Man Utd fans protest
Manchester United fans protest over the ticket-price rises pushed through since Sir Jim Ratcliffe bought a 27.7 per cent stake
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has a lot in common with his fellow knight of the realm Sir Keir Starmer. Both men succeeded wildly unpopular predecessors, both discovered their inheritance was an even more stultifying mess than their worst assumptions predicted and both talked at length of tough times ahead, of difficult decisions needing to be taken to right the ship. But more to the point, thanks to the decisions they have taken to confront the issues they were bequeathed, both have seen their honeymoon periods disappear faster than Gregg Wallace’s television career.
On Sunday at Old Trafford, there was a protest organised against Ratcliffe’s leadership of Manchester United. There, the Ineos billionaire was given an unequivocal bit of advice by the couple of hundred protesters gathered around the Trinity statue outside the ground. “Sell United and f--- off home,” they chanted. Given that when his purchase of 30 per cent of the club was ratified just 11 months ago he was seen as something of a saviour, the locally born white-knight antidote to 18 years of corrosive Glazer ownership, it is some turnaround.
This is a public shooting of himself in the foot
In truth, of all the decisions he has taken – awarding Erik ten Hag a costly new contract, sacking 25 per cent of the club’s administrative staff, ending Sir Alex Ferguson’s ambassadorial role – there is one that has particularly stuck in the craw of United’s match-going followers. This was the announcement last week of a hefty hike in admission fees. Furthermore, the new £66 blanket price gives no concession to the elderly or junior fans. Sure, this is not season-ticket prices being increased, it is the cost of tickets being resold through the club scheme by season-ticket holders unable to attend a specific game. But it is hard to see how that fitted in with Ratcliffe’s insisted aim, stated when he bought his share of the club, that he was going to put Manchester back into Manchester United. The supporters surely come first.
United fans let off flares
United supporters gathered around the Best-Law-Charlton statue to protest about the abolition of concession pricing on the resold season tickets
Indeed, as solutions to the issues at hand go, it is right up there with Starmer’s charging of inheritance tax on family farms: no more than the application of a scruffy patch of sticking plaster, it is not going to raise much to fill the gaping financial hole. But it is going to cheese off an awful lot of people. This is less a public relations exercise, more a public shooting of himself in the foot. A posting on X after Sunday’s fixture summed up the mood his sudden exponential rise in admission prices had generated.
“Took my four-year-old for what might be his last game for a while given the price increases,” wrote a user called Carly Lyles, below a picture of her lad taken in the stands at Old Trafford. “This is who is paying for the years of financial mismanagement. Not the billionaires in Monaco or Tampa, four-year-olds from Stretford enamoured by the beauty of Manchester United.”
Ms Lyles was not alone in her fury. Here is how badly the plan was received by those who actually turn up to watch the team in action: many outside Old Trafford were agreeing that even the Glazers did not put ticket prices up like that. To be reckoned worse than the most hated owners in the club’s history: of all Ratcliffe’s lifetime of achievements, that is not the one for which he will wish to be remembered.
Jim Ratcliffe at Old Trafford
Many outside Old Trafford agreed that Ratcliffe had done something that even the Glazers would not have sanctioned
Perhaps appreciating that he needed to explain his actions to those most affected by the price rise, Ratcliffe last week quickly sanctioned an interview with the long-established fanzine United We Stand. Sold outside the ground to around 5,000 Old Trafford regulars, this was perhaps the most direct way of addressing the issues for those most concerned. As the interview is currently embargoed until the edition is sold ahead of the game against Nottingham Forest at the weekend, we can only speculate on what Ratcliffe’s explanation will be. Though we can guess it will involve much talk of difficult decisions, hard choices and no easy, overnight solutions to the loss-making farrago of the Glazers.
Whether such talk is enough to pacify supporters who had initially viewed him as a solution, not a problem, only time will tell. Though whatever he says and however well it may or may not be received, Ratcliffe will understand this: if he really wants to be involved in a popularity contest, the best way of improving his ratings is for the team to win a lot more matches. Because ultimately, a man of Ratcliffe’s acumen will surely appreciate, expecting your customer base to pay £66 to watch second-rate entertainment is no business model at all.
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