NFL's Glazer Takes Control Of Man United Buccaneers Owner Buys English Club, Draws Ire By Thomas Heath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 17, 2005; D01
American billionaire Malcolm Glazer yesterday took full control of England's Manchester United soccer club, one of the most storied and profitable sports franchises in the world, setting off waves of anxiety among the team's legions of fans across the globe.
The 76-year-old owner of the 2003 Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers added 2.3 million more shares, giving him 75.7 percent of the publicly traded team. It now has a value of $1.47 billion, according to his Red Football venture, which is the holding company he is using to purchase the stock. Forbes magazine values the Redskins at about $1 billion.
Glazer has been accumulating stock for months, generating fears among Manchester United's fans, known as "Reds," that their beloved soccer club would be owned by an American with no appreciation for the hold that the 127-year-old franchise exerts on British sports fans. Man U engenders love and loathing throughout Britain, Europe and Asia in the same way that the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees spawn emotions in the United States.
"I'm unhappy about this," said Paul Lusty, a Welshman and owner of Lucky Bar near Dupont Circle, where fans watch Man U games live on a big screen. "I don't think it's a good thing for Manchester that someone from Tampa Bay is coming over [there] and buying it up. Glazer's loyalties are not in [soccer], just in big business. This is a major change in the soccer industry like the changes going on in sports in the U.S."
Fans opposed to Glazer started the
www.shareholdersunited.org Web site, organizing protests and write-in campaigns, and threatening boycotts and other actions against businesses such as Glazer banker J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and the team's business partners like Vodafone Group Plc, Nike Inc., Anheuser-Busch Cos. and PepsiCo.
"Prepare to feel our wrath," said Shareholders United in a letter on its Web site addressed to J.P. Morgan and Smithfield Financial. "Make no mistake, this is a hostile bid. And the hostility you face from our club's board will pale in comparison to the hostility you will face from us. If Glazer is successful, you will forever be known as the people who sold out Manchester United. You WILL regret this."
Attempts to reach Glazer were unsuccessful.
Fans plan demonstrations at the FA Cup final against archrival Arsenal this Saturday in Wales. Last week, an effigy of Glazer was burned by fans outside the team's stadium.
"We are calling on all supporters to wear black in Cardiff on Saturday," Mark Longden of the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association told the Associated Press. "If they can get hold of black flags, they should wave them because it represents what is happening to the club."
Glazer last week bought out J.P. McManus and John Magnier, Irish racehorse owners who had been the largest shareholders. To buy the team, the billionaire is using $503 million in cash, issuing preferred securities and borrowing the rest. With 75 percent ownership, Glazer can now place his personal debt on United's books and move the club off the stock market and into private ownership. If he increases his stake to 90 percent, he can force the other shareholders to sell him their shares.
Manchester United had a profit of 19.4 million British pounds on sales of 169 million pounds in fiscal year 2004, no small feat in the Premier League, in which less than half the teams are profitable. The club pays millions in annual dividends.
Manchester United is one of the most powerful sports brands in the world, with everything from travel to mortgage to financial consulting services available under its umbrella. Manchester United merchandise and "megastores" run from South Africa to Bangkok. Its Red Cafe restaurants stretch from Manchester to Malaysia. Its games are televised throughout the world. Its five Premier League soccer titles during the 1990s are the British equivalent of the Chicago Bulls winning six NBA championships in less than a decade.
In addition to his sports businesses, Glazer is a shopping mall and animal feed magnate who grew up in Rochester, N.Y., where he worked at his father's watch repair shop, according to Forbes, which estimates Glazer's wealth at $1 billion. He has also made fortunes in mobile-home parks, restaurants, real estate and Zapata, a former oil-and-gas company that now serves as a holding company.
Fans worry Glazer will sell the 67,000-seat Old Trafford stadium, considered the cathedral of British soccer, to pay down the private debt used to buy the team. Manchester United has been listed on the stock exchange since 1991, and the club was able to fend off a $1 billion takeover attempt in 1998 by Rupert Murdoch.
Lusty said he's not concerned that Glazer will run Man U into the ground.
"He would be pretty silly to ruin the team," he said. "It's already the most profitable soccer and sports machine in the world. There might even be improvement in some areas. Who knows, he might get some veggie burgers in the stadium."
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