Manchester United Soccer Team

England's Manchester United soccer team is worth about $1.4 billion. Here's how that stacks up against some other professional teams: NFL Worth about as much as the Washington Redskins * MLB Worth about $500 million more than the New York Yankees * NBA Worth about three times as much as the Lakers * NHL Worth about five times as much as the Detroit Red Wings Source: World Features Syndicate

Malcolm Glazer gained full control of Manchester United on Monday, a controversial $1.47-billion acquisition that brought some supporters of the world's most famous soccer club to the boiling point. The 76-year-old billionaire is best known as the owner of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers and he has limited known soccer knowledge or background. But the concerns of United's fans go deeper than the fact he is an American outsider.

Not to suggest that some Manchester United fans are unhappy, but the message on a placard here would be difficult to misconstrue. It read, "Glazer, watch your back!" Ever since American sports baron Malcolm Glazer announced Monday that he had secured enough shares to take control of the most fabled name in British football, known as soccer in the U.S., supporters have been in an uproar. And supporters is probably too mild a word for the devotion some feel for the Red Devils.

The world's most famous sports team put on a delightful exhibition to open a four-game U.S. tour. In its first game without star David Beckham, Manchester United beat Glasgow Celtic, 4-0, on Tuesday night behind goals by Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and David Bellion. A near-capacity crowd of 66,722 was on hand. The attendance was a record for 1-year-old Seahawks Stadium, with only a few end zone sections noticeably sparse.

Charles Parker is a bus driver. It's an honest and honorable way to make a living, but it's a job not everyone would want. Except, perhaps, on Saturday. Half the population of Manchester, England, gladly would have taken Parker's place behind the wheel of his Golden West Tours bus Saturday afternoon, and might even have paid for the privilege. That's because Parker's assignment was to drive Manchester United from its hotel in Century City to the Coliseum and back.

There is one reason media mogul Rupert Murdoch would spend $1 billion and change to buy Britain's most revered soccer team--more than three times what he paid for the Los Angeles Dodgers--and it is not just to tweak the noses of Manchester United fans. Even more than potential profits, owning one of the leading teams in the world's most popular sport gives Murdoch's News Corp.