Say what you may, the fact that they were willing to risk $790
million of their wealth on a football club few years back was
already a good start i would say. Nobody in their right mind was
going to take such a risk during those times... When you consider
that Liverpool a club as big was sold for about $200m exclude their
new stadium. Even with their new stadium, it came up to around $450
- $500 million only and it happen just this year when tv money was
just about to roll in. So you could see how big a risk they
took.
To be very honest, everyone does it for the money... Even for those
who may also love the sport. And believe it or not, even for
someone as rich as Roman! Peter Kenyon, their chief executive is
working very hard everyday so that they can be profitable as well.
And he has also openly came out and said according to their
estimation, they will break even by 2009 and probably make it a
profitable club after that...
There is nothing wrong with clubs wanting to make money, its a way
of life... Football and the EPL is going into a new dimension...
Fans should stop living in the 70s or 80s anymore and hope that
their season ticket prices isn't going to go up... Football has
changed. In the past, probably there was only an owner, a manager
and a few others in between... Present day, there are so much
manpower needed... Apart from the owner, they have CEO to Chairman
to Director of Football and finally to Manager... Chelsea alone
have all these... But we are still not counting the others that
work below the managers... and finally the present day players
salaries... You ask yourself, are they still the same as those in
the 70s, 80s or even the 90s?
Present day fans have high demands, the standard of living has also
increase, so do they still expect to pay yesteryears prices?
And i find your statement "Glazer families are known to purchase
sports clubs make them big then suck out everything from it before
selling it away to who ever that can offer good money to them"
really strange cos all i know is the only sport club/franchise they
have bought is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1995. And to date, they
still own it... But more importantly, they have taken the once
perennial losers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers to their first Super Bowl
victory in 2002.
I personally felt that Malcolm Glazer purchased of Man utd was one
of the best thing that has happened to them after a year or two
where some major share holders / directors were finding fault with
its manager Fergie after a personally disagreement with him. They
were putting their personally interest ahead of the club causing
all sorts of problems for the team. The club was never their main
priority... They just wanted to pressure its manager to drop he
lawsuit against them. The club suffer as a result.
Since the Glazer family took over, Man united has become what it
used to be, United. Their non-interference with the football
matters is something that i respect them for. They leave that area
to the people who knows how to run it rather than tell the team
manager to add one of his friend or own people into the team like
what we see happening over at Man City...
And i am not kidding... 600 million really isn't really a big deal
when you consider the size of Man utd and the profit they bring in
yearly... Their yearly profits are more than enough to service
their yearly loan repayments... The Glazer family don't even need
to take out their own money cos the loans are stretch out over a
period of years... Present day $600 million would probably mean
lesser in value in 5 to 10 yrs time. But the club continue to grow
in value by the year. And in years to come when they have completed
their repayment to the banks and own it fully... You can imagine
how much it will be.
As for the title... I know the players did the job, the manager
deserve the credit but the owners also played an important role by
not disrupting the team, giving it every support it needed and not
cashing in on Ronaldo's new skyrocket value in Jan... It was really
very easy to let him go and make a huge profit but instead they
were willing to break their pay limit to keep him. Even for this
season... Do you seriously think that without their approval we
would see Fergie bring in Nani, Anderson, Tevez and Hargreaves for
an almost combine fee of $60m? If they were seriously in need for
the money to pay off the loan... Then one third of that amount will
do, the rest they can use to clear part of their current
loan.
As for some of those disgruntled fans who are against the Glazer
family... All i can say is some of them were formerly minority
share holders who had their shares bought off them. They are
probably still unhappy. But business is business... But if we were
to look more into it... Man utd still have one of the cheapest
tickets at $40 compare to Arsenal $60, Chelsea $50+ and maybe even
Spurs... So what are the season ticket holders complaining about?
Shouldn't Arsenal fans be even more unhappy?
