Tesla chief executive Elon Musk added further salt to the wounds of Manchester United fans after tweeting he would be buying the club, before saying it was a joke.
Musk tweeted “Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome,” before redacting his comment, adding “No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams.”
Also, I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 17, 2022
The tweet seemed to have amplified rumours among the football world, however, that the Glazer family which owns Manchester United, might finally be willing to sell.
Ever since the Glazers bought a stake in the club in 2003, fans of the Premier League club have been heavily vocal against their ownership.
This is largely due to them taking money out of the club in the form of dividends, a perceived lack of investment in infrastructure, although there have been talks of revamping the training facilities, and a lack of knowledge on how to run a football clubs that has translated onto the pitch.
Media rights
For all the top six clubs, broadcast revenue is the money-maker.
Conrad Wiacek, head of sports analysis at GlobalData, adds “the rise of valuation in sports clubs in general, whether that be NBA, NFL or football, is based around media rights.”
Broadcast revenue accounted for nearly half of the revenue of the top six clubs, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham in the last full season that was uninterrupted by Covid.
Current broadcast deals, both domestically and globally, bring in about £10.3bn to the Premier League clubs.
Compare that to La Liga, which bought in about £1.16bn from broadcast rights.
Although 50% of the £10.3bn is split equally among all 20 clubs, 25% goes towards the costs involved in hosting the cameras and ensuring the stadiums are fit and proper for broadcast, and the final 25% is awarded on merit.
Essentially, the popularity of football as a global sport and increasing broadcast rights make it a cash cow for owners.
Would be buyers?
The most vocal and obvious potential buyer at this point is Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
The chief executive officer of Ineos, a chemicals company he founded himself in 1998, who has made his interest publicly known in the past.
Ineos already has a stake in French club OGC Nice and made a late entry into buying Chelsea before a consortium led by Todd Boehly completed the deal for the West London club.
American interest in the British Premier League is growing rapidly, with Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal all having American owners.
So, it can be safe to assume Manchester United would also garner some interest stateside.
The most obvious, in this case, would be the Ricketts Family, which owns Major League Baseball team Chicago Cubs.
They themselves were also involved in the bid for Chelsea, so if another opportunity pops up expect that they might consider throwing themselves into the hat.
A Deutsche Bank note in March valued Manchester United at US$2.24bn.
Chelsea Football Club were bought for more than double that, so don’t expect Manchester United to come cheap if the Glazers ever look to sell and anyone looking to buy would need a vast amount of cash.
However, the club may be cheap given all the behind-the-scenes work that supposedly needs doing, which may make it an even more attractive proposition.