After a frenzied final day of the summer transfer window for the Premier League, the world’s most successful football club released its results for the past financial year. Manchester United’s results showed that revenue hit a record £331.4m (up £45m on the previous year) and this included a record operating profit in excess of £100m for the club that is expanding like never before.
What the results also show is the commercial progress that the club is making on the world stage. The record revenue increase of 15.7% was down to an increase in commercial revenues of 27% from £81.4m to £103.4m. This was down in no small part to the impact that the club is making on the market in the Far East.
Over the past couple of weeks, United has signed sponsorship deals with international distribution carrier DHL and a Vietnamese mobile telecommunications company Beeline. Both deals were poles apart in their nature. The underlying fact is that they illustrate its global reach, something that is also shown by the fan base that exists in other corners of the world. Vietnam alone if home to around 16 million United fans with the whole of Asia accounting for 192 million. The global total is 333 million. It’s little wonder that the Glazer’s are pushing ahead with an IPO in Singapore that would raise approximately $1billion.
As a whole, the commercial revenues that United are enjoying the world over reflects the trend of the league as a whole. You only have to take a glance at the jerseys of a number of sides in the top flight to notice that it isn’t all local building merchants and local colleges daubed across the front of shirts. You would need an evening class in Cantonese at the aforementioned college to understand a number of shirts and it reflects the worldwide business slant towards Asia.
