Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham reiterated that the club’s new home would receive zero public funding while Manchester United COO Collette Roche told Place North West she is sure the club can find the money to finance the 100,000-capacity project without state backing.
Speaking in front of a packed room on the UK Stage at MIPIM, Burnham was at pains to state his firm stance that the stadium itself would not get public backing.
“It is for Manchester United to fund their new home,” he said.
“There will be no public money, and that will not change in the duration of this project. And I do want that message to be heard loud and clear today.”
Talks on the funding structure and mechanism are still in the works but will need to be worked out quickly if the club’s five- to six-year delivery programme is to be met.
“We’ve not got a package of how that’s all going to work right now,” Roche said, while confirming the project would cost in the region of £2bn.
“We’ve got a lot of ideas and [are having] a lot of conversations but we are convinced that certainly, based on the interest, the business case, the demand we’ve got, the products, that is definitely fundable.”
Funding is one obstacle that needs to be overcome, another is land assembly.
While the stadium building will be left to Manchester United to pay for, Burnham insinuated public money could be spent to help with securing the required land.
“That is where the public money is more likely to be spent,” he said.
Manchester United owns much of the land it requires to build the stadium but there are some outstanding parcels needed to execute the vision. Chief among these is the Freightliner terminal.
Roche said that in order for the stadium to be constructed in the “optimum place” this land would be required.
When asked by Place whether it is a risk to announce such a large plan on a global stage such as MIPIM when something as fundamental as land assembly has not completed, Roche said it was not.
Collette Roche, Manchester United, c PNW
Collette Roche spoke to Place North West at MIPIM. Credit: PNW
“Sometimes I find until you actually articulate what the mission is and you show the art of the possible, nobody takes you seriously,” Roche said,
“I don’t see it as a risk. I see it as an opportunity.”
Burnham is leading the charge to assemble this part of the site by relocating the terminal to IPL North in Liverpool City Region – a £200m to £300m project, he said.
He conceded there is an element of risk to all development projects but that he is confident of completing the Freightliner deal.
“We’ve had those conversations with some of those, those landowners, and it’s a strange project where people are more aligned than I’ve ever seen before.”
He added that any outstanding land that cannot be acquired through negotiation could be bought by the mayoral development corporation he is working to set up to drive the regeneration of the area around Old Trafford, through the use of compulsory purchase powers.
“It allows you to unlock knotty land assembly issues if you need to use those powers. So it de-risks the land assembly part of it,” he said.
Lord Sebastian Coe, chair of the Old Trafford Regeneration Taskforce, was one of the panellists discussing the project at MIPIM.
He said the scheme could have a bigger impact than London 2012 and be a bigger regeneration catalyst than the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.
“Barcelona moved from never being in the top 20 European destinations before 1992 to never being out of the top four since then,” he said.
“I don’t think I’m overstating when I say this actually has the potential to be, not only a bigger project than London 2012 but, in terms of European scope and scale, probably the biggest thing that’s ever really been undertaken.”
OT regen panel, MIPIM, c PNW
Credit: PNW