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atypical of the rich and famous

That story about wanting a Wembley of the north & improving the south of Manchester would be perfectly ok if it was a politicians campaign. And it is true London as the capital often feels like it's usually ahead of.. Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds, Leicester, Bury, Torquay, etc. There is quite a queue. But as a Monaco dwelling, minority share holder of a commercial behemoth, who is apparently seeking tax payer funding for a New Old Trafford, it's surely bordering on delusional. No tax payer owes Manchester United anything..

You have crossed the streams

Well that sucks

Realistically, no billionaires should be struggling to put up a new stadium, regardless of how expensive it is. But @The Palace Fan is right that it's popular among US ownership of professional teams to ask cities to foot the bill for a new stadium. San Diego lost its NFL team because they told the billionaire asking for handouts to pay their own money if they wanted to stay in the city. Oakland's losing its baseball team for the same reason (although with teams moving to Vegas, they're thinking about tourism revenue at matches more than giving a fuck about having a solid home crowd imo). I think Kroenke's NFL team, the LA Rams, did foot the bill when they built the new stadium in LA (that they share with the side that used to be from San Diego, and charge them rent for using that stadium) - but he did fuck over the existing fans of the team when he moved them over several states to California. I don't think it's just that people love a story about United and run away with it - I think its concerning to see massive football clubs start acting with the entitlement of American billionaire team owners and start asking for handouts from the government. This "business first" approach to sports invading football is going to be concerning, because in US sports imo the local fans are truly an afterthought in most situations. Man Utd's a massive club, them taking this route is a slippery slope for modern football... and a decent amount of football fans are already turned off massively by how the game has changed. I think more than anyone else, Man Utd fans, should be vocal about telling Ratcliffe to fuck off with this asking for a handout shite. It's not a good sign of his plans for his overall respect of the United fans that matter most, the lifelong fans that care more about the club than anyone on the planet. It's like when FSG tried to copyright the liverbird - they were rightly slated for trying to claim ownership of a symbol of the city of Liverpool that had belonged to the city far before it ever had any association with FSG & backed down. Ratcliffe's a part owner of the club now - but he works for the United fans now - taking actions that demonstrate the fans are secondary is something that should 100000% be something that irritates the hell out of every United fan in the world.

It took Newcastle months to agree a deal with Brighton. It’s literally been a few days. These comments are hardly going to help his cause.

It’s a popular move in the US to get state funding towards a stadium, which is probably where he’s also got the idea from. The owners say it will redevelop an area and bring new business to the benefit of the city where it is being built. But the benefits are usually pretty small to anyone but the team owners. People are becoming more aware but the politicians making the deals are getting benefits from it too in some way, so they typically won’t push back unless there is public outcry. Funnily enough, I was reading an article earlier that the Chicago white Sox owner is asking for over 1 billion dollars to build a new stadium, replacing the current one that was built in 1991 and the city has still not finished paying off. I don't think this government will take the bait. There will be an outcry. Especially during a cost of living crisis.

It's a shame the away goals rule has gone. If it was still live, you'd be much more fearful for Arsenal here and thus, the 2nd leg would carry a lot more hype on it.

Sort of game that makes me think Arsenal just don't quite have the credentials to go all the way. Porto can be tricky but you frequently saw Liverpool putting this sort of game to bed with ease. I think they eek through this and then fall to someone like Inter.