Everything we know about Manchester United’s new stadium as first pictures released
Jim Ratcliffe announced the plans for a brand-new stadium to replace Old Trafford, which has been United’s home for 115 years
Manchester United have revealed plans to build a brand-new 100,000-seater stadium, billed as “the most iconic in the world”, and move the club from its historic home of Old Trafford.
United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe claimed the club would have “gone bust by Christmas” without cost-cutting measures before providing an update on the stadium plans on Tuesday, with the first pictures released at the same time.
The new ground will be built next to Old Trafford and form part of an enormous regeneration project of the area, likely the biggest in the UK since the development of Stratford for the 2012 Olympics. A task force convened by Ratcliffe estimated the regeneration project could bring an extra £7.3bn to the British economy and create 92,000 jobs.
Chief executive Omar Berrada said, “Our long-term objective as a club is to have the world’s best football team playing in the world’s best stadium”, with Old Trafford - which has been United’s home since 1909 - deemed to have “fallen behind”, in Ratcliffe’s words.
"I think we may well finish up with the most iconic football stadium in the world," the billionaire added.
With lots of questions still unanswered, here’s everything we know about Man United’s new stadium plans so far.
What is the thinking behind the new stadium?
The new stadium is planned to hold 100,000 people, a significant increase on Old Trafford’s capacity for 74,869. This would put it on a par with Barcelona’s Camp Nou, which will hold 105,000 people after renovation work is complete, and be an increase on Wembley Stadium’s 90,000 seats.
The futuristic design - by celebrated architest Sir Norman Foster’s firm Foster + Partners - is inspired by the Red Devils Trident, and is dominated by three huge spindles or masts in a trident formation, giving the project the impression of something of a circus tent.
Two of the masts will reach 150m in height, with the tallest - at the apex of the trident - 200m, significantly taller than the tallest building in Manchester, the 169m Beetham Tower, and towering over Wembley’s 135m mast. The plan for the masts is for them to be visible for up to 37.4km - so residents of parts of Cheshire, the Peak District, and even the outskirts of Liverpool will be able to see at least some of the stadium.
Alongside the stadium will be a huge plaza, "twice the size of Trafalgar Square" according to the architects, with the material connecting the masts extending to cover this outside space.
When will Man Utd's new stadium be ready?
Foster has said the stadium will take five years to build, and will be a “prefabrication” built elsewhere and transported down the Manchester Ship Canal in 160 component pieces.
Ratcliffe did not elaborate on the timescale and did not offer a firm date for building work to begin, but said, “It depends how quickly the Government get going with their regeneration. I think they want to get going quite quickly. I assume that will go well.
“The thing that allows us to do that is the Manchester Ship Canal, that halves the time.”
The government has already given its backing to the project.
Who is paying for it?
Such an ambitious project will no doubt have an enormous price tag attached, with the estimated cost around £2bn but an official figure yet to be announced. United are £1bn in debt and did not specify how they planned to finance the development, although Ratcliffe appeared to rule out government funding for the stadium itself. Chief executive Berrada has called it an "attractive investment opportunity."
“The only basis on which we can build a new [stadium] is if it is part of this government regeneration scheme for south Manchester, because we can’t afford to regenerate southern Manchester, that’s too big a bill for the club,” Ratcliffe said in an interview with The Overlap, implying that central funding would be forthcoming for the wider redevelopment of the area of Old Trafford. “We can build the stadium, we don’t need any government funding for the stadium, but it needs to be the underpin for the regeneration.
“There has to be a focus or a nucleus, otherwise all you’re doing is building a housing estate or a shopping centre. If the government goes ahead on a scale that befits the north of England... if they do this really well and properly, I think we should underpin that with the world’s most iconic football stadium.”
Who is Norman Foster?
Architects Foster + Partners, founded by Sir Norman Foster, will build the new ground. The 89-year-old is one of the most influential architects of the modern era and a key figure in modernist design. He designed The Gherkin, London’s infamous high-rise, as well as the Reichstag Dome in Berlin, Hong Kong International Airport and the HSBC Tower in Hong Kong, and the Millenium Bridge and Canary Wharf Tube station in London, among many other large-scale projects.
Will Old Trafford be demolished and where will they play while it's built?
The plan is to build the new stadium on land alongside the existing ground at Old Trafford, with the old stadium to continue to be used for games until the as-yet unnamed new ground is complete. The area around Old Trafford is set to be transformed from its current state, with United’s historic home one of the casualties: once the new stadium is complete, Old Trafford will be demolished.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments