Man Utd shares soar amid hopes stadiums will soon be packed out again

Manchester United saw shares rise to a one-year high amid hopes the Premier League giants will soon be playing in front of packed stadiums once again.

According to Bloomberg, the Red Devils' stock rose as much as 6.9 per cent on Friday in a sixth-straight day of gains.

The jump followed Boris Johnson revealing the government's lockdown roadmap.

The UK has announced plans to allow up to 10,000 fans back into some of Britain's largest football stadiums from as early as May 17.

By June 21 all social distancing restrictions may be removed.

Manchester United make a lot of money from matchday revenue, with Old Trafford able to comfortably house 76,000 fans every other weekend.

In the year ended June 30, 2019 – the last full year before the coronavirus pandemic saw stadiums close their doors – United earned around £111million in matchday revenue.

The share increase is the latest good news bestowed on United, who are performing well in the Premier League and who learnt their Europa League quarter-final opponents this Friday.

Red Devils executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward previously confirmed that United were feeling the strain of the pandemic, although admitted not to the extent of other clubs.

"Nobody should be under any illusions about the scale of challenge facing everyone in football and it may not be 'business as usual' for any clubs, including ourselves, in the transfer market this summer," explained Woodward in April 2020.

"As ever, the priority is the success of team but we need visibility of the impact across the whole industry, including timings of the transfer window, and the wider financial picture, before we can talk about a return to normality.

"On this basis, I cannot help feeling that speculation around transfers of individual players for hundreds of millions of pounds this summer seems to ignore the realities that face the sport."

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