Fate of US football team may be mirrored at United
FOOTBALL was not the late Malcolm Glazer’s forte. Neither was American football for that matter. But sport helped the real estate mogul become a billionaire and a household name.
Glazer raised eyebrows when he paid $192m, a league record, to purchase the struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise in 1995.
The Bucs had won just 89 games in 19 seasons but by 2003, they had lifted the Super Bowl for the first time in their history.
That image of Glazer raising the Vincent Lombardi trophy aloft is one that would soon haunt United fans as news of the family’s controversial takeover broke a couple of years later.
It was as good as it got for the Bucs, who have long operated well below the NFL salary cap, and they have not made it to the play-offs since Super Bowl-winning coach Jon Gruden’s departure in 2008.
Indeed, in that decade since, they have won just 59 games at a time when ticket prices have increased at the Raymond James Stadium – an arena taxpayers funded after the Glazers threatened to move the franchise elsewhere.
All the while, though, the Bucs’ value has grown and the Glazers’ original investment has more than paid off.
Forbes currently value the franchise at a whopping $1.975bn and the NFL’s shared distribution of wealth from TV deals, league-wide sponsorships, licensing and merchandise sales means that figure will continue to rise.
But, following a lack of on the field success, many Bucs fans feel the Glazers’ attention has long turned to their other major investment more than 4,300 miles away in Manchester.
Something that may surprise United supporters.
There is no longer 145,000 eager fans on the Bucs’ season ticket waiting list like there was in 2007.
Since Gruden’s departure, the club have had four managers in 10 years with no tangible long-term strategy.
Is it ringing alarm bells yet, United fans? United’s success under the Glazers’ ownership came in spite of them rather than because of them; the Americans were fortunate to inherit Sir Alex Ferguson in 2005.
Someone who adapted to Glazernomics when Chelsea and then City were outspending United.
What has happened since the departure of Ferguson and executive vice-chairman David Gill draws uncomfortable parallels with the Buccaneers.
Sure, United have won five trophies and continued to dominate as a commercial superpower, but what is the strategy?
How do the club intend to outmanoeuvre City and return to the top again without a constant turnover of remarkably different managers and players?
A revamp of the club’s academy, training ground and scouting network, and plans to appoint a technical director, are all positive developments but the Glazers only ever have one minimum goal in mind.
Qualification for the Champions League to keep maintain those sweet, sweet revenue streams.