Glazers run silent amid reports of soccer debt

We have a better chance of scoring a sit-down interview with Big Foot than we'd ever have of getting the Glazer family to share details of their finances, but that doesn't stop people from guessing or making assumptions.

So with that in mind, here we go again.

It is being widely reported that the Glazers' debt on Manchester United has reached $1.17 billion, driven largely by interest charges related to their original purchase of the soccer giant in 2005.

It should also be noted that the team actually reported a profit this year of $10.4 million, but everyone is freaking about huge debt.

With the Tampa Bay Bucs still licking wounds from a 3-13 season, fans here have been outraged that the team remains well under the salary cap. They assume the failure to spend heavily on talent and a coach like, oh, Bill Cowher is related to the soccer debt.

The Glazers periodically deny there is any problem with their checkbook, so on it goes.

But I wanted to share an email I received from Jim Nutter, a dedicated Man U fan (but then, aren't they all?). I spoke with him when the Glazers first bought the team amid much controversy and he was extremely antsy then. Put it this way, as angry as Bucs fans get the Glazers are still relatively beloved here compared to the reception they get in some circles across the pond.

Anyway, the debt story is getting big play all over the United Kingdom and here's part of what Nutter had to say in a letter to the team's chief executive:

"For the last 40 odd years I have been a season ticket holder. My son sits beside me. His car's number plate reads MU__ NUT. It leaves little to the imagination.

When Newton Heath was formed in 1878, the U.S. Cavalry were fighting the Cheyenne Indians, and the outlaw Black Bart held up the Wells Fargo stagecoach. What do the Glazers care for our history?

It may be that by now you will be appreciating the intensity of my letter to you. Like many, many thousands if not millions of others, I care deeply about my club. It is not a franchise, a cash cow, a business model. It is, like all other football clubs in this country, a way of life, a culture. ...

As an open antagonist of the Glazers, I want you to realise that the obscene greed of these people, who have no recognition of the passion and heritage of the world's greatest sport, and their parasitic effect on one of its greatest professional clubs, is destroying the very fabric of the game.

To sustain their insatiable appetite for wealth, matches are arranged to suit television, not the fans. They are never considered. Spectator ticket prices have, and will continue to rise inexorably. The "prawn sandwiches" will have long since disappeared when the fans desert the terraces, no longer prepared to feed the voracious appetite of the Glazer family greed. It breaks my heart to say that any further price increase will almost certainly result in me not renewing my season ticket for next season. It has come to this after 65 years. I shall be among the first of many. I say this with emphasis."

We'll find out soon enough if all this soccer debt is going to impact the Bucs, what with free agent season approaching.

We saw last season for the first time in years large numbers of empty seats at Raymond James Stadium. Actual attendance was around 49,000 per game - although the Bucs didn't black out a single home game. We saw active marketing to sell tickets, which we never used to see. The Bucs just annnounced that prices will hold steady in most cases next season and actually be reduced for some seats. That at least shows some awareness that they have a problem here.

A lot of people assumed the Glazers kept Raheem Morris for a second season because they simply didn't want to be on the hook for the estimated $8 million per season it would cost to hire a Bill Cowher, especially with the NFL headed into some turbulent labor waters after this season. There is talk of a lockout in 2011 and franchises are preparing for hardball.

You can argue that's prudent business, especially when they're still paying off Jon Gruden's contract. You can also argue that another season of Rah Ball will drive more customers away, but that's a column for another day.

Speculation pops up about once a year that the Glazers will sell the Bucs to raise cash for Manchester United, which is infinitely more valuable. That speculation is always wrong and I will continue to file it under "wishful thinking" by whoever floats the rumor.

I don't believe the Glazers have any intention of selling the Bucs or Manchester United - ever.

And I'll say this, too: People were mighty suspicious when the Glazers bought the Bucs after Hugh Culverhouse died, and all they got was a team that regularly made the playoffs and won a Super Bowl.

I've said before that the Glazers are often their own worst enemies. They stay out of public sight and only grant about one interview a year. That allows speculation to run unchecked, often wildly, but they don't to seem to mind.

Maybe they're in debt past their eyeballs on Manchester United and maybe that is affecting the Bucs. But unless we see Raheem Morris patrolling midfield on the soccer pitch, we'll likely never know for sure.

Thus, the Glazer mystique continues.