The Man Utd Supporters Trust (MUST) have seized on Sir Alex’s statement that there will be no more summer transfers to demand that the club’s owners use the £80m generated from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo, £25m saved on Carlos Tevez and the £3.5m for Frazier Campbell to Sunderland into slashing season ticket prices.
With more than £100m from these transfers it could translate into a hefty reduction. Man Utd was the only Premiership club to raise ticket prices by £1 more per game for an average increase of 5% in season ticket prices. Their crosstown rivals City are slashing prices by 7%.
MUST vice chair Sean Bones said:
“However, if no new player is purchased then we feel that the money not used from the sales and savings should go towards reducing season ticket prices and stadium expansion.
“By all accounts the deal to sell Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid was agreed last year so why then have the owners seen fit to increase season ticket prices? They’ve increased them when all the other main clubs have frozen theirs.”
Fair enough. Ronaldo was bought by Man Utd when it was a plc before Malcolm Glazer took over the club in 2005 and through their investment vehicle Red Football Ltd, de-listed it from the London Stock Exchange to transform it into a private entity. Essentially Ronaldo was bought by public money and the supporters have every right to demand how they want to spend the proceeds from his transfer. A point made by Mr Bones in his message to the Glazers.