When we say Manchester United is a global leader as far soccer’s various aspects, like training and development, competing, and financial strategies are concerned, we mean it. No matter how United is performing on ground (though it is leading the tally with 27 points in EPL at the moment!) Glazer family always keeps itself busy in balancing its financial structure. In doing so, Man United released bonds worth £62.6million in the first quarter this financial year which resulted in its overall gross debts’ reduction to £359.7m, which is an 18% drop right away. There are other reasons for its improved balance sheet, like its comprehensive surge in sponsorship deal’s revenues. In fact, there is around 30% jump in sponsorship revenues; the topmost sponsorship deal was with General Motors for Chevrolet logo to be printed on players T-shirts for next seven seasons until 2014. Moreover, in last quarter alone, it signed around ten more sponsorship deals with various global brands including Nike, DHL, EPSON, BWIN among others.
Apart from sponsorship revenues, its stadium per day income also surged comprehensively during last London Olympic Games. Specifically, there were nine Olympic matches played on Old Trafford which made Man United richer by another £19.6 million, which is a 13% jump. Moreover, Man United got a tax credit of £26.5m which helped it in rounding off its last year’s £5m operational loss and turned it into a £20.5m profit this year. In additional to that, Man United’s higher product sale this year was £76.3m which is 3.4 percent more than last year. Financially; Man United’s balance sheet looks solid with all the heads well balanced, which shows how futuristic Glazer family is.
Ed Woodward, United executive vice-chairman of Man United talked about the reduced debts, or rather about its global operations. He said, “Manchester United had a record first quarter driven by our commercial operation, which continues to experience extremely strong global revenue growth in new media & mobile, retail merchandising & sponsorship.”
He further added,
“We feel we know, with some clarity, the value of our rights, and we are bullish about the abundance of opportunities available to accelerate the growth of this business.
“The planning on DHL started post-GM deal. We are always monitoring the value of our rights. We can improve the amount, duration and rights-package about that deal.
“Our six-month negotiating window with them (Nike) starts in February. We look forward to sitting down with them then.”