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Fanning flames

Amid growing fan ire about the emphasis of the financial over the traditional, Malcolm Glazer's eminent takeover of Manchester United only adds fuel to the fire.

By LOUIS HAU
Published May 14, 2005

Not that Malcolm Glazer cares either way, but fan hostility toward his takeover of Manchester United isn't wholly personal.

That may sound absurd at a time when outraged Man U fans have taken to the streets to burn him in effigy.

But Glazer's acquisition of a controlling stake in the legendary English soccer team happens to come at a particularly sensitive time for British "football."

The governing body of English soccer, the Football Association, is reviewing its operational structure amid concerns that the increased commercialization of the sport over the past decade - and the way it has been managed - has changed the sport for the worse..

Then Glazer took over Man U.

"The timing is unbelievable because it's happening in the middle of all this going on," says Stefan Szymanski, a sports economist at Imperial College in London.

On Thursday, just as Glazer was finally laying claim to his majority stake, England's Premier League, the country's most prestigious soccer division, released a critical assessment of the FA, arguing that "the current way of working is unsustainable."

At issue are questions about the FA's impartiality among the competing interests of all teams, and concerns about its ability to manage huge capital projects, such as the construction of the $1.4-billion Wembley National Stadium in London.

And, more fundamentally, say fan groups, is a growing sense of unease that British soccer has become too obsessed with profits and big money and that it is straying from its roots as a fan-centric, community-oriented sport.

"It's part of our tradition, our history, our culture," says Steven Powell, development director for the Football Supporters Federation, a fan advocacy group. "We think of our teams as community assets."

For decades, professional British soccer was a commercial enterprise that never made huge amounts of money, with ticket sales accounting for most of revenues.

That all changed dramatically in the late 1980s and early 1990s as state-run television stations around Europe loosened their grip on broadcasting rights to soccer games. As a hook to attract new customers, Rupert Murdoch's then-fledging satellite TV company British Sky Broadcasting Group, or BSkyB, signed an exclusive broadcasting agreement in 1992 with the Premier League.

The watershed deal brought a flood of new money into the sport, sending player salaries soaring and enabling some teams to replace their aged stadiums with new facilities.

But the flip side of this new affluence has been a widening income gap among pro teams, as the more successful ones garnered a far larger slice of the TV money, under a revenue-sharing arrangement that rewards performance on the field. In addition, ticket prices have risen sharply as owners scramble to keep pace with the ever-rising price of star players.

Even more troubling, British soccer began attracting investors whose interests focused less on continuing the proud traditions of a team than on skimming its profits and acquiring the valuable real estate on which some stadiums were built, Powell says.

British soccer fans, never known to be a particularly retiring lot, have begun fighting back. When the owners of Wimbledon FC took the controversial step two years ago of moving the team out of southwest London to the town of Milton Keynes, the team's incensed fans banded together to form a new team, AFC Wimbledon. While the new team plays in a less competitive division than its predecessor, it has managed to draw more fans to its games than the old team, Powell says.

Growing numbers of fans have also channeled their allegiances into the formation of supporters' trusts, fan associations that often hold shares in their favorite teams and strive to ensure that the teams stay true to their heritage as civic institutions.

One of the most visible supporters' trusts has been Manchester's Shareholders United, whose 27,000 members have been vehemently opposed to Glazer.

Although the group didn't halt the takeover, it nonetheless managed to marshal impressive resources for a fan-based organization.

Earlier this month, the group secured the backing of Japanese investment bank Nomura International in a failed 11th-hour attempt to acquire enough stock to block Glazer's acquisition of the team.

Shareholders United may yet prove to be a thorn in the side of the Bucs owner. The group intends to mount a legal challenge to Glazer's plans to take the team private and is calling on its fans to boycott the team's corporate sponsors.

"We're not going easily," says group chairman Nick Towle. "He knows that. . . . It'd be a worrying trend if Glazer and all these rich people took over the sport without knowing the heritage and traditions of the sport."

Louis Hau can be reached at 813 226-3404 or hau@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 14, 2005, 01:17:08]