Worth a chuckle perhaps

[HatterDon]

A friend sent me an e-mail this morning with this cut-and-pasted in it. He said, "I know they're the devil but ... ."

Own a part of Man U
       
August 07 2012

Want to be the boss of Wayne Rooney? He probably wouldn't listen to you, but you can buy the right to feel as if you have a say when Manchester United goes public with a US IPO. The stock offering is scheduled for August 10th, writesMarketWatch. The current majority shareholder is the Glazer family, owner of the American football Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It appears that their IPO bombed a little. Evidently they aren't the "must have" that they assumed they would be ... poor lambs.

[FFC1987]

I read today they floated on the NY stock exchange and tried selling at £14 per share. Not sure how much the share consists of in terms on percentage but sounds like a horrific investment...

[HatterDon]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/soccer/08/09/manchester-united-nyse.ap/index.html?

Manchester United IPO prices below expectations

It's an AP article, so I'm not going to reproduce it here, but the link will make an interesting read if you're into economic stuff.

[jarv]

Investment analyst comments...it is not an investment, just a nice piece of memorabilia for die hard fans.
Quoted that Glazers  potentially making 90 million personally, if enough sell, even at the reduced price.

Can't help thinking, this surely is just another con. Selling something which is actually worth nothing, can't do anything with it, defined as not an investment (or a very bad one)  and even if you had millions to buy lots, apparently very limited voting rights. 

[LBNo11]

...maybe they should have sold them on the Hong Kong SE and Mumbai Stock exchange which is nearest to their largest fan base..?

[FFC1987]

Its floating on the NY exchange of course its deemed an investment.....

However much we gloss it up as much, as stated you get zero voting rights, its more than likely your stocks won't go up and they mean virtually nothing.

It is a con and a way to circulate more of the fans money. However some people will end up making money from this and I have a hunch it won't be in favour of the club.

[NorthernWhite]

It was interesting to read that the Glazers wouldn't be covering any costs of the IPO and they would be levied against Man Utd.

They really are fleecing them for every last penny and just delaying the inevitable time when they'll need more money on their interest payments than they have or can raise.

[timmyg]

I just found out yesterday that the Glazers' NFL Team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had their new stadium publicly financed. To the tune of 100%. And they don't have to pay property taxes.

And now they want the "stockholders" to basically line their pockets.

More revolting behavior.

[jarv]

Interesting how America works. It is all about capitalism, the free market, brother/sister you are on your own and yet socialism seems to work for bailing out banks and building football stadia. Weird.

[FC Silver Fox]

The key thing is what FFC1987 writes: no voting rights.  Soooo what's left?   making some money?  How many football clubs make money? How much profit has Man Utd made in the last 10 years?   
This is just a way of finding mugs with more money than sense to bring down their enormous debt, in my humble opinion.
As my learned friend, Don, puts it "worth a chuckle". How many shares can you get for a chuckle?

[timmyg]

Interesting how America works. It is all about capitalism, the free market, brother/sister you are on your own and yet socialism seems to work for bailing out banks and building football stadia. Weird.

Yep. But, it's democracy: Team wants stadium on public dime, donates to candidate(s) that will see that happen. Candidate gets elected, stadium gets built.

It's also the reason why the "franchise" model of sports in unsustainable without government subsidy. And anti-trust exemption.

[HatterDon]

Interesting how America works. It is all about capitalism, the free market, brother/sister you are on your own and yet socialism seems to work for bailing out banks and building football stadia. Weird.

Yep. But, it's democracy: Team wants stadium on public dime, donates to candidate(s) that will see that happen. Candidate gets elected, stadium gets built.

It's also the reason why the "franchise" model of sports in unsustainable without government subsidy. And anti-trust exemption.

Yes, if you want to see socialism in action, you'll need to look at Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, and -- especially so -- Major League Soccer. Socialism among the rich is fine. If you're poor or near poor, you must do with capitalism. The is a-muuuur-ka after all.