After a summer break the author of the superb Swiss Ramble blog is back. This time he takes on the big task of analysing Manchester United’s finances, providing his usual forensic and informative analysis, backed up by lots of charts and tables. Everything you want to know about United’s finances is there and I certainly gained some insights.
After a summer break the author of the superb Swiss Ramble blog is back. This time he takes on the big task of analysing Manchester United’s finances, providing his usual forensic and informative analysis, backed up by lots of charts and tables. Everything you want to know about United’s finances is there and I certainly gained some insights.
He notes that United may not be firing on all cylinders on the pitch, but are going great guns off it. In the long run, of course, this could catch up with United, but in the meantime they are financially sound, have a loyal support base and a global brand. The benefits of that global brand are shown in commercial revenues which have grown by 128 per cent since 2012, outstripping all their rivals.
In 2014/15, United were one of only six clubs in the Premier League to make a loss, but they have more than offset that with bumper profits in their latest accounts. It is interesting to see how big a contribution the prawn sandwich brigade makes to revenues. They made £34m from hospitality, compared with £52m from gate receipts.
They do, however, continue to pay a price for the leveraged buy out of the club by the Glazers. Operating profits over the years of £526m have almost been wiped out by net financing costs of £480m. However, the good news is that the debt is reducing.