According to a report by the BBC, the Glazer family is $1.6 billion in debt. Malcolm Glazer and his sons own the Buccaneers and also the Manchester United soccer team.
From the Tampa Bay Tribune:
The BBC said it saw mortgage documents showing the Glazers have borrowed $570 million against shopping malls owned by their company, First Allied Corp. That’s in addition to $1 billion in debts tied to Manchester United and $95 million to the Buccaneers.
(Bucs’ director of communications Jonathon) Grella also said the Glazers are committed to bringing in the resources to build a winning team in Tampa Bay.
“Buccaneers fans should know that the Glazer family is as financially well-positioned as ever before,” his statement said. “Companies they own generate revenues in excess of $800 million each year.”
Based on the article, it appears that Manchester United is the franchise most likely to suffer from the Glazers “situation” and not the Bucs. If what Grella says is true, then the Glazers won’t change their strategy with the Bucs. (I’ll leave it up to you to define the word strategy when it’s applied to how the Glazers run things in Tampa. Some will define it as “calculated,” while others will deem it “cheapskate-ness.”)
That said, it’s not like the Bucs spent big this offseason. Instead of bringing in high-priced free agents, they concentrated on re-signing their own players, such as tackles Jeremy Trueblood and Donald Penn, running back Cadillac Williams, receivers Maurice Stovall and Mark Bradley, and linebacker Barrett Ruud. Whether that was by design or done because the Glazers are cheap, nobody knows for sure. But at least at this point, it still appears that they’re committed to winning.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
