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Manchester U pushes ahead
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March 28, 2000: 8:24 a.m. ET
Soccer club's half-year net up 11% as TV income leaps; player pay balloons
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Manchester United, the world's richest soccer club, announced Tuesday its first-half profit rose 11 percent as an increase in the number of the team's televised international games boosted income from TV, outweighing a leap in players' wages.
Net profit for the six months to Jan. 31, 2000 rose to £8.7 million, or 3.4 pence a share, from £7.9 million, or 3 pence a share, a year earlier. Operating expenses rose 30 percent to £33.8 million, the largest component being an increase of £3 million in player wage costs.
 Shares of Manchester United, the world's first sports team to be valued at £1 billion ($1.6 billion), rose 1.5 percent to 404.5 pence, after surging more than 95 percent this year as investors bet on the club's potential to boost earnings from Internet and mobile-phone related activities. At Tuesday's price the company has a market capitalization of £1.05 billion.
Rupert Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting (BSY), which U.K. competition authorities in 1998 blocked in a £673 million bid to buy the club, still holds a 10 percent stake.
Underlining soccer's global appeal, the world's largest mobile-phone company Vodafone AirTouch (VOD) signed a four-year, £30 million deal to sponsor the club's uniforms. The phone company will also offer wireless Internet services to Manchester United's supporters.
The club, which in May 1999 won the title of European champion to add to its English championship, spent some £11 million over the year's first six months to maintain its competitive strength. New players include goalkeeper Massimo Taibi, defender Mikael Silvestre and midfielder Quinton Fortune.
First-half television income surged 73 percent to £15.6 million as the team's on-field success fueled demand to televise its games. Overall revenue rose 13 percent to £64 million, with income from merchandising - such as the sale of replica soccer shirts - up 15 percent to £14.3 million. The club opened a number of stores dedicated to United-linked products, including four in Ireland, and recently started work on a site in Singapore.
Receipts from match tickets slipped slightly to £21.4 million, a drop of £1 million, after the club opted not to play in England's Football Association Cup competition. Instead, it controversially took part in the inaugural World Club Championship, staged in January in Brazil.
The team now has a seven-point lead at the top of the 20-team English Premier League, which reaches a climax in May. The same month will see the final of this year's European Champions League, a competition in which United has reached the quarter-final stage, where it will take on Spain's Real Madrid. 
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Manchester United
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