The ‘Fergie factor’ gave Manchester’s economy a boost worth more than £1bn during his 26 years at United.

Experts have calculated the extent to which the success Sir Alex brought to the club delivered more riches to Manchester than the UK’s other footballing cities.

They say the 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League crowns and various other honours United won under the Scot helped send the club’s income soaring way beyond likes of Liverpool and Everton, which had been dominant forces in the years leading up to his appointment.

That in turn has provided a much bigger economic boost to Manchester than would have been the case had he not remained at the helm.

Figures show that at the end of the 1992/93 season, as the Premier League was just getting going, United had revenues of just £25.2m.

That rose to the eye-watering £335m it stood at in 2011/12. Between 2000 and last year, United earned £4.2bn, compared to the £2.7bn of Liverpool. And researchers at Manchester think tank New Economy have converted that into Gross Value Added – the boost a business delivers to an area’s economy.

In United’s case, it stands at £1.3bn for that period, compared to £800m for Liverpool. With that growth directly linked to success on the pitch, that places the value of the Fergie factor for 2000-2012 at around £500m.

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Comparable figures for the years before 2000 are not available but the fact Fergie also brought more success to United than any other club enjoyed during that era, means Manchester will have been given a similar cash boost during the first part of his reign.

And it is estimated the worldwide exposure United’s success has given to Manchester since the Premier League started is worth the equivalent of £1bn in advertising spend.

Mike Emmerich, chief executive of New Economy, said: “When Sir Alex took over at Manchester United in 1986, the city was in many senses in the doldrums. The city had lost 160,000 manufacturing jobs in six years – the equivalent of 73 job losses per day – and more than 180,000 people were claiming unemployment benefit, double the current level.

"Today, in stark contrast, Manchester is once again a place of global success, both in sporting terms but far beyond that.

“It is not stretching a point to claim that the success Sir Alex Ferguson has built at Manchester United is one of the foundations on which the city’s renewal has been built.”

It can also be argued that Fergie’s success has had a knock-on economic effect at City – with the hundreds of millions spent by City in recent years, on players and in regenerating the area around the Etihad Stadium, driven by a desire to catch up with their rivals.



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