The club has said it hopes to move in within five years
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What the new Manchester United stadium and surrounding area could look like
What the new Manchester United stadium and surrounding area could look like
(Image: PA)
Manchester United have set out more details about their ambitious plans for Old Trafford and when the new stadium would be ready.
The club unveiled their vision for a new 100,000-seater stadium and the regeneration of the area around it on Tuesday (March 11). Norman Foster, the legendary Mancunian architect behind the plan, also revealed how long it would take to build the new stadium.
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By building the components of the stadium off site and shipping them to Old Trafford, he said it would only take five years to build.
United's chief executive Omar Berrada later told reporters that the club is aiming to move into a new stadium for the 2030-31 season.
Speaking at a international property conference in Cannes, Frances today (March 12), United's chief operating officer Collette Roche was asked whether the five-year timeline set out by the club is realistic - and when the countdown begins on that five-year period.
She told the the audience at MIPIM that a 'five to six year' timescale is realistic, but suggested that the countdown hasn't started yet.
United's chief operating officer Collette Roche
United's chief operating officer Collette Roche
She said: "I know I've got some experts in the room looking at me saying, 'is she crazy?' But we've done a lot of work to get to this point.
"Through that work and working with Norman Foster, we know, and people a lot smarter than me know in the engineering world, that through modular build, through doing a lot of the pre-fabrication - in a similar way actually to what has happened over in Everton - we can shorten that timescale significantly.
"I've also got a very demanding set of shareholders that are pushing and pushing and pushing and every time we have this conversation knocks a year off. So there's definitely the ambition there.
"So we're now working now if you like towards a five to six year period, I would say.
"The clock starts ticking when we have the conversation which we're going to have with the government around making sure we can get the planning and the green light to the land assembly.
"That's why we're working with Trafford council and Manchester in that respect.
"But we think five to six years for the build is realistic and, as I say, experts are telling me that it's doable."
Unveiling his design for the new stadium, Lord Foster said a stadium normally takes 10 years to build, but this one would only take five.
He said: "How do we do that? By pre-fabrication. By using the network of Manchester Ship Canal, bringing it back to a new life, shipping in components - 160 of them, Meccano-like."
Club co-owner Jim Ratcliffe had previously indicated the club will have to wait until at least 2030 before moving into a new stadium.