Manchester United’s highest ever number of paid global partnerships have helped the club achieve “record revenues” for the year.
In spite of this, the club still has an operating loss of £(11.2m), that’s compared to a operating loss of £(87.4m) the year before. Its adjusted profits after tax were £154.9m (2022: £81.1m).
Its commercial partnerships have driven much of the growth, having signed a record kit deal with Adidas through to 2035, plus bringing in Estee Lauder as a new regional partner and a “strategic expansion” of its partnership with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon brand as front-of-shirt sponsor beginning with the 2024/25.
In total commercial brought in £302.9m, an increase of £45.1m, or 17.5%, over the previous year.
Sponsorship revenue was £189.5m, an increase of 28.1% year on year.
Retail, Merchandising, Apparel & Product Licensing revenue was £113.4, up 3.2% – that’s mainly due to the increased number of home match days in the current year.
Broadcasting revenue decreased compared to last year – down 2.7% to £209.1m. This was because the club was playing in the UEFA Europa League, not the Champions League.
The performance of the club in pre-season and to date this year, possibly also the short Champions League campaign of its Women’s team, have seen “record numbers” subscribing to MUTV. The channel is currently distributed in 72 markets through 13 partners.
Online, the club gained 2.7m followers, generated more than 318m digital interactions and 1.5bn video views across all global social platforms in the fourth quarter.
It also launched Snapchat as a new platform with augmented reality filters to allow users to virtually try on its three kits
During FY23 United launched 3 phases of its digital collectibles in partnership with Tezos as well as a corresponding Discord community which has grown to the largest in global football and launched Collect United, a club reward program with free token giveaways for those who purchased the Devils.
Today’s results are released as there remains uncertainty over the future of the club’s ownership.
INEOS Group’s Sir Jim Ratcliffe is still believed to be aiming to acquire 25% of the club, after Sheikh Jassim withdrew from the race.
