Manchester United fans - Malcom Glazer now owns majority stake in club

[spherrod]

Originally posted by: Argo

Originally posted by: Britboy
The fans burned an effigy of him outside the ground this afternoon. I'd guess he won't be making many personal appearances for a while. His family has received death threats as well. Us Brits take our footy pretty seriously!

Why do they hate him so much?

He appears to have no interest in Football besides what he can gain financially from the club - in addition he will be landing the most profitable football club with something between £300-500m of debt

 

[GoingUp]

I'm a huge Man U fan but I don't know what to make of all of this. I wish that I had a billion. I'd buy the team myself.

 

[jalaram]

Originally posted by: spherrod

Originally posted by: jalaram

Originally posted by: spherrod
I'm not a United fan (Spurs are my team) but am interested to see exactly what happens with United. The amount of debt they will incur would worry me but obviously Glazer is looking to make the team more successful to bring in more revenue etc. A lot of the comments in the UK appear to indicate that he will now have to sell Tampa Bay - is that right? Has he been good for Tampa Bay? I know they won the Superbowl but was that purely down to his influence?

He was good for Tampa in that he
1) spent money on the team (Hugh Culverhouse was a tightwad)
2) let his GM do his job (i.e. build the team to be good for the long term)
3) let the coach do his job (Dungy started off 0-5, but eventually got the team going)
4) got the Super Bowl (both winning and hosting)

He was bad for Tampa in that
1) he threatened to move the team unless a new stadium was built
2) fired the coach that turned around our team in a very undeserved fashion
3) mortgaged our future by getting a new coach (2 losing seasons after a SB).
4) made the GM who turned around our team leave
5) seemed to care more about buying another team (LA Dodgers and Man U, I believe) recently than helping Tampa

Thanks for the info - will he keep Tampa now do you think?

Although he would make a nice profit if he sold the Bucs, he's still making money off of us, so I would think that he would keep the team.

 

[BRObedoza]

Glazer ups stake in club to 74.8%

at 75% he can take the club private and transfer his debt in their name.

at 90% he can buy all the remaining shares, including those of Shareholders United, a fan run organization that holds a small stake in the club. This will effectively take ownership of the club away from the people of Manchester, which does not sit well at all. The club will no longer be owned by the fans, but by a man with a questionable interest (other than money) in Manchester United.

Might be a bit late, but I bought £10 (about $20) worth of shares through shareholdersunited.org. If anything, just to say that I owned a part of the club that got me interested in soccer/football.

 

[jalaram]

Originally posted by: sleepmachine
Glazer ups stake in club to 74.8%

at 75% he can take the club private and transfer his debt in their name.

at 90% he can buy all the remaining shares, including those of Shareholders United, a fan run organization that holds a small stake in the club. This will effectively take ownership of the club away from the people of Manchester, which does not sit well at all. The club will no longer be owned by the fans, but by a man with a questionable interest (other than money) in Manchester United.

Might be a bit late, but I bought £10 (about $20) worth of shares through shareholdersunited.org. If anything, just to say that I owned a part of the club that got me interested in soccer/football.

Oh relax. The worst he could do is demand a new stadium or he'll move the team. That and possibly firing the coach or raising ticket prices. That's not too bad, right?

 

[BRObedoza]

Originally posted by: jalaram

Originally posted by: sleepmachine
Glazer ups stake in club to 74.8%

at 75% he can take the club private and transfer his debt in their name.

at 90% he can buy all the remaining shares, including those of Shareholders United, a fan run organization that holds a small stake in the club. This will effectively take ownership of the club away from the people of Manchester, which does not sit well at all. The club will no longer be owned by the fans, but by a man with a questionable interest (other than money) in Manchester United.

Might be a bit late, but I bought £10 (about $20) worth of shares through shareholdersunited.org. If anything, just to say that I owned a part of the club that got me interested in soccer/football.

Oh relax. The worst he could do is demand a new stadium or he'll move the team. That and possibly firing the coach or raising ticket prices. That's not too bad, right?

yeah i agree that it can't be as bad as people from Manchester say it is. I even said that it might be a good thing because a shakeup might be needed for them to be successful again. I mean, the guy is a billionaire so he must know what he's doing. what's to say he won't be successful with Manchester United.

And i'm not freaking out or anything. Hell, I live in CA. I just wanted to get a piece of the club while i still can.

Worst case scenario: they end up like Leeds, investing heavily in European success only to fail and end up relegated, selling off their best players, and in financial hell.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: sleepmachine

Originally posted by: jalaram

Originally posted by: sleepmachine
Glazer ups stake in club to 74.8%

at 75% he can take the club private and transfer his debt in their name.

at 90% he can buy all the remaining shares, including those of Shareholders United, a fan run organization that holds a small stake in the club. This will effectively take ownership of the club away from the people of Manchester, which does not sit well at all. The club will no longer be owned by the fans, but by a man with a questionable interest (other than money) in Manchester United.

Might be a bit late, but I bought £10 (about $20) worth of shares through shareholdersunited.org. If anything, just to say that I owned a part of the club that got me interested in soccer/football.

Oh relax. The worst he could do is demand a new stadium or he'll move the team. That and possibly firing the coach or raising ticket prices. That's not too bad, right?

yeah i agree that it can't be as bad as people from Manchester say it is. I even said that it might be a good thing because a shakeup might be needed for them to be successful again. I mean, the guy is a billionaire so he must know what he's doing. what's to say he won't be successful with Manchester United.

And i'm not freaking out or anything. Hell, I live in CA. I just wanted to get a piece of the club while i still can.

Worst case scenario: they end up like Leeds, investing heavily in European success only to fail and end up relegated, selling off their best players, and in financial hell.

I think another problem in people's minds is that he would basically have full control of the team, and he has little interest in soccer himself (seemingly). It appears to be some sort of elaborate father son ploy.

Before there were numerous interested parties, so that if one of them went nuts and decided to make their uniform crotchless and pink and market the team to flamboyant homosexuals, someone was there to keep the guy in check.

 

[jalaram]

This commentary from the Tampa Tribune is pretty funny. Now, some of the jokes are directed toward Bucs-fans, but you guys might find it funny.

 

[RabidMongoose]

He should rename the team to the limeys.

 

[pecel]

MU need younger player
like Milan

btw, Go MILAN !

 

[BRObedoza]

Originally posted by: pecel
MU need younger player
like Milan

btw, Go MILAN !

AC Milan average age = 29
probably higher since they list Pirlo at 5 years old.

Hardly a young squad, but their experience shows. Kaka is definitely a great player at 22. Hope you don't mean MILAN Baros

 

[maddogchen]

wow Manure without Fergie too? that would be weird.

Ferguson the burning issue

 

[spherrod]

Be very interesting to see what happens with Ferguson - while I hope next year will be Tottenham's season I would like to see United challenging Arsenal and Chelsea to make the Premiership even more exciting. If they change managers now I would expect a season of transition - whoever they bring in. Capello? O'Neill?

 

[foolish501]

The first thing he'll do is sell the naming rights to Old Trafford, with Nike probably taking the name "Nike Theatre Of Dreams", that would probably bring in $50 million over 15 years. I hope that he realises for the team to be successful off the pitch, they need to be successful on it, and that means investment in a new gk and midfielder

 

[spherrod]

I think they've just offered Tim Howard a new 4 year contract so maybe they won't be buying a new goalkeeper. He's still young so maybe he will be given another season to see if he can finally replace Schmiechel. A new midfielder is a certainty though, Roy Keane's legs are starting to slow up. How much money can he tap out of the US market will be interesting

 

[Pandaren]

The only comparably bad buyout I can think of at the moment is Lenovo's purchase of IBM PC Division :|

Originally posted by: sleepmachine
any other manchester united fans have any thoughts?

 

[jalaram]

75% stake reached.

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Enjoy.

 

[neilm]

He's gonna totally ruin that club, they were already a profitable, winning side. Now he is gonna turn them into a debt ridden side with alot of foreign changes; i.e. renaming stadium, kit redesign, changing badge, bump up seat prices even more.

 

[BRObedoza]

fans have accepted that he might sell the stadium naming rights, because they know nobody will actually call it "Nike Field" or whatever. It'll always be known as Old Trafford.

ticket prices were always going to go up. the PLC was going to raise ticket prices to fund the stadium expansion.

I'm just going to take a wait and see approach to Glazer. I hope he can make the right business decisions to translate into on pitch success.

 

[spherrod]

people's main worry is the initial debt being incurred. If he can return United to winning ways (they need some squad changes) then there won't be any issues and the fans will be happy.

 

[jalaram]

Funny ESPN article.

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Enjoy