The Manchester United Club Thread **Sponsored by Comedy Central**

Soldato
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
15,991
Location
North West
This Saudi rumour has been going on for years but nothing has ever come from it. For arguements sake we assume there is something in this, unless Utd were planning to go down the same road as City re FFP, which of course their supporter would be dead set against as they hold strong views on this sort of cheating, then there would be no 'Saudi money' anyway. The only financial benefit would be no more debt but that's only costing the club around £20m per year - about the same as Utd will lose from their Adidas deal if they don't make the CL this season.

But don’t the glazers siphon money out anyway?
 
Don
Joined
9 Jun 2004
Posts
46,306
But don’t the glazers siphon money out anyway?
Another £20m or so in dividends. A debt free club and no dividends benefits Utd by around £40m per season.

Utd are no longer hugely dominant in terms of revenue. They are falling a fair way behind both Real and Barca and this season will likely turnover less than Bayern and possibly City too, and possibly less than a 10% gap to Liverpool. Failure to make the CL next season and you're likely to be turning over less than Liverpool and possibly a few other sides too.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jul 2009
Posts
7,223
Doesn't Old Trafford need a few million quid spent on it too?

I know Anfield does as well, the difference being though that millions spent at Anfield will result in higher matchday revenue. The money spent on OT is mainly about maintenance.
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
26,950
Location
Boston, Lincolnshire
Doesn't Old Trafford need a few million quid spent on it too?

I know Anfield does as well, the difference being though that millions spent at Anfield will result in higher matchday revenue. The money spent on OT is mainly about maintenance.

Pocket change really. When your pulling in over 10-20k a week in extra ticket sales. It soon adds up.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jul 2009
Posts
7,223
Pocket change really. When your pulling in over 10-20k a week in extra ticket sales. It soon adds up.

that’s what I mean. Old Trafford needs millions spent on it that won’t result in extra ticket sales or match day revenue to pay for it. Not without price increases. It won’t result in significant capacity increases.

by contrast, the planned development of Anfield will result in increased capacity and extra revenue.

it’s a measure of how far behind Liverpool were, but that’s not going to be the case going forward.
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
26,950
Location
Boston, Lincolnshire
that’s what I mean. Old Trafford needs millions spent on it that won’t result in extra ticket sales or match day revenue to pay for it. Not without price increases. It won’t result in significant capacity increases.

by contrast, the planned development of Anfield will result in increased capacity and extra revenue.

it’s a measure of how far behind Liverpool were, but that’s not going to be the case going forward.

Not really if an average ticket costs £70 a seat that's ~35 million a year taking into account an extra 20k seats and an average of one home game every two weeks with the exception of Spurs and Arsenal due to the size of theirs but that's still ~18million. Say Anfield takes 3 years to redevlop. That's over 100 million United would have made extra over that time. Which is roughly the rough cost it would take to build over the railway and the final tier the same size as the other 3 taking close to 100K seats. Anfield has "plans" to redevelop to 60k.

People say Old Trafford is old and outdated compared to say Spurs but they are not getting 70k+ attendances week in week out are they! If I go to watch a game of football I couldn't care less if it is a plastic chair or some armchair with a drinks holder :p.
 
Last edited:
Don
Joined
9 Jun 2004
Posts
46,306
Not really if an average ticket costs £70 a seat that's ~35 million a year taking into account an extra 20k seats and an average of one home game every two weeks with the exception of Spurs and Arsenal due to the size of theirs but that's still ~18million. Say Anfield takes 3 years to redevlop. That's over 100 million United would have made extra over that time. Which is roughly the rough cost it would take to build over the railway and the final tier the same size as the other 3 taking close to 100K seats. Anfield has "plans" to redevelop to 60k.
I think you missed the point inogen was making. His point was Old Trafford needs works doing beyond expanding the South Stand something that there's no evidence to suggest will happen anytime soon either. He's basically saying that should Utd carry out that work it won't bring in any extra revenue which isn't entirely true - if Utd carried out those works then I'm sure they'd upgrade facilities which would bring in more revenue, if not the same levels that an expansion would bring about.

Matchday revenue is quickly becoming irrelevant anyway. The key areas of revenue are TV and commercial revenue and the reason why Utd have gone from having the highest revenue in Europe to potentially 5th this season and likely even lower from next season is because of missing out on the CL and their commercial revenue no longer growing which is again linked to performance.
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
26,950
Location
Boston, Lincolnshire
I think you missed the point inogen was making. His point was Old Trafford needs works doing beyond expanding the South Stand something that there's no evidence to suggest will happen anytime soon either. He's basically saying that should Utd carry out that work it won't bring in any extra revenue which isn't entirely true - if Utd carried out those works then I'm sure they'd upgrade facilities which would bring in more revenue, if not the same levels that an expansion would bring about.

Matchday revenue is quickly becoming irrelevant anyway. The key areas of revenue are TV and commercial revenue and the reason why Utd have gone from having the highest revenue in Europe to potentially 5th this season and likely even lower from next season is because of missing out on the CL and their commercial revenue no longer growing which is again linked to performance.

The point i was making that United already have those attendances so if they started tomorrow and spent 100 Million on the stadium to revamp it at the end they would have a revamped stadium and 74000 capacity. If Liverpool spent 100 million over three years and ended up with 74000 seat stadium they would be both in the same place.
 
Don
Joined
9 Jun 2004
Posts
46,306
The point i was making that United already have those attendances so if they started tomorrow and spent 100 Million on the stadium to revamp it at the end they would have a revamped stadium and 74000 capacity. If Liverpool spent 100 million over three years and ended up with 74000 seat stadium they would be both in the same place.
I suppose that's one way of looking at it but I'm not sure the Glazers would look at it that way. The Glazers nor FSG want to spend money without a direct significant return - that's the reason why our owners have been very slow with our redevelopment.

Matchday revenue is certainly one area where Liverpool are behind though but as above it's not really massively relevant anymore. TV and commercial revenue are now a long way ahead in terms of revenue generators for top clubs.
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
26,950
Location
Boston, Lincolnshire
I suppose that's one way of looking at it but I'm not sure the Glazers would look at it that way. The Glazers nor FSG want to spend money without a direct significant return - that's the reason why our owners have been very slow with our redevelopment.

Matchday revenue is certainly one area where Liverpool are behind though but as above it's not really massively relevant anymore. TV and commercial revenue are now a long way ahead in terms of revenue generators for top clubs.

Oh I know that's the sad crux of it. Old Trafford was the easily one of the best stadiums in the world when it was redeveloped in the mid 00's but the Glazers have spent next to nothing since then. Yes TV money is where it is at ultimately but ticket sales still account for around 25% and when you can fill out 50% more than some of the top teams that's still an extra 5-7% revenue a year. (Or Sanchez's wages ;)) Also a lot of these things go hand in hand. A decent Stadium is all part of the puzzle to get investors and sponsors in as well.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Jul 2009
Posts
7,223
I think you missed the point inogen was making. His point was Old Trafford needs works doing beyond expanding the South Stand something that there's no evidence to suggest will happen anytime soon either. He's basically saying that should Utd carry out that work it won't bring in any extra revenue which isn't entirely true - if Utd carried out those works then I'm sure they'd upgrade facilities which would bring in more revenue, if not the same levels that an expansion would bring about.

Matchday revenue is quickly becoming irrelevant anyway. The key areas of revenue are TV and commercial revenue and the reason why Utd have gone from having the highest revenue in Europe to potentially 5th this season and likely even lower from next season is because of missing out on the CL and their commercial revenue no longer growing which is again linked to performance.


Yeah, what I’m saying is Rate Of Return on stadium investment at OT will be significantly less than the ROR on other stadiums that haven’t been developed to the extent OT has. And to some extent the success they got from the development in the 90s was a mortgage on their future. Now there’s redevelopment required at cost that is as far as revenue increase goes dead money.

Stadium development like everything is cyclical.

Man Utd fans have spent the last 20 years thinking it was a never ending pot. They’re about to learn, like other clubs that money doesn’t just make itself.

There’s no cheap money to borrow to build anything that doesn’t give a ROR.

arsenal haven’t really capitalised on the emirates, because as you suggest, it’s not really about bums on seats, it’s about match day revenue, be that from tv or 247 merchandising and frankly the Emirates inspires neither.
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
25 Aug 2008
Posts
1,196
Location
York, UK
United have planning permission to put another tier on top of the South Stand, joining up both the Stretty and the East Stand.
It will be expensive, as they would need to cantilever over the railway track at the back.
They have already started buying up the terraced houses behind it.
Once complete, the capacity will be around 89,000

Will the Glazers pump in the money? I doubt it very much.
What it does do, to bernefit them = is make the Club even more attractive to other rich buyers = that will be prepared to pump the money in.

DO I want the Saudis? No
DO I want the Glazers? No
Does what I want make any difference? No

Other fans don't want the Saudis, as they know that with cash readily available and the debt cleared = United would be back in the game big time.
 
Caporegime
Joined
1 Dec 2010
Posts
52,317
Location
Welling, London
Blimey!

How do you recharge the batteries...do they give you a USB port in your navel?
No lol,

Battery lasts about 6-8 years and is built in. They have to replace the device when it’s empty. But the replacement is a lot easier than the initial implant as they don’t have to do the leads up the sternum. Just unplug them and plug them into the new one.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Aug 2009
Posts
8,096
Location
one nation under sony
thoughts on Freds coments?

Fred reveals ‘problems’ in Manchester United’s dressing room

‘We also need to improve as a group, our group lacks the ‘sticking together mentality’, we have lots of problems.

‘There are a lot of discussions, every group has this sort of problem, but ours has this.

‘Vanity is also an issue and we need to stop this and just run on the pitch.

‘We need to stick a goal inside our minds, focus on it and go forward.

‘We need to be on the same page and today some players have different objectives, there are players that just want to solve problems alone and this is wrong.’

I hope he doesn't get penalised like de gea got
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
26,950
Location
Boston, Lincolnshire
Back
Top Bottom