An article in today’s Times describes ‘the commercial revolution …. at Old Trafford as an unqualified success story and the envy of English football.’
It is certainly the case that Manchester United has developed a more sophisticated and better resourced commercial operation that any other club and it has paid dividends for them financially. Even their training kit is the sixth best selling replica shirt in Europe.
An article in today’s Times describes ‘the commercial revolution …. at Old Trafford as an unqualified success story and the envy of English football.’
It is certainly the case that Manchester United has developed a more sophisticated and better resourced commercial operation that any other club and it has paid dividends for them financially. Even their training kit is the sixth best selling replica shirt in Europe.
It is anticipated that when United’s full financial results for the season are released later in the year they will show that commercial revenue has soared past £200m, a near five-fold increase in the decade since the Glazers acquired the club. That is before the new £750m ten year kit deal with adidas kicks in from August 1st. In all, more than 200 contracts have been signed at a value in excess of £2 billion.
In 2007 United’s commercial department consisted of two people working out of Manchester. Now they have 140 specialist staff spread across London, Manchester and Hong Kong from where they can tap lucrative Far Eastern markets.
The club can pitch to prospective sponsors the fact that a study has shown that they have 659 million followers across the globe. It might seem that many of those attachments are somewhat tenuous, but within 18 to 24 months of partnering with United, sponsors’ brand recognition is generally up 90 per cent.
United have adopted a fine grained, regionally differentiated approach to markets. For example, they have three different tyre partners in India, as well as deals in the Middle East and Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan and Russia.
None of this would, of course, impress the fans who broke away to form FC United. They see such commercialisation as symptomatic of what is wrong with the modern game. They will open their new 5,000 capacity stadium on May 29th and are only two divisions away from the Football League.