Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen at Carrington training complex
The Glazer family are considering transferring Manchester United’s Carrington training ground to their own holding company before leasing it back to the club, it has emerged.
United’s owners have this week unveiled plans for a £500m bond scheme – which is seeking to raise refinancing for the club’s £700m debt – and a prospectus issued to potential investors reveals the potential change of ownership for the complex.
The bond, plus the £75m revolving credit facility also negotiated, will be secured on property owned by Manchester United, including Old Trafford, but exempting Carrington.
Fortress Carrington’, as it is known by locals, is a state-of-the-art, 108-acre complex comprising 14 pitches, medical and physiotherapy facilities, restaurants and is also used for business and conferences. The club currently owns the freehold.
United’s fans, already dismayed by the levels of debt the Glazers have burdened the club with, are sure to react with anger to the latest plans, particularly after it was disclosed this week that the club’s owners took over £20m in management fees and loans out of the club in the last financial year.
But it also reveals that the bond issue ‘will not prohibit us from selling or transferring our training ground or our stadium’, while a long-term lease of either will ‘enable us to have substantially the same access to such property as we currently do’.
But such plans will further alienate the already substantial anti-Glazer body among United’s support.
Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust, told the Guardian: ‘People are starting to connect the fact that they are asking us to stump up more in ticket prices and they’re not investing in the squad and on top of that they are taking money out for themselves. That is going to make it difficult to get away with another rise.’
Ticket prices have already increased by 8.5 per cent since 2005 under the Glazers’ ownership and the prospectus suggests further rises – in excess of inflation – to boost the club’s match-day income.
‘We have been able to consistently increase match-day ticket prices for both general admission and seasonal hospitality seats at levels above the rate of inflation,’ says the document.
It continues: ‘While other Premier League clubs have experienced a flattening or reduction in ticket prices in response to the economic downturn, we were able to increase aggregate ticket prices for the 2009/10 season by 2.5 per cent.’
The document then says the club will seek to ‘enhance the value proposition’ of visiting Old Trafford, and promises: ‘We will continue to seek to improve the OT experience while keeping ticket prices at a level where they are regarded by fans as value for money.’
But the Glazers’ plans may back-fire with even United most ardent fans starting to question whether they will stomach further price hikes. Drasdo told the Daily Telegraph: ‘The Glazers are trying to present a rosy picture to investors but I don’t know if they can get away with further price rises.’
‘You can get a ticket for pretty much any match you want now — and there is only so many times fans will take a slap in the face.’
