Team Glazer Tossing Around Cold Hard Cash
May 20th, 2011
Those who seem to enjoy believing/fantasizing that Team Glazer is treading water in a growing pool of red ink might find this post distasteful.
Mike Ozanian, who pours over largely boring sports business matters for Forbes, has scrutinized Team Glazer’s most recent books from their English soccer team and determined that Team Glazer is in fine financial health after shaving $76 million off its debt.
I recently got my hands on Manchester United’s third quarter results and investor presentation (below), which are dated May 13. My conclusion: concerns over debt are overblown. … The Red Devils posted a pretax profit of $7.8 million over the nine months versus a pretax loss of $108 million the prior year. Even though match day revenue fell 3.7% primarily because Manchester United played one less match at home, overall revenue was up 5.6% because of a 29.9% gain in commercial revenue driven by the first year of the Aon partnership.
The Glazers used the club’s cash flow to reduce debt to $819 million from $895 million. Although that is not small piece of change, that fact that it is trending lower and is reasonable relative to the $1.9 billion valuation of Manchester United tells me leverage is not a problem.
Hmmm, Team Glazer owes $819 million on its kickball team but seems to have a billion in equity in the investment. Sounds good to Joe. Plus the team is playing for the European title tomorrow, another windfall.
Joe’s not at all worried about whether Team Glazer can afford to spend big bucks on the Bucs. But, as Gary Shelton told us, this might not be their year to release the moths from the One Buc Place vault.
May 20th, 2011 at 10:05 am
One more year, then we make a splash and dash for the Super Bowl. Lets see where we are come the end of the ’11 season, if there is one. Then we can see if there are just FA plugin pieces we are missing or if there is some more draft work to do.
May 20th, 2011 at 11:25 am
Sorry Thomas! As if that 2.2 inches wasn’t keeping you up at nights, now there’s news tidbit to drive ya crazy! The Glazers MADE a Billion dollars on the kickball squad! Damn, I’m avoiding The McDonalds you work at for the next few weeks- gonna be spit on every burger!
May 20th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Capt Tim, what did Mc D’s ever do to you to assume they would hire Thomas?
Hey Capt, I bet if this article was about Forbes finding out that some more malls closed, there would be 200 comments. Good news about the owners and we have 3 comments…
May 20th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
It’s that sad, McBuc! You are absolutely right. We’ll get labeled homers for being glad to hear it.
I actually thought it was really nice if McDonalds to hire Thomas 2.2 inches. Somebody nice enough to give his Mom’s couch a break!
May 20th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
Since Bucs had the lowest payroll in the NFL last year, its not hard to imagine how the Glazer’s paid off $79million of their debt. That said, they did a damn good job, a damn good job.
May 20th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Champions League Final is actually next Saturday, May 28th live on Fox. Curt Menefee will host the pregame. At least we are guaranteed a little football this year. Got to root for Man United (Bucs older, richer sister team?) vs. Barcelona. Glory Glory Man United!!
May 20th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
MVP, good point…
May 20th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Joe, does this mean the Glazers are currently showing a return of $257,000,000?
1,000,000,000-819,000,000=181,000,000
debt paid +76,000,000
—————–
= $257,000,000 in the MU alone?
And how much did they profit last year from the Buccaneers (keeping in mind that the players took half of the revenue sharing; 50%)?
May 20th, 2011 at 5:19 pm
I may be wrong, but I could have sworn one of the Glazers said last year that they are keeping the two completely seperate. I don’t remember if it was a radio interview, tv interview or in print.
May 20th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Well if true at least they are doing something with the money that they are siphoning away from the bucs.
May 20th, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Also, if this is some cash used from the 2010 bond offering (another way to borrow $) then they are just moving debt around.
I dont know whether that is the case or not. I do know that the bucs have ransacked financially since manu and these owners have invested less in their team then all other 31 owners over that period of time. Thank god we have freeman or we would have basically nothing.
May 20th, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Thank God Raheem saw what many others didn’t and picked the right guy!
May 20th, 2011 at 7:54 pm
The Glazers are smart businessmen who know when to spend money and when not to. They are billionaires for a reason. This team is being built the right way again. Naturally, when you build through the draft, rookie contracts aren’t very overwhelming. Once these initial contracts expire, these young players like Free, Williams, Blount, etc., will be cashing in on some good money. If the Glazers do not reward these guys (like they have said they would repeatedly), then I will be on board with the Glazer haters. I have a feeling though that the Glazers will know it’s time to spend some big money again.
May 20th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
Mobucs: Stop being a fool and thinking that Raheem drafted Freeman. He may not have objected but Dom makes the decisions regarding draft picks after being briefed by the scouts and doing his own homework. Rumor has it that Rah was a HUGE Roy Miller and GMC fan – well we see how that has turned out.
Leave the drafting: and the criticism and credit to Dom. Rah gets the credit/ blame for the lowly ranked run defense and pass rush, and a defense that the horrible redskinds could break records against.
May 21st, 2011 at 4:50 am
To those of you who keep bringing up” the lowest payroll”, like it is a criticism of the owners- you are idiots. You can’t make a team have the lowest payroll in one year. It is the culmination of years of Gruden/Allen piss poor drafting, plus not replenishing the teams talent or all pros. The very reason the Glazers fired their sorry asses! When They first entrusted Gruden with the team, we had one of the highest payroes in the NFL. We had 4 guys who were perennial All pros.
When we fired him, we had no one going to the probowl. We had no young all pro players. keeping team talent level up is a head coaches job. That, along with not developing a QB, is why we cut him lose
Its also why our payroll is low. It’s got nothing to do with the Glazers.
May 21st, 2011 at 10:51 am
Freeman was entirely Coach Morris call. He knew him personally,having coached at the College while Josh was there. Dominick and company wanted to trade up for Sanchez. Raheem put the Freeman pick entirely on him, and they trusted him. A great decision by a great draft team and organization.
Gruden would have drafted a 5′ slow receiver with a huge criminal record, a bum knee, and who was an active gang member. Allen would have traded next years number one pick, to move up and get him!
May 21st, 2011 at 11:13 am
If u dont have your own players to resign, you supplement with other teams fa’s or soon to be fa’s: drew brees, julius peppers, charles woodson, the jetd defense was built with high priced acquisitions from other teams, scott, leonard, cromartie, jenkins etc all brought in too improve the d bc the draft wasnt producing. The jets o with edwards, holmes, lt all trades or fa’s – what have the jets earned- two afc title games. You can add through draft AND fa. You dont stop drafting bc you sign fas – the problem – it cost more $. The glazerhouses are using player $ to help pay down manu – it is obvious. If they miss the playoffs again, that will be 4 unacceptable years in a row.
You
May 21st, 2011 at 11:23 am
Thomas, you are ignorant if you think Raheem (who coached at K-State while Freeman was there) wasn’t the driving force behind drafting Free. You are even more ignorant if you think that GMs make all the decisions without consulting with the head coach. I’m not taking anything away from Dom (who you hated at first when he was promoted to GM after Gru/Allen were fired) but Rah is much more involved with this team then you like to think. Your blind hatred for Rah really makes you look clueless about the game of football.
May 21st, 2011 at 12:33 pm
No Thomas your still the local JoeBucsFan fool around here. Freeman would not be a Buc if it was not For Raheem.