Sir Jim Ratcliffe has outlined his vision for a dramatic new stadium for Manchester United, writes Chris Blackhurst. But it will take more than a £2bn stadium to turn around the fortunes at a club mired in debt
So you dream of building Britain’s biggest architect-designed house. You produce gorgeous artist drawings, you set a time frame that assumes all planning permissions will be rushed through. It will be huge; it will be spectacular. The trouble is you have no idea how you’re going to pay for it. That, pretty much, is where Sir Jim Ratcliffe is with his ambition for the new Manchester United stadium.
Yes, it looks great; yes, it will form the centrepiece of a major urban improvement programme; yes, it will propel the football club into the stratosphere, making it the most glamorous, reducing everyone else to also-rans. But it will cost £2bn and so far, there is no clue as to where that money is going to come from.
Ratcliffe, the newish part-owner of United, along with the Glazer family, is a highly successful industrialist. Not for nothing is he regularly cited as Britain’s richest man, thanks to his Ineos chemicals empire.
The new stadium features three masts which form a ‘trident’ in recognition of the club’s ‘Red Devils’ nickname (Handout from Foster + Partners/PA)open image in gallery
The new stadium features three masts which form a ‘trident’ in recognition of the club’s ‘Red Devils’ nickname (Handout from Foster + Partners/PA) (PA Media)
His track record, away from Ineos however, is, to say the least, patchy. He’s launched the Ineos Grenadier SUV as a rival to the Land Rover Defender but it has yet to make a significant inroad. Prior to buying into United, he bought Nice and Lausanne football clubs. Currently Nice lie third in the French league, the highest they’ve been during his ownership. Lausanne, which has been Ratcliffe’s since 2017 are currently eighth in Switzerland.
Ratcliffe owns the Ineos cycling team, once enormously successful under the Team Sky banner, regularly winning the Tour de France and other major races, but now a shadow of its former self.
He sponsored Britain’s entry in the America’s Cup yacht-racing but that has ended in failure and Ratcliffe is now in dispute with its head, Sir Ben Ainslie. In rugby, he backed the New Zealand All Blacks but has since pulled out. He joined with the Mercedes AMG F1 team and reportedly would have liked to exit but couldn’t (boss Toto Wolff insists the relationship continues and has not broken down). Elsewhere in football, Ineos signed a five-year deal to partner Tottenham and is seeking an early end to that agreement.
After coming into United with a minority stake, Ratcliffe rode a wave of optimism. Finally, after years in the doldrums under the unpopular Glazers, here was someone who knew how to achieve results. Soon, the club would return to triumphant ways. That has not materialised. To date, Ratcliffe’s tenure has been disappointing. The manager had his contract renewed, only to be fired at extra cost. The replacement is still feeling his way. Backroom staff have also been and gone. Other employees have been cut and costs slashed. Meanwhile, fans are braced for imminent news of season ticket price hikes.
A conceptual image of what the new Manchester United stadium and surrounding area could look likeopen image in gallery
A conceptual image of what the new Manchester United stadium and surrounding area could look like (Foster + Partners)
United remains a club that has racked up a £300m loss over the last three years. Currently, the club are 14th in the Premiership, well outside qualification for the financially lucrative European Champions League – not exactly form deserving of arguably the world’s grandest sports venue.
Lately, Ratcliffe has been giving interviews, ahead of the stadium unveiling and the new charges, in which he has been starkly open about the state of the club’s finances, saying it was heading for bankruptcy by the end of this year if he’d not taken drastic measures. He admits to making errors himself and labels the current manager Ruben Anorim whom he admires, as ‘not perfect’.
At the same time, worries persist over the condition of Ineos itself. Two leading credit agencies, Fitch and Moody’s, have downgraded their outlook for the company, pointing to a debt mountain of almost £10bn, some five to six times larger than annual earnings.
Bruno Fernandes celebrates after scoring a free-kick against Arsenalopen image in gallery
Bruno Fernandes celebrates after scoring a free-kick against Arsenal (EPA)
Yet, in the midst of all this, Ratcliffe sets out his vision for leaving Old Trafford and constructing a 100,000 capacity ‘Wembley of the North’ next door. It seems perverse but then Ratcliffe is nothing if not persuasive. He’s roped in Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester and Lord Sebastian Coe is also vocally supportive, claiming the entire site promises to dwarf his 2012 Olympics Park regeneration project. The government is also keen, citing the initiative as belonging to its much-vaunted economic growth agenda.
Just as it’s not clear where Ratcliffe will find the cash for the stadium, neither is it obvious where the public money for the surrounding improvements will originate. It also provokes disquiet in other northern cities. Manchester again is holding out its hand for taxpayers’ assistance, when strong cases can be made for similarly blighted areas of Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle.
Undoubtedly dramatic and uplifting as it is, the venture nods to that English proverb of ‘there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip’. Equally, it’s of Quixotic scale and as was said in Don Quixote: ‘Del disco al hecho hay gran techo’ or more easily said than done.
Chris Blackhurst is author of The World’s Biggest Cash Machine -Manchester United, the Glazers and the Struggle for Football’s Soul (Macmillan)