Club Sale | It’s done!

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TheReligion

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Bingo.

There are plenty of good reasons to be skeptical of a partial sale (ie, who wants to sink £1-2b into a football club and have the Glazers still call the shots). But there are also some pretty good reasons to be skeptical about a full sale (ie, who actually has £6-7b to spend on a football club).

Nothing really happening in the short term and this dragging out over the next year until the Glazers come down on the price seems like a reasonable possibility to me. A lot of people believe Boehly et al overpaid for Chelsea at £2.5b. United is a different level of club in terms of global brand and revenue but £6-7b is a huge number. From a financial perspective, its really hard to make the argument that spending that much on a football club is a good use of money. You could easily buy the club, discover that there isn't much room for asset growth on a percentage basis since the club already has a huge global fanbase that has been heavily commercially exploited, and then you're also losing money every year trying to refurbish the stadium while spending to keep up with two state-owned clubs.
You hope it’s a partial sale more like :lol:
 

Shai-Hulud

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I think I'm changing my mind somewhat on the prospect of oil state ownership. My first reaction was that it would almost kill my support for this club. But I'm starting to warm up slightly to it.

Why? Because we have no truly good options open to us. The Glazers have sucked blood from us for almost two decades. The club and its stadium is in bad shape and needs serious investment.

No benevolent billionaire/group of such are going to come forward at the price the Glazers are demanding. Bundesliga style fan ownership isn't on the table.

Either we get bought by some consortium of Glazer-like leech cnuts and the club continues to decay and not win major trophies ever again...

Or we become a sportswashing project. It's plague or cholera. Except the oil state ownership will probably let us compete with the other oil clubs instead of just decaying. That's where the game is. We can't recover and win major trophies without becoming one of them at this point.
 

mu4c_20le

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Either we get bought by some consortium of Glazer-like leech cnuts and the club continues to decay and not win major trophies ever again...

Or we become a sportswashing project. It's plague or cholera. Except the oil state ownership will probably let us compete with the other oil clubs instead of just decaying. That's where the game is. We can't recover and win major trophies without becoming one of them at this point.
I like how sportswashing oil money automatically means City level success. Because I can actually see us continuing to appoint the wrong people, make the wrong decisions, and still end up struggling for top 4.

Both City and Newcastle had the advantage of time to build their projects. We would always demand immediate success.
 

Elcabron

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People will generally assign a lower probability to events that they don't want to happen.

Ultimately, only the Glazers themselves will know what outcome is most desirable/acceptable and everything else is speculation. Avram Glazer, when asked about 'the sale' by The Athletic last week in Qatar said, “it's not necessarily a sale, it's a process and we're going forward with the process, so we'll see what happens.”.
Well said.

Bingo.

There are plenty of good reasons to be skeptical of a partial sale (ie, who wants to sink £1-2b into a football club and have the Glazers still call the shots). But there are also some pretty good reasons to be skeptical about a full sale (ie, who actually has £6-7b to spend on a football club).

Nothing really happening in the short term and this dragging out over the next year until the Glazers come down on the price seems like a reasonable possibility to me. A lot of people believe Boehly et al overpaid for Chelsea at £2.5b. United is a different level of club in terms of global brand and revenue but £6-7b is a huge number. From a financial perspective, its really hard to make the argument that spending that much on a football club is a good use of money. You could easily buy the club, discover that there isn't much room for asset growth on a percentage basis since the club already has a huge global fanbase that has been heavily commercially exploited, and then you're also losing money every year trying to refurbish the stadium while spending to keep up with two state-owned clubs.
Especially when you consider Newcastle were sold last year for 300m, 1/20th of our speculated sale price. And they are currently ahead of us in the table.
 

Andycoleno9

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I still don't understand why would someone want to buy a club as a business investment.
We are labelled as "money factory" but we still ended in minus last 3 years. In our best years we were finishing with 20-30 mil profit.
Why spend 4 or 5 billion to collect 20-30 (at best) million per year?
Maybe potential buyers look at us as long term investment? Buy for 5 billion now, sell for 7 billion after 10 years?
 

MTF

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I still don't understand why would someone want to buy a club as a business investment.
We are labelled as "money factory" but we still ended in minus last 3 years. In our best years we were finishing with 20-30 mil profit.
Why spend 4 or 5 billion to collect 20-30 (at best) million per year?
Maybe potential buyers look at us as long term investment? Buy for 5 billion now, sell for 7 billion after 10 years?
You're right, in terms of traditional investment analysis it's not a good investment at all. Even your upside scenario of selling for $2 more in 10 years is only a 4% return, you can get that buying corporate bonds these days (don't even have equity risk).

It only justifies itself if the prospective investor believes that there's another leg to football clubs' monetization potential, that no one else really perceives yet. Something like TV deals or other potential forms of revenue being about 5x larger in 5-10 years than they are now, something like that. Other than that, it's a vanity/prestige asset.
 

Fridge chutney

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If we do end up being bought by these people then I hope that you would reconsider. We are like one big family in redcafe
That's very kind of you to say, and i agree, it is a great place with great people. I'd find it hard to fully disconnect with United by staying on though. Perhaps it'd stick to the general.
 

Dion

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That is a 100 fans compared to thousands who went back to watch games. And the same will happens whoever buys us
I said "hundreds", not "a 100".

And yes, but nobody denies everyone or even the majority did. You said "Is there a fan who really left? I doubt it". I was pointing out there are actually hundreds.
 

Acquire Me

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I still don't understand why would someone want to buy a club as a business investment.
We are labelled as "money factory" but we still ended in minus last 3 years. In our best years we were finishing with 20-30 mil profit.
Why spend 4 or 5 billion to collect 20-30 (at best) million per year?
Maybe potential buyers look at us as long term investment? Buy for 5 billion now, sell for 7 billion after 10 years?
Professional investors are "always" in longtail and will go for the most safe and secure companies in the world. Buffet and Coca Cola for example. Manchester United is a comparable company in that regard.

The timing might actually be quite right to buy now. We can improve a lot sporting wise and we can improve our facilities. The factors that we are not superb sporting wise and that facilities need improvement makes room for a better price. Though I see this investment as a long term project anyways. It’s money to earn buying us, no doubt about it.
 

Andy_Cole

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Can’t wait to lose much of our fan base when we get oil money. The people who are happy with Western Dirty money but are ready to walk away with oil money.
 

VP89

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Can’t wait to lose much of our fan base when we get oil money. The people who are happy with Western Dirty money but are ready to walk away with oil money.
You are a bit dim aren't you
 

Tarrou

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Professional investors are "always" in longtail and will go for the most safe and secure companies in the world. Buffet and Coca Cola for example. Manchester United is a comparable company in that regard.

The timing might actually be quite right to buy now. We can improve a lot sporting wise and we can improve our facilities. The factors that we are not superb sporting wise and that facilities need improvement makes room for a better price. Though I see this investment as a long term project anyways. It’s money to earn buying us, no doubt about it.
This isn’t true at all. There are professional investors with all kinds of risk profiles, some short term, some long term and everything in between.
 

thebelfastboy

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I still don't understand why would someone want to buy a club as a business investment.
We are labelled as "money factory" but we still ended in minus last 3 years. In our best years we were finishing with 20-30 mil profit.
Why spend 4 or 5 billion to collect 20-30 (at best) million per year?
Maybe potential buyers look at us as long term investment? Buy for 5 billion now, sell for 7 billion after 10 years?
As a straightforward business investment where you want to receive a substantial dividend every year then your right, no. At the prices and turnover etc it doesn't add up.

The purchase of the club will be more about status and the fact that it's a secure and growing, long term investment.

Buy now for £6b and if you want to sell in 20 years it'll likely fetch in the direction of £20b.
 

VP89

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This isn’t true at all. There are professional investors with all kinds of risk profiles, some short term, some long term and everything in between.
Yes but they won't wack 10bn investment into a risky asset.
 

stw2022

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Everything seems to be up in the air. Full sale or partial. Businessesmen or oil state.

Some of the analysis seems to start with a wishful thinking conclusion of us being bought by an Middle East oil rich nation and works backwards trying to argue no other outcome makes sense or could possibly happen. I'm not sure that's true.

If the Glazers are briefing who they are holding talks with is this to genuinely inform or because they're using media to try and get higher bids from elsewhere?
 

VP89

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You're like someone who goes on holiday to America for a week and comes back talking with a stereotypical New Yorker accent.
I think I do this but in my defence it's easy to put the twang on, harder to take it off.
 

AneRu

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Bingo.

There are plenty of good reasons to be skeptical of a partial sale (ie, who wants to sink £1-2b into a football club and have the Glazers still call the shots). But there are also some pretty good reasons to be skeptical about a full sale (ie, who actually has £6-7b to spend on a football club).

Nothing really happening in the short term and this dragging out over the next year until the Glazers come down on the price seems like a reasonable possibility to me. A lot of people believe Boehly et al overpaid for Chelsea at £2.5b. United is a different level of club in terms of global brand and revenue but £6-7b is a huge number. From a financial perspective, its really hard to make the argument that spending that much on a football club is a good use of money. You could easily buy the club, discover that there isn't much room for asset growth on a percentage basis since the club already has a huge global fanbase that has been heavily commercially exploited, and then you're also losing money every year trying to refurbish the stadium while spending to keep up with two state-owned clubs.
That is an undeniable fact but how often does a club like this come up for sale, even after enduring a decade of midtable mediocrity we are still the top newsmakers in football. If I had control of a 300Bn sovereign fund and wanted the ultimate sports washing vehicle then I'd be in for it.

Where you are right is that this is likely to to be a protracted sale, any buyer with a decent financial advisor would be getting advice to hold their horses and let the Glazers bleed some more. Very soon whats happening on the income statement will reflect more on the pitch we start getting forced by circumstances to sell prized assets sending fans into revolt and sponsors hightailing out Old Trafford - if we miss CL football again it will be catastrophic for our finances and the price will have to come down. Imagine all this happening with newly installed Football Regulator in place and eager to stamp their authority!
 

red thru&thru

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I'm still yet to see a convincing case for just investors buying the club.

Manchester United is more than just a business, it's a prestigious status. Something which can't tangibly quantity.
 

tenpoless

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Dont want a qatari based ownership for a simple reason I dont want to see every player wears a see through woman robe after a title win.
 

Infra-red

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It’s not surprising I guess but it would be me done with the club.

Bleak times ahead.
The only major piece written on the sale thus far was by The Athletic and in it they are quite dismissive of the prospect of a nation state being involved in the purchase of the club. Abu Dhabi and the Saudis already own other major clubs, the Qataris do too and they think that Premier League clubs are overpriced & their value has already been extracted, Dubai are focussed on tourism, Bahrain/Oman/Kuwait aren't interested.

https://theathletic.com/3991146/2022/12/15/united-sale-manchester-glazers/
 

Tarrou

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One thing that’ll be hilarious if Qatar buy Utd, is all the regime apologists of other clubs who’ve surfaced over the WC will not be able to say feck all about it!

The downside being that Utd will no longer be Utd, at all.
but @Andy_Cole has been out in Qatar talking to gays and said its fine
 

bond19821982

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This is what people always say - be careful on what you wish for ? Grass isn't always green on the other side.

Im perfectly okay in getting an oil based state backed club. I also would like my club to compete for the highest honors .
 

FreakyJim

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One thing that’ll be hilarious if Qatar buy Utd, is all the regime apologists of other clubs who’ve surfaced over the WC will not be able to say feck all about it!

The downside being that Utd will no longer be Utd, at all.
But an upside will be those sick Messi robes.
 

ROFLUTION

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I would absolutely hate it if we were bought by a state/oil money. This isnt how football should be
 

red thru&thru

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One thing that’ll be hilarious if Qatar buy Utd, is all the regime apologists of other clubs who’ve surfaced over the WC will not be able to say feck all about it!

The downside being that Utd will no longer be Utd, at all.
Could you please expand on your last paragraph, please? How would United no longer be United?
 

Boondog

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It’s not surprising I guess but it would be me done with the club.

Bleak times ahead.
For you it will be bleak times I agree. Looking at a PL ownership list your choice of British owners who aren't into questionable shit like gambling are bleak. Tottenham is probably your best option barring the great white British hope swooping in on his warhorse to save merry old England.

Honestly the altruistic fans who say they are jumping ship would probably be better off choosing a League One or Two team. At that level they can enjoy the game without all the pressures of evil owners making money and buying wins. Might even be multiple teams with British owners to choose from.
 

Tarrou

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Could you please expand on your last paragraph, please? How would United no longer be United?
can't say I disagree really

a big part of United being United for me is the history of success we built ourselves

if we start winning after spending ridiculous amounts of oil money it just won't feel the same

I don't know exactly how I'll feel when it happens but I expect I'll just slowly lose interest over time
 
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