Comments on: Love United Hate Glazer — The Numbers

By: antimanu

antimanu — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:28:09 +0000

Being a Man Utd hater I can only point out the threat of debt is a small problem for the lower league clubs struggling for survival. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer without and realistic chance of competing in the competitions which bring in the money.

By: David Sugden

David Sugden — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:44:54 +0000

Love United hate the Glazers is more appropriate than ever. Hurt the Glazers where it hurts, I long ago stopped buying programmes/beer/food inside the ground, if fans just stopped doing this the effect would be mind boggling. They are mugging/milking us for everything and we are lying down like lambs. Thank God for MUST.

By: ursus arctos

ursus arctos — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:18:54 +0000

Do we know if the “Glazer Debt” was primarily placed in London or the US?

If the former, the European Central Bank is more relevant than the Fed, and they have been less eager to cut rates, at least so far. If the latter, the base rate is probably not LIBOR. I also don’t know what currency it is denominated in; the article presumes Sterling, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. A reasonable proportion of Man United’s revenues are denominated in euro and other currencies.

By: Thomas Dunmore

Thomas Dunmore — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:16:25 +0000

Good point about the spending Antonio, though I’d just add that according to Red Issue, “The Glazers have not put any money in at all for new players. A lot has been made of the £50m transfer fees spent in the summer but this all came out of club funds and is being financed on the never-never.”

Dougie — I agree. Hopefully more fans will embrace their local teams instead (or the likes of FC United) rather than just resting in their armchairs.

By: dougie brimson

dougie brimson — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:11:51 +0000

The sad thing is, yet again the only people to suffer are the fans. The rise in ticket prices is driving more and more people away from the game and into the arms of the TV companies with the result that the atmosphere inside even our biggest stadiums is incomparable with what it was ten years ago.

One only has to look at Wembley to see how bad things are becoming. Who would have thought that England fans at home would be outsung by the Germans?

Goodness only knows what it’ll be like against the Russians!

By: Antonio G

Antonio G — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 01:19:05 +0000

This is interesting, but I’m sceptical – we’ve been hearing these kind of scare stories ever since the Glazers arrived. And yet the team’s transfer spending hasn’t noticeably declined – last year was a thin year, but this year’s purchases were amongst the largest in the club’s history. Surely if financing were an issue, transfer spending would have to be down, no?

Because the contrary argument is much harder to sustain – that the Glazers are both ravenous, machiavellian capitalists and, simultaneously, too stupid to balance a cheque book.

Besides, with Fed rates heading down, unless commercial paper suddenly becomes completely toxic, they’ve got Bernanke working in their favour…