ManU's owners, the Glazer family, are planning to forego a potential £20M ($30.8M)-a-year windfall "by rejecting the opportunity to sell the naming rights to Old Trafford," according to Mark Ogden of the London TELEGRAPH. The Florida-based owners "remain hugely divisive figures among the United supporters, but although vocal hostility towards the Glazers has subsided in recent years, any move to rename Old Trafford would risk widespread protest and condemnation." Quarterly accounts published in February revealed that the club’s debt currently stands at £380M ($586M), but ManU's American owners regard stadium naming rights as off-limits "as a means to further boost Old Trafford’s commercial income, despite the increasingly lucrative market for stadium branding and re-naming." The Dallas Cowboys "currently benefit from the world’s biggest naming rights deal." Arsenal currently earns £30M ($46.4M)-a-year from its combined stadium naming rights and shirt sponsorship deal with Emirates Airlines, while Man City is looking to improve on its current £35M ($54M)-a-year deal with Etihad Airlines. But having secured world record kit and shirt sponsorship deals with adidas and Chevrolet -- worth £75M ($115M)-a-year and £53M ($81M)-a-year respectively -- ManU "would be expected to outstrip both Real and the Dallas Cowboys" should it make Old Trafford available for renaming (TELEGRAPH, 5/9).
