Sir Jim Ratcliffe has shared new details about Manchester United’s plan to build a new stadium.
As soon as Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos took sporting control of Manchester United, talk began about the future of Old Trafford.
Two options remain on the table. To either refurbish and expand Old Trafford or to build a new stadium with a potential capacity of 100,000.
A new stadium is set to cost around £2bn but would be part of a wider regeneration scheme surrounding southern Manchester.
United fans voted on a new stadium and the decision-making process is entering its final stages. Now, Ratcliffe has spoken to club legend Gary Neville about the club’s stadium plans.
Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
Sir Jim Ratcliffe discusses 100,000-seater stadium
Reports claim Ratcliffe wants a new 100,000-seater stadium rather than refurbishing Old Trafford, and he has now explained what thought is going into the decision.
Neville is part of the stadium taskforce assembled by Ineos to aid the decision-making process, and he has also seen drawings of the potential stadium. His reaction says it all.
Speaking on The Overlap, Neville said: “I sat on the last taskforce committee meeting on Friday and I had a glimpse of what is coming and it looks absolutely spectacular.
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He then asked Ratcliffe if he could deliver on plans for a new £50m training ground expansion and stadium.
“It definitely is deliverable, but I think it needs to be set in context again,” Ratcliffe said. “If you take the view that it’s the greatest football club in the world, then if it builds a new stadium it should be a stadium befitting of the greatest club in the world.
“And also a stadium that befits the greatest league in the world because the Premier League is the best in the world. At the moment, we have some great stadiums but we don’t have a Bernabeu and we don’t have a Nou Camp.
“What everyone has to understand is we have two options – to refurbish the current stadium or we can build a new one. The only basis in which we can build a new one is if it is part of this government regeneration scheme for south Manchester.
“We can’t afford to regenerate southern Manchester, that’s too big a bill for the club. We can build the stadium, we don’t need any government funding for that stadium but it has to be the underpin for the regeneration.
“If they do this really well and properly, I think we should underpin that with the world’s most iconic football stadium.
Ratcliffe then shared details on the stadium plans and offered a potential timeline for when it could be completed…
“I won’t say much more but Norman Foster, who also is a Mancunian and the world’s greatest architect in my view, has created the most iconic stadium,” he added.
“It would be marvellous if Manchester United could go down that road in five or six years.”
New Man United stadium could earn £230m per season
Manchester United’s latest accounts were extremely alarming and emphasised just how much financial trouble the club is in.
United are riddled with over £700m of debt caused by the Glazer family, which explains why Ratcliffe has been making so many ruthless cost-cutting decisions.
Ratcliffe confirmed ticket prices will rise again next season just days after United fans protested the £66 ticket prices outside Old Trafford.
Ultimately, Ratcliffe plans to make United a sustainable and profitable club and a new stadium would play a huge part in that.
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Finance expert Adam Williams estimated that a 100,000-seater stadium would earn United £230m per season.
Revenue in 2023/24 was recorded at £661.8 million, so the income from more seats and improved hospitality would have a huge impact.