04/01/2025
MUST REVIEW OF 2024 - ONE STEP FORWARD BUT HOW MANY BACK?
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One big step forward, but how many steps back?
A review of 2024 from the team at MUST
We arrive at the start of 2025 looking back on the last year, one that began with real and justified optimism off-the-field, included some huge highs on-it (but also far too many lows), but ends with our fanbase as alarmed by events both and on and off the field as we have been in many many years.
The headlines:
- High hopes a year ago so far not fulfilled, either on or off the field
- Ticket price rises set scene for a big battle over future of season tickets
- Fans need to both make noise and engage with the Club in the arguments ahead
- Everyone has a part to play - invite a friend to join (& win a Cantona shirt)
Let’s start with a couple of positives. Last year began with new investment into the Club for the first time since before the Glazer ownership. After nearly two decades in which the Glazers put not a penny in, INEOS has at least invested £300m with - we certainly hope - more to come. The other big highs came in a remarkable FA Cup run, including that 4-3, and an amazing day at Wembley beating the noisy neighbours across town in a superb Cup Final performance. Hats-off to the women’s team too, who also won the FA Cup back in May.
But as for the highs, well they end there. On the field, 8th place can never be acceptable for Manchester United but little did we know that worse was to come and now that dreadful finish looks like it may well be worsened this campaign.
If it’s possible, events off the field appear even worse than on it. Despite the new investment, the Club has embarked on a brutal cost-cutting exercise which has seen more than 200 redundancies, post-match buses axed, Christmas parties cancelled, long-term stewards let go, the ticket office hollowed out, Euro away collections cancelled and much much more.
To top it all off, a few weeks ago we saw the unprecedented step of ticket price increases implemented mid-season, with immediate effect, and without any consultation with fans groups.
All of which together has created a hugely negative atmosphere around the Club. And as anyone who has worked in organisations with such a negative vibe knows, it tends to feed through into the front-line. Which in United’s case is performances on the field. Maybe the malaise on the pitch is a function of a wider malaise at United, resulting in a spiral of decline? Right now, it certainly feels that way.
So what’s the plan?
There’s nothing wrong with being angry. In fact, is there any United fan who hasn’t had moments of anger with the Club in recent months. But anger only gets you so far - we need a strategy to influence them in a better direction.
Our strategy can be summed up in the words - public pressure and private dialogue. We support the protests organised by other fans groups, particularly those in partnership with other clubs facing similar issues. They create a focal point and help engineer media coverage which keeps these issues top of mind. We then seek to amplify this public pressure through the media. In the past month alone, MUST spokespeople have appeared on numerous media outlets to highlight the mistakes they are making and the impact on the lifeblood of the Club - the fans.
But we know from our decades of experience that protest and media pressure alone won’t get us where we want. We have also studied the history of INEOS, and we know this is not an organisation that succumbs to such pressure. If you are in any doubt, do some googling about the Grangemouth dispute and you will see what we mean.
So, alongside public pressure, our strategy is to maintain private dialogue - and there is a huge amount of it going on. Some of it is via established channels that MUST is represented on - like the Fans Forum and the Fans Advisory Board. And don’t listen to what some social media warriors might tell you - both of those bodies have given club management an incredibly hard time over the £66 ticket scandal. In addition, we are in constant bilateral dialogue with the CEO, Omar Berrada, and the other top club officials making these decisions.
Despite many setbacks this year, this strategy did at least defeat the proposal to force season ticket usage in 17/19 league games, alongside a number of other wins. It's a hard slog, but it does deliver wins for fans.
The big battle of 2025
These private relationships developed at the top tier of the Club - which to be frank we did not have ten years ago - will be needed for everything they are worth next year. Because on the back of the £66 scandal, it seems we have a huge battle ahead in respect of the future of ticket prices and especially next season’s season tickets.
What £66 tells us is where some within the Club appear to think we should go - a 50% increase for the typical season ticket? But what we must show them is how counterproductive this will be. These are not people interested in arguments about fairness (again, google Grangemouth) but they are interested if they think a change will commercially harm the “business” or indeed performance on the pitch which is the avowed number one priority for INEOS. Already, there is evidence that £66 is backfiring, with concessions having been reinstated for several “low-demand” games, and we all know that the removal of Euro away collections will result in half-empty away ends, probably as soon as in Bucharest next month.
So we need to use the dialogue to show that excessive ST renewal price hikes will backfire too, with more ST holders selling on tickets for cost reasons, feeding the touts, resulting in fewer vocal fans, with a poorer atmosphere and empty seats contributing to the spiral of decline on the pitch.
But most importantly the price of tickets sets the relationship between supporters and the club. Are we supporters viewed as part of the club, all working together towards shared goals? Or are we seen as customers - just another source of revenue - setting up a “them and us” relationship. If those pushing for price rises do not understand the true value of the match going fan and how important that is for the atmosphere that can supercharge team performance on the pitch then we face an uphill challenge. Worse still if they do not understand the risk of creating resentment converting those very fans who can be your greatest asset into a negative influence on player confidence, inducing performance anxiety and fear of failure paralysis. We’ve recently heard booing of our own players at Old Trafford and this is clearly self-defeating but hard to argue it is not a symptom of the wider dissatisfaction amongst fans, seeping into our match going support. That has to stop.
Viewing season ticket prices as the mechanism for increasing revenue is counterproductive. It's not just in the interests of fans wallets, but of the Club too. We are and will continue to make this argument in private and public, and this is our number one priority for 2025. Look out for a new survey on this in the next fortnight.
The team needs as many players as possible
The more members we have, the more strongly we can make these arguments to the Club. So the first way you can help is to recruit other fans to sign up.
If they are not already a Lite member then they can sign up with no charge
https://imust.org.uk/free
You might encourage them by telling them there is a free prize draw for a signed Cantona shirt which can be accessed once they have signed up here:
https://www.imust.org.uk/Competition/Enter/2178
If you’ve not renewed yourself or you’re not already a Full Member please consider renewing or upgrading by clicking the RENEW or UPGRADE MEMBERSHIP button on your account profile.
https://www.imust.org.uk/Account/Login
Every single extra member adds to the strength of our collective voice, making it harder for the Club to ignore the fans. These are dark days for Manchester United. The battle for the soul of the Club continues in 2025.
Thanks for your continued support.
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M.U.S.T.
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