Manchester Utd Thread

Which is a product of the massive franchising efforts that have been ongoing since the dawn of the PL. Be it club-shops in Dublin, tours to the Far East, link-ups with domestic clubs, third strips, movies, singles, whatever you can think of, the Man United crest has been attached to them. I cant even begin to imagine what the most random product is that has had a Manchester United crest on it. But all the while courting this massive loyalty amongst people who have never set foot in Manchester, let alone Old Trafford. And in return, these loyal fanatics pump money into the club for all over the world.

Agreed. I bet there isn't a product left that hasn't had a United badge on it. United is a monster of a company, despite it being a football team.

And this returns to your point, whereby the owners will never feel it in the pocket. If ever ST holder at OT handed theirs back, there is probably a waiting list that would take over those tickets. Alternatively, you could probably get 20k fans a week, at least from Ireland to travel to OT for games, and another 20k from London. You'd be able to sell the balance on the open market, or to tour operators that could sell them to American and Far Eastern tourists. 

The only time I can think of UK fan protest having an impact in modern times is the ESL, and that involved fans of all six clubs getting out in protest. If one set of fans had ended up ploughing a lone furrow, while the other six sat idly by, we may well have had an ESL.

Apart from the ESL, what else for Liverpool?

I get this but just from the outside these look like one-offs rather than anything concerted (Again, not having a go just an observation). It felt like the heat was right on after the game against Liverpool was called off but then dropped again as it didn't seem like there was anything done immediately after that to keep the heat on.

This isn't actually true - Hard to accurately describe all of if but, for example, Liverpool fans in NY spotted Hicks and Gillett heading for a meeting with a financial institution in order to try and refinance their debt. Within hours the financial institution was bombarded with emails etc saying it would be a bad idea to do this. I think it was RBS ultimately who pulled the plug on Hicks and Gillett (Might have the wrong financial institution). The reason this was done was that thousands of people contacted RBS and told them they'd take their business elsewhere if they continued to prop them up.

The book "An Epic Swindle" by Brian Reade gives a very good and detailed account of all that happened to get Hicks and Gillett out. 

And it's fair to point out that this isn't a direct comparison to the United situation as the Glazers aren't i the same financial situation was Hicks and Gillett were. 

Again, what I will say to you is go and read what has been written and documented on this. 

That book I mentioned is a good place to start. 

If they don’t protest at all, the club will become more attractive to the petrol dollars/sports washing groups. 

The fanbase need to walk a fine line of making the club attractive enough for the Glazers to sell but at the same time making sure it doesn’t fall into Qatari hands.

Let me know if you still feel the same after reading it.