This would be a really bad move 

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/manchester-united-in-talks-to-buy-central-coast-mariners-and-move-them-20210412-p57ijh.html

Manchester United in talks to buy Central Coast Mariners, and move them

By Dominic Bossi

April 13, 2021 — 6.00amSaveShareNormal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size4View all comments

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One of the most popular teams in world football is looking to establish a franchise club in the A-League with Manchester United having entered into talks to purchase the licence of Central Coast Mariners and relocate the club to Sydney.The 20-time English champions have held lengthy discussions with Mariners owner Mike Charlesworth in the UK about buying the licence of Central Coast and turning the club into a sister club of the Red Devils.A deal is yet to be done but sources with knowledge of the discussions suggest Manchester United are willing to come to the rescue of the cash-strapped Mariners. That could come at the expense of the club’s affiliation with the Central Coast region and be rebranded.The proposed takeover could see the Mariners uprooted from their spiritual home on the Central Coast and relocated to Sydney’s northern suburbs, with games likely to be at North Sydney or Brookvale.

Any transfer of club licence, rebranding and relocation of teams must be signed off by Football Australia after gaining the approval of the majority of A-League clubs, but it’s understood several are already supportive of the prospect of the Red Devils entering the competition hoping it will increase the interest and investment in the league.United’s discussions with the Mariners flags their intentions to follow in the footsteps of their cross-town rivals, Manchester City, and build a global network of affiliated clubs, particularly within range of the lucrative Asian football market.City expanded their network of feeder and sister clubs with the purchase of Melbourne Heart in 2014, rebranding the A-League club as Melbourne City and incorporating it into the City Football Group global network.

City paid more than $11 million for an 80 per-cent stake in Melbourne Heart in 2014 before buying the remaining 20 per-cent for $2.25 million. A price tag for the licence of the Mariners is yet to be agreed upon with United but any fee would be but a drop in the ocean for one of the wealthiest sporting brands in the world

Owned by the wealthy American Glazer family, Manchester United’s revenue was $905 million last year and the club was listed as the tenth most valuable sporting team in the world by Forbes in 2020, said to be worth more than $5 billion. In the last summer transfer window, the club’s net expenditure on players was $101 million. Of all football clubs, they have the third largest social media following with just shy of 150 million.Despite the gulf in stature between the two clubs, the Mariners have a longstanding close tie with Manchester United's inner sanctum. The Red Devils' assistant coach, Mike Phelan, was appointed sporting director of Central Coast in late 2018.United is arguably the most well-supported overseas team among Australian football fans. They attracted a sell-out crowd of more than 83,000 when they came to Sydney in 2013 to play the A-League All Stars at ANZ Stadium. Fourteen years earlier, the Red Devils drew a combined attendance of 148,000 when they played Australia in two exhibition games at the MCG and Stadium Australia.

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The cash-strapped Mariners have consistently struggled financially and have been in a desperate hunt for investment in recent years. That search was accelerated in August when Charlesworth announced his intention to cut all ties with the club by selling his entire stake, and did not rule out enticing investors with commercial property and a training base in Tuggerah that is affiliated with the Mariners but privately owned by him.The Herald and Age sought comment from Charlesworth and Football Australia on Monday.Charlesworth has previously held sale talks with Singapore-based consortium First11 Capital, which included former young Socceroos Zac Anderson and Kaz Patafta, as well as Sydney businessman Abdul Helou. Neither parties managed to strike a deal with Charlesworth.
ertisement

This a joke?

Wouldn't just kill the club, would kill the league.

Conversation

Sydney United..nope already taken....lets see..... North Sydney United  (worked for Macedonia)

Would be a terrible idea.

Would much rather they start from scratch at North Sydney and promote a rivalry with CCM than completely kill and disenfranchise an existing supporter base.
You'd be lucky to count on one hand how many Coasties fans would follow the team down to Manly or North Sydney and support a team playing in a Manchester red.

Hate when articles like this come out as it really doesn't give the Gosford market confidence to support and back the club when there's talk of relocation.

So South Melbourne couldn't relocate the club when they wanted to buy the license, the Canberra mob couldn't relocate the club when they wanted to buy the license, but Manchester United CAN relocate the club, to the already overcrowded Sydney market... just sheer stupidity if this is allowed to happen. Don't CCM own their stadium AND their CoE? If that kind of infrastructure is included in the deal, why would you even want to relocate in the first place?

Fine but leave them on the coast.

Keeping in mind no one is interested in purchasing the Mariners in their existing form (or the Jets), emotion aside.  A League clubs need alot more investment and that is no secret.
Sporting clubs around the World re-locate and even re-brand, for various reasons so they can re-invent themselves and stay commercially viable and competitive.
So what's the answer?
Heart went from being on life support to being the fat of the land. 

They better off buying a new team in the NPL system or from scratch and getting into the aleague as a new license that way rather than burning off an existing fan base in the Central Coast.

Even if they are a smaller fan base these fans won't be coming back to the aleague if move the club to Sydney, we need investment into the league and for the sport overall but to the prevail of burning off an existing base will not be the way forward.

By the way does the APL have a say in this surely? 

Is this something to come with Man United given what their rivals in Man City have been doing buying sister clubs around the world?

Difference with Heart is they didnt need to relocate as they already were in Melbourne, however this is moving a team into a different area where fans have that emotional attachment too. 

This is what's wrong with the franchise system.
Private owners want the license.
The license is a right to play in a closed league.
As I have said many times, there is no club.  It's an illusion.
Someone said why Man U would want to burn it's supporters on the Central Coast.
Well, why would they give a damn about that?
The license is the valuable bit.  10,000 supporters would mean nothing to them.
Also, at this point, the land currently associated with the Mariners, is actually owned separately by Charlesworth.
He can sell the license to Man U, and he then has a separate parcel of land to do what he wants with, it's a win win for him.
Don't ever forget, in the current model, clubs do not exist.  It's an illusion.

For sure. At least Mel Heart weren’t relocated though. Major investment from a giant business like this will only happen if it’s on Man United’s terms.
Gosford United? Sounds better than Nth Sydney United?

Mixed feelings on this one. Would hate to see the team leave the Coast ..... Marvin will have to grow horns. 

Absolutely. CCM needs permission from the board. The board (all clubs + the FA) can vote to approve or block the sale. However in the current climate, I doubt a sale to such a big buyer would be blocked. 
If the sale does go through, I reckon it would be more of a license purchase rather than a club purchase. CCM would essentially cease to exist and a new club started in North Sydney. Moving the club wouldn't make sense. The fans wouldn't come along, so may as well have a fresh start.

Most of the land is basically useless except as sporting fields - though there is a plot where they could build there own stadium. There is no real reason to move to North Sydney. North Sydney is crap for football. Brookvale is falling to pieces. Central Coast Council are strapped for cash. Make an offer for the club, Stadium and Centre of Excellence and invest in the club and it could work.

I can't imagine SFC (less than 10kms away from NSO) , MAC and WSW would want Manchester United taking their supporters. Yes it would grow the pie - but who would benefit from it if they relocated. Only Manchester United. 

I suspect while Manchester United may well be talking to the APL the story has more to do with an upcoming media deal and a lot less about the Mariners.

Heart/City are in the process of re-locating themselves to the SE Melboure outskirts because they can garner increased support for themselves and move with the times as the Melbourne 'City' market is for Victory to try and win back when they are a decent team again. CFG are prudent enough to have realised they will just stagnate staying in Melbourne's north.
Clubs in absolute struggle street in the financial stakes cannot be knocking back life support especially from hugely successful buyers. There is no common sense in choosing to stay struggling. How will Mariners keep 8-10 of their players at season's end?
How good would it be if a West Ham or Newcastle utd aligned with the Jets? 

bettega with you on most points.
Even though I support AL for the good of our game in general rightly or wrongly I'm so against this Franchise model !!
Forgetting bringing up P/R that is my passion behind our game first and foremost are you supporters happy to see whenever a Franchise owner is wanting out another invester to come along like MU and talk of relocating the Clubs.....I get it when/if a Club goes into Liquidation but this is not the case re Charlesworths Club.
This is what we real Football supporters are on about !
I can see MU pushing the relocation no doubt about it, their brand will bring along lots more supporters being Sydney based compared to Gosford when talking numbers.
So how many more times will this similar situation occur in the future, despite the short comings that has occured CCM/Gosfords work over 15yrs up in smoke, joke.
I suppose todays world is getting more and more plastic, par for the course.
 

Invest in Manly United instead 

Well if interclub trading was allowed we'd be able to garner alot more financial backing.

APL has expressed a desire for quick expansion, so I can't see the need for relocating existing licenses. Charlesworth must be pushing it. I don't think Macarthur or Western Sydney would lose many supporters to a newly created North Sydney/Northern beaches side. Sydney may lose some, but my understanding is that most of SFCs supporters are from the south side of the harbour or inner west. People from the northern beaches rarely venture across the harbour bridge, just look at Manly in the NRL.

Charlesworth tried to chase north Sydney team's around 6 years ago, it failed miserable, crowds were tiny in North Sydney, and it alienated alot of supporters.

Very hard to see a northern Sydney team working.   Logically a move for, say, Brisbane Roar would would be a better move, but obviously MU want to do a City and create a team in their brand image and couldn't do that with a team as well established as the Roar.  

I really don't see how MU can make this work. Three teams in Melbourne, three in Sydney already. Hard to see a fourth team working in either city.

Maybe if they were prepared to build a stadium in Sydney's north and spend seriously on the team with profile players.  Maybe.  I still can't see it BUT I guess Northern Spirit did work for a while, so maybe that's what they are looking at.

Impossible to see them being interested in taking on the Mariners as is.  They are a small regional club and always will be.

Given Brisbane's population growth, a bespoke stadium and a second Brisbane team would surely be an option.

Central Coast Mariners CEO dismisses Manchester United takeover report

I would say this story has more to do with distracting media attention away from FA’s huge new sponsorship with Commonwealth Bank.
As to who would want to dampen that story I can only speculate.

Well what else would he say?  

won't happen the club is owned by greedy yanks that are milking the club which is more than 500 mil pounds in debt

My first thought also, very interesting timing.