I wonder if the reason the Glazers have such a high valuation (£6B+) attached to the club isn’t due to having watched PSG and City and their practice of having quasi-affiliated companies provide sponsorship money and dreaming jealously.
Given how much success the Glazers have had in creating commercial opportunities for the club, mustn’t their valuation be based on the new owner’s potential to increase revenues based on a Qatari (and SJR, to a much lesser degree) ownership model?
So long as the club maintains its enormous fan base, it won’t be hard to justify (FFP) getting the best paid deal in each and every sponsorship category. If fans’ assumptions about how PSG and City‘s sponsorships work are accurate, just think how much revenue the Glazers could have wrung out of the club had they had a portfolio of revenue rich quasi-affiliates to compel sponsorship from.
If they’re right, the fact that the kit sponsorship is available will be the first data point about intent of the new owner, regardless of whether it is SJR or Qatari. Who sponsors and for how much more revenue than any other deal before it, to me, will be very telling. Significantly increasing revenues by creating new categories with guaranteed uptake, plus renewing existing deals at the highest price point across the board, should see transfer muppets the necessary budget to safely (from FFP) dream of additions in each window.
Obviously the pitch about the commercial potential of the club is only enhanced by the development potential around the club. The Qatari bid captures that idea and they aren’t alone. I believe that the Dallas Cowboys have built a commercial village around their enormous state of the art mega-stadium that attracts fans and locals year-round. It’s a reason why the Cowboys are the most valuable club in the world. With a value around £7B, you can see the Glazer’s inspiration.
The Glazers can see how to capitalize on all of this “untapped“ commercial potential (but don’t have the resources and connections) and want to share in that eventuality by attaching a premium to their valuation of the club…extra billion or so? Whichever bidder shares that vision and is willing to pay for it will win the bidding.