Despite the spin being put on the sales figures from Old Trafford it appears that there has been a sizeable number of fans refusing to renew. The club were looking to release an extra three thousand books to cover the stadium expansion taking season ticket and LMTB sales to over 45000. The best the club can now hope for is 2500 down on that target.
The article in the Times laughably tries to claim that only 120 fans have refused to renew and that the club have some 2000 books still to process, in this figure will be all those fans who have received begging emails and telephone calls after the renewal deadline has passed.
A spokesman for the anti-Glazer coalition told Red Issue this morning:
‘It would be wrong to claim that missing the pre-season sales target figure by two to three thousand is a critical blow to Glazer’s plans but if this can be built on during the season his expectation that fans will turn up and pay up regardless will be severely rocked. Many more fans have sold their books on to friends and others have decided to give it one more year to see how Glazer’s plans for the club develop. His bankers and financiers will be carefully watching developments and we intend to step up the pressure on Glazer’s sponsors and business partners.’
From The Times:
‘Only 120 season ticket-holders have deserted Manchester United as a direct result of the Malcolm Glazer takeover, according to the latest sales figures for next season. The surprisingly low number dispels the notion that Old Trafford would be blighted by rows of empty seats as a show of protest against the new owner.
On the day that the American billionaire took control of the club in a £790 million deal, pictures of United fans burning their season ticket renewal forms outside the ground were shown around the world. Many disillusioned supporters, concerned about the level of debt involved in the takeover, said that they would never set foot in the stadium so long as the Glazer family was in charge.
Record season ticket sales for the 2005-06 season reveal these people to be a hardcore minority. About 320 supporters are thought to have chosen not to renew their season tickets this year compared with the average lapse in the off-season of 200. This would put the "Glazer effect", on the day his 300p-a-share offer to United shareholders formally closes, at about 120 lost fans.
With more than 2,000 applications yet to process, United have already exceeded last year’s sales figure of 40,072. Club officials expect to have sold all the 42,500 tickets available by the time they make the final count. This record sale comes despite a 10 per cent average price increase over the summer. The most expensive season ticket is now £674, or £34 a game.
The rise, signed off before the takeover, is the biggest year-on-year increase in recent seasons and was justified as being to help to fund the expansion of Old Trafford from 67,800 seats to 75,600. An extra 2,500 season tickets were made available. The expansion is due to be completed by the 2006-07 season and will make Old Trafford the biggest sports stadium in the country after the new Wembley.
"This shows that a United season ticket remains the gold standard in football," a club spokesman said. "Even when the stadium expansion is complete, over half the 76,000 crowd will be season ticket-holders."’