Manchester United richest sports franchise

[ghost of miles]

Let the bashing begin!

Manchester United outstrips the Yankees 

Thu Mar 4, 8:00 AM ET 

By Matthew Garrahan

Manchester United has beaten the New York Yankees to the title of the world's richest sports franchise after a bumper year in which the English football club lifted its sponsorship income thanks to a record- breaking £300m kit deal with Nike.

Deloitte, the accountancy firm, measured the turnover generated by Europe's leading clubs from the 2002-03 season to compile its annual "rich list" and gave top spot to Manchester United for the seventh year in succession.

United generated £173m of turnover, easily outstripping the £151m made by Juventus of Italy.

In a separate rating of US sports brands by Deloitte, the New York Yankees baseball team came top with turnover of $280m (£152m). The Washington Redskins American football team made $227m.

Football's global appeal explains why United, with an estimated 50m fans worldwide, has more earning power than rival US sports brands. Dan Jones of Deloitte said: "The top clubs in the world's number one sport are generating more income than ever before. Broadcast income is the largest single source for most of the clubs and despite the widespread speculation of a collapse in media values we think this is unlikely."

English clubs featured heavily in the European football rich list. Arsenal, currently leading the Premiership, were seventh, with Liverpool eighth, Newcastle ninth and Chelsea 10th.

However, the latest edition of the Deloitte list illustrates some of the problems in using turnover to measure the financial performance of sports brands. Leeds United came 16th with turnover of £66.5m yet is close to financial collapse having incurred unsustainable costs for transfer fees and wages. Lazio, the Rome club, came 17th in the European football list with turnover of EU88.9m (£59m), but just escaped bankruptcy last year.

Also in the US list were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the American football franchise owned by Malcolm Glazer, the US entrepreneur who has built a stake in Manchester United. The Buccaneers failed to make the top 10 of US sports brands but was the seventh "richest" American football franchise with $168m turnover.