Do the Glazers really own United?

glazed

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If we're getting philosophical, what even is Manchester United? 11 random men being paid for their skill at kicking a piece of plastic? It's all completely meaningless in material terms.

For me, Manchester United is a story passed on over the years. And it's only the collective belief of the fans in its truth that gives that story force. And in this story, the Glazers are the bad guys who won. And there's the rub - if the fans stop loving the story, the story stops getting told. And that's what's happening.
 

Fosu-Mens

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So what are your suggestions?
Given the decreased % of matchday income as a part of our total revenue over the last years, the local (not foreign) and matchgoing fans will have little economical impact if they stop spending or buying season tickets. And if they stop doing this, there are still a large number of foreign fans that would buy these tickets.

It should also be mentioned that the actual number of fans in the world that spend money on merchandize from the club is far away from the inflated number that the club is touting to potential sponsors.

Only reasonable suggestions ($$$$ related) are:

1. Hope that one can unite the fans to completely boycott the club and all the related parties (sponsors), and concequently making potential commercial associations with the brand that is this football club something negative.
Hint: extremely unlikely.

2. Wait for the club to continue it's downward spiral until it becomes less valuable and profitable. Will happen under the current ownership over time assuming that the new EPL deal does not offset this.
Hint: Likely, but will take time.

3. Saudi Arabia buys the club to use it for sportswashing.
Hint: If not for a certain accident with a certain Turkey based journo this might have already happened, then again so called ITKs claims that they want to sell the club one week and then states something else the next.
 

tenpoless

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Who owns Manchester United? Obviously the Glazer's are the legal owners of the Manchester United brand, assets and resources, but does that mean that they 'own' the club? Remember United is more than its brand, assets and resources (all of which can be purchased as a legal entity), it is also a social entity ie: the loyalty, passion and commitment of fans. The truth is this: without the latter the former depreciates in value and if the former were to depreciate in value, then the Glazers will likely be gone within months.

Sounds easy doesn't it? But here lies the problem:

1. There is no homogeneity in fandom - like all owners the Glazer's have rightly calculated that United fans are disparate and all have different trigger points and passion levels. There are some that follow the club home and away, others who have never been to a United game but follow avidly from afar, others who follow the club in name only and others who associate with the club's success etc etc. The term 'fan' is a silly generic term used to describe a diverse and eclectic group and in that chaos the Glazer's thrive, because the fandom cannot and does speak with one voice. There is no leader or shop steward with the authority to speak on behalf of the fanbase and mobilise it to action.

2. Fans are fickle - the so called 'anti-Glazer' movement has been around for about 14 years. However, there is nothing quite like the shiny object of on-field success to cause United fans to start thumb-sucking again. A win here and a win there is all that is required to cool the fury of the Glazer-out movement.

3. United fans are not ready to 'kill' the club in order to save it - the Glazer's know only too well that the vast majority of United fans love the club way too much to harm it in order to save it. Forget the FC United protest - much as it has been a model in fan ownership of football clubs, it has in no way diminished or loosened the grip that the Glazer's have on United.

4. United fans are addicts - the truth is that like fans in other clubs the Glazers, being the savvy business people they are understand that United fans are like drug addicts. Much as we protest, complain and spew anti-Glazer frustration, we will then go off an buy as much merchandise as we can afford. By so doing, we provide the Glazers the very incentive they look for to remain at United. Until such as time as the profits drop and Sky Sports are greeted by empty seats for live games don't expect anything to change.
5. Brendan Rodgers anomaly. Why is He at Leicester?

6. Phil Jones' face when He stares at the Glazers in the director's box. He can see things We cannot. Gifted lad.

7. Glazers have multiple copies of themselves to take care of things at the same time. Who keeps track of stock prices, patting Ed Woodward in the back, owning ManUnited and shopping in IKEA all at the same time? They each share ownerships to divide responsibilities.

8. Anderson saga. I have never seen other player who could only play for 60 minutes. It's like a ritual where you perform good for 60 but then have the rest of your stamina being drained as a payback for Chtulhu.
 
Last edited:

MancunianAngels

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Who owns Manchester United? Obviously the Glazer's are the legal owners of the Manchester United brand, assets and resources, but does that mean that they 'own' the club? Remember United is more than its brand, assets and resources (all of which can be purchased as a legal entity), it is also a social entity ie: the loyalty, passion and commitment of fans. The truth is this: without the latter the former depreciates in value and if the former were to depreciate in value, then the Glazers will likely be gone within months.

Sounds easy doesn't it? But here lies the problem:

1. There is no homogeneity in fandom - like all owners the Glazer's have rightly calculated that United fans are disparate and all have different trigger points and passion levels. There are some that follow the club home and away, others who have never been to a United game but follow avidly from afar, others who follow the club in name only and others who associate with the club's success etc etc. The term 'fan' is a silly generic term used to describe a diverse and eclectic group and in that chaos the Glazer's thrive, because the fandom cannot and does speak with one voice. There is no leader or shop steward with the authority to speak on behalf of the fanbase and mobilise it to action.

2. Fans are fickle - the so called 'anti-Glazer' movement has been around for about 14 years. However, there is nothing quite like the shiny object of on-field success to cause United fans to start thumb-sucking again. A win here and a win there is all that is required to cool the fury of the Glazer-out movement.


3. United fans are not ready to 'kill' the club in order to save it - the Glazer's know only too well that the vast majority of United fans love the club way too much to harm it in order to save it. Forget the FC United protest - much as it has been a model in fan ownership of football clubs, it has in no way diminished or loosened the grip that the Glazer's have on United.

4. United fans are addicts - the truth is that like fans in other clubs the Glazers, being the savvy business people they are understand that United fans are like drug addicts. Much as we protest, complain and spew anti-Glazer frustration, we will then go off an buy as much merchandise as we can afford. By so doing, we provide the Glazers the very incentive they look for to remain at United. Until such as time as the profits drop and Sky Sports are greeted by empty seats for live games don't expect anything to change.

The fact is this: it is not that United fans don't have the power. Far from it, we have all of the power. We know it and most of all the Glazer's know it as well. The problem is that we just do not know how to harness the power that we have.

Any thoughts?
1. There should be. Or at least a group that represents the interests of fans. This used to be the case with IMUSA circa 94 - 2005.

2. The so called anti Glazer movement was organised by a large group of United fans from all sections of the support. It was mainly lead by groups such as IMUSA (who were formed a few months after we won the double in 1994 so hardly fickle) and fanzines such as Red Issue.

They protested against Murdoch in 98 even though it would have given the club untold riches (at the time anyway) and would have seen us dominate more.

3. Nobody wants to harm the club.
Thousands walked away (financially) from the club in 2005 because of the Glazer takeover and other numerous United related factors such as high ticket prices and over the top stewarding (which lead to a decline in atmosphere) and a wider disenfranchisement with the modern game.

4. I agree with this. As said above, groups such as IMUSA and fanzines like Red Issue did it for years. Almost 25,000 protested against the Glazers before the Milan game in 2005. Almost a thousand contributed to get FC United off the ground a few months later.

Whilst the numbers need to be bigger than those, it does show that people are willing to get involved when there’s a coherent message and lead by a credible voice.

Rebuilding a proper supporters trust (away from MUST) and getting proper clues up match going reds involved is vital.

Too much of the current noise around #GlazersOut is lead by people who are having a paddy because we didn’t spend another 300 million this summer rather than protesting about the very soul of the club.