete with singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and celebrating every goal as if it’s a championship-winning moment,” Fairweather said after a few weeks of hosting.
