Cheers for the Glazers: Tampa’s Fanbase Adores Their Sports Team Despite Stadium Issues

At the Glazer Children’s Museum in Tampa, they know all about their benefactors’ ownership of Manchester United.

‘Sometimes I open my emails and there will be a flood of messages which can be pretty critical, asking me to tell the Glazer family certain things,’ explains Sarah Cole, the facility’s president and chief executive.

‘Or sometimes we will notice a ton of negative reviews on Google. They’ll often come from anonymous “visitors” and will often come after a negative story about the Glazer family and Manchester United has been published.’

Sarah has a very different story to tell about a family despised in one city and loved in another. Hated by the fans of one sports club which has gone from success to failure and loved by another, where the opposite is true.

It is a story which may not sit well with many United fans, who hold the Americans responsible for the demise of their great institution under a two-decade, debt-burdened tenure.

‘The museum has been around for 40 years, but when we built where we are now in 2010, the Glazer family were the lead gift on the capital campaign,’ Sarah explains. ‘In return they wanted naming rights and a seat on the board, which is absolutely normal. That board member turns up once in a while and often sends in a proxy, but the Glazers are really hands-on and involved.

‘Bryan currently has the seat and he will Zoom in to meetings from the Buccaneers’ team plane. Wherever he is in the world he’s on the call.

‘They are a very approachable family. Bryan will send me pictures of cool things he sees from his travels that might work in the museum. I’d have no problem picking up the phone and asking him a question. They are remarkably down to earth.’

Multiple times each year, a mobile clinic turns up at the museum, which backs on to the Hillsborough River in the middle of the city.

‘It’s part of the Glazer Vision Foundation,’ Sarah explains. ‘In the US, you have to pay for glasses and there are some families who can’t afford them. Kids go on the truck and have an eye test. If they need glasses they go home with the results, but also a note telling them how they can get help.’

The Foundation was set up by the late Malcolm Glazer and dates back to him discovering he needed glasses as a youngster.

Currently, the museum is hosting a ‘Let’s See’ exhibit with the Foundation, aimed at taking away the stigma of wearing glasses. It is one of many interactive areas over three floors at the facility, which has 225,000 visitors each year. The aim is to teach kids life’s basics via play or sport.

‘Most of our income comes from donations,’ Sarah adds. ‘The Glazers match the donations up to a certain amount. They don’t just cut cheques, they are really involved and it’s not just here.

‘We had back-to-back hurricanes, a week-and-a-half apart. They spent a lot of money helping families recover their homes and clean up. They are genuinely good people and care a lot about the community. They are visible but not loud. They make a difference.’

Those sentiments are echoed by Rob Higgins, executive director of Tampa Bay Sports Commission.

‘The Glazer family has made an immeasurable impact on our home town,’ he tells Mail Sport. ‘The only thing that exceeds their success on the field with the Buccaneers is how generous they have been off the field and in the community over three decades.’

Harris also references their help in the wake of the hurricanes.

‘Following Hurricane Helene they donated $1million to our recovery efforts,’ he explains. ‘Just days later, following Hurricane Milton, they donated another $1m to help our town get back on its feet. We could not be more grateful.’ The road out of the city towards the Buccaneers’ Raymond James Stadium takes you past Fort Homer Hesterly Armory, a former park, airstrip and boxing arena that has hosted speeches by Martin Luther King and John F Kennedy.

It is now home to the Shanna and Bryan Glazer Jewish Community Centre. It is one of many Glazer fingerprints across town.

The biggest is the stadium itself. When Mail Sport arrives for a tour, first impressions are not great. Above the waiting area one of the air-conditioning pipes is leaking, with the splatter of water on concrete something those who visit Old Trafford will tell you is nothing new.

The temperature is in the 90s and in many areas the air conditioning is off. While there were renovations in 2016, the escalators remain those from its original construction in 1998 and on a game day a team of engineers are onsite in case of breakdowns. While the family are conspicuous by their absence at Old Trafford, the same cannot be said here.

Malcolm’s name takes its place alongside club playing greats on one stand. There is a giant ad for the Glazer Vision Foundation at one end, which is also home to a mock pirate ship. There is also a Western-style village dreamed up by the design team from Disney World. The surface is stripped of any grass thanks to a recent Metallica concert.

The tour ends at the club store, where there are no signs of any Manchester United merchandise. That is not by accident. The two entities are run separately.

Bucs season-ticket holder Stephen Simon does not believe that is by accident.

‘The Glazers came in when the franchise was on the floor,’ he explains. ‘It hadn’t got anywhere near to winning a Super Bowl and within years it had won one and was in a new stadium.

‘But then there was this long gap before they even got into the play-offs. The heat started to turn up. There was definitely some anti-Man United stuff. While lots of people don’t know much about soccer, they knew the Glazers had bought the team and they were accusing them of spending all the money there instead of here.

‘At the time, United were doing well and the Bucs were struggling. That seemed to flip when they spent on the stadium but also the team. They brought Tom Brady here and all of a sudden they won another Super Bowl.’

Last year, Matt ‘Bucnutz’ Algeri won Fan of the Year. He has nothing but praise for the owners. ‘I think all the fans believe they are here to put a winning product,’ he explains, in comments that will raise eyebrows in Manchester.

Is Matt aware of a very different feeling across the Atlantic?

‘There are small rumblings,’ he says. ‘Having Americans come over and take over and not do well, I guess that’s not going to sit well, but as far as their reputation here, they are very loved.’

That love is not shared by Hillsborough county commissioner Joshua Wostal, a decorated veteran who owns a logistics business next to the stadium.

‘I am happy for their success,’ he says. ‘But I don’t want to pretend their success was not off the back of the taxpayer.’

In 1996, a year after the Glazers took over the franchise, a deal was reached to fund a new venue, with the public footing the bill. ‘The deal was that we were going to build them a stadium for $175m and it would have this fantastic economic impact,’ Wostal says.

He claims that since then the public purse has had to pay for close to $50m of operating costs, while the Bucs have benefitted from millions in revenues, ticket sales and naming-rights deals.

‘The robber barons have taken control of the house, shifted the burden on to other people and reaped the benefits,’ Wostal says.

Nevertheless, this is a stable, successful sporting environment, a million miles away from what has unfolded at Old Trafford. But that is not to say there are those who think their ownership of United is a bad thing.

‘They should stay there as long as possible,’ Simon adds, before revealing he is a member of Orlando Cityzens — a Manchester City supporters club.