Manchester United is not for sale, but there may be a piece of it

Manchester United is not for sale. But that’s sort of, the same way everything sells if the supply is high enough.

The rumors started this week with Tweeta bad joke of a billionaire it fell quickly Himself. But as soon as Elon Musk walked away, the sharks were spinning.

Jim Ratcliffe, the British billionaire, was the first to exit the market, saying he would be interested in buying the team if it was, in fact, for sale. The US private equity firm, Apollo Global Management, is reported to be in talks about acquiring a minority stake. Money will not be a problem. Ratcliffe, president of Ineos, is one of the world’s richest men. Apollo has nearly half a trillion dollars under its management.

But getting lost in the whirlpool of worrying reports seemed to be an important warning: Manchester United weren’t actually up for sale.

or was it?

These may not seem like the best times on the market at United. The team sits last in the Premier League, in their worst start in over a century. It employs a team of players who inspire sarcasm more than reverence. Fans are now organizing weekly protests against the Florida-based Glazer family. However, despite his struggles, there may be no sports franchise more desirable anywhere on earth than Manchester United.

It is one of the biggest teams anywhere that can be wholly owned. Play in the most popular soccer league in the world. Its spread extends to every corner of the earth. Quite simply: There are few brands in a sector as strong as Manchester United.

But it is known that scarce assets are difficult to value with traditional market fundamentals. United’s stock price, for example – listed on the New York Stock Exchange – suggests the club is valued at $2.23 billion, well below the record $3 billion that a group led by California-based Clearlake Fund paid this spring for the premier. Premier League rival Chelsea

But Chelsea is not Manchester United, not in any sense. Yes, it was successful. Yes, it also employs some of the best players in the world. But in terms of global reach, popularity and brand strength, the club is nothing compared to the club. But what Chelsea’s selling price has proven is that when it comes to valuations of elite football clubs, what’s on the balance sheet rarely matters.

Chelsea lost over $1 million a week under their former owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. It needs a new stadium and will require tens of millions more in spending each season to keep the competition slate going. Its purchase price came on the heels of a very public auction that attracted interest from all over the world.

For Manchester United, the list of suitors will be longer and more public. Ratcliffe and Apollo may have been the first. They will not be the last.

Ratcliffe’s approach is perhaps the most informative of what might come. He apparently made no effort to contact Glazers directly, or even reach out to the bankers. Instead, he went straight to the media, suggesting he would be open to buying even a piece of United, with an eye on getting it one day.

“We are interested in the club, if it is for sale,” a spokesperson for Ratcliffe told the New York Times on Thursday. This tactic unleashed a huge wave of popular support, and triggered a new round of abuses on the current owners.

For the Glazers, who had been under siege for most of their tenure, a minority sale might make sense. That could allow them to quell growing fan hostility – many Glazers supporters have never been forgiven for piling in debt to the previously debt-free club in their £800m takeover in 2005, the type of deal the Premier League is seeking. Now to their investigation outlaw – while bidding at the same time for the overall evaluation of the team. That number will almost certainly be higher than United’s share price might suggest.

Despite nearly a decade of poor performance, United still earn more than nearly every other team in world football. Revenue tripled under the Glazers, to £627 million ($756 million) in 2019. If Chelsea were worth $3 billion in the open market, United, because of their fame, earning potential and stature, are worth a lot to see some Experts say that more, and maybe double.

At the same time, it is difficult to overstate the amount of negative feelings among Manchester United supporters towards the Glazer family. For more than a decade, fans have rallied against them at matches and parades in the streets; Once, they even burned an effigy of the late family patriarch Malcolm Glazer. And when the club flirted with joining the proposed European Super League last year, United fans stormed the team’s stadium and protest in the field.

But through it all — for nearly two decades — the Glazer family has stuck, keeping what is in many ways as rare an asset as a priceless painting, thrilled to watch the value of their investment go skyward and with the seal that comes with owning one of the world’s most famous teams.

It is not clear if all six of the Glazer siblings whose father transferred ownership of the team upon his death share the same commitment to owning Manchester United. Brothers Joel and Avram are the most experienced, directly involved in the decision-making of the team. But a partial sale could allow less-invested family members to cash in at a premium price, and leave those who remain with a valuation that is almost certain to be the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise.

For now, the Glazers, as they have been for nearly two decades, have not uttered a word public about their plans. A Manchester United spokesman declined to comment on Thursday.

And now, officially at least, Manchester United is not for sale. The Glazers’ banker, the 200-year-old London-based consultant Rothschild & Co., is not actively soliciting bids. But Abramovich was not, even as he spent years quietly directing offers to New York banker Joe Ravic, who eventually sold Chelsea this spring.

It is very likely that things will work out at Manchester United. There will come a moment, when the time and price are just right, for owners unpopular in the history of English football to cash in on what will become one of the most profitable deals in the history of the sport.

It has already cost Manchester United more than £1 billion – in interest, debt repayments and dividends – for the right to be owned by the Glazers. Most fans will consider billions more, this time in the form of one final check, a price worth paying to get rid of them.