New O.T? Glazers will be laughing all way to bank
WANTAWAY OWNERS THE REAL WINNERS
MANCHESTER UNITED getting public money may help the club build a new stadium and regenerate the local area.
That’s no doubt a good thing for the club and the community, particularly in the Trafford region.
But why it just feels wrong is that it is going to help the Glazer family pocket even more money from the club.
That’s because a new stadium and a bustling area next to the ground will add at least a billion pounds to the price of the club.
That’s what the American family are interested in – selling United at the highest price possible.
They didn’t get what they wanted this time and so opted to sell just over 25 per cent – at an inflated price – to Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
That’s rightly brought some optimism around Old Trafford, with a new injection of energy and money into a faded force of a football club.
But the Glazers are not stupid. They are letting Ratcliffe run the football operation because it means they’ll no longer get criticism for poor performances on the pitch.
And now they’ve allowed the petro-chemicals billionaire to push ahead with the task force to build a new stadium.
But the real winners here are not the fans or even the players, who will come and go and earn even more money if United have a bigger stadium with bigger hospitality sections to bring in even more cash.
It’s the Glazer family. They get to see the value of the asset grow without any investment from themselves.
They’ll let Ratcliffe raise the funds through his own wealth and that of his billionaire buddies, while they also tap into the taxpayers’ pot. All the while, over in Florida, the much-maligned family will just sit back and watch the value of the club and their shares go up as every new brick is laid on a new stadium.
It would almost be regarded as genius if they weren’t so rightly labelled as the greedy, leeching owners that they have been.
But everyone is seemingly too busy losing their minds at Trafford Council and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham (inset) for getting involved in this money-making project to see who it is really going to benefit.
The Glazers have seen the NFL’s Washington Commanders agree a sale price of £4.8bn, and they want to sell United for even more.
Someone else building a shiny new stadium for them will ensure they get their price.