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Manchester United have reportedly made the decision to build a brand new 100,000-seater stadium, with an official announcement expected on Tuesday.
United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has made no secret of his desire to construct a new iconic stadium.
Soon after Ratcliffe completed his minority investment in United, a taskforce was set up to examine whether the club should refurbish Old Trafford or build a new state-of-the-art replacement on adjoining land. The latter option has always been the preferred idea but a final decision had yet to be made.
Now, Alex Crook of talkSPORT has revealed that a decision has been made and an announcement is imminent.
Crook wrote on X, “Announcement expected tomorrow that Manchester United have decided to build a brand new 100,000-seater stadium.”
This information has been reiterated by The Athletic, who state, “United are expected to announce their decision on Tuesday. Sources, speaking anonymously in order to protect relationships, have told The Athletic the club has chosen to pursue a new-build, 100,000-seater stadium rather than redevelop the existing Old Trafford.”
A new stadium is expected to cost United around £2bn and it remains unclear how this project will be funded.
On Monday, Ratcliffe sat down with The Times and said, “I think it is financeable. But key to it is being part of the government regeneration project for southern Manchester which, you know, [chancellor] Rachel Reeves has talked about as one of those three major planks of their growth strategy.”
“We’re not going to ask the government for any money to build the ground but we can’t afford to do all of the other stuff around it.”
“But we want an iconic stadium and I would like to do think those billion fans around the world will all want to come to Manchester and see it, which will create value for the club and the north economy. If you look at Oxford Economics they estimate £7billion per annum.”
Ratcliffe also had a chat with Gary Neville and added, “It’s definitely deliverable but I think it needs to be set in context again.”
“It’s the greatest football club in the world. Then if it’s going to build a new stadium it should be a new stadium that’s befitting the greatest club in the world and also a stadium that befits the greatest league in the world. Because the Premier League is the greatest league in the world.”
“And at the moment, if you look at the Premier League, we’ve got some great stadiums but we don’t have a Bernabeu and we don’t have a Nou Camp, we don’t have that in the Premier League, although it’s the greatest league in the world.”
“And also, if you look at the north of England, the north of England has won 10 Champions League finals and London has won two. So there’s quite a few reasons there to have the world’s most iconic football stadium in the north of England and at the world’s greatest club.”
“I won’t say much more but Norman Foster, who also is a Mancunian and is the world’s greatest architect in my view, has really created the most iconic – well you’ve seen it (the design) – absolutely incredible.”
“It would be marvellous if Manchester United could go down that road and in five years’ time or six years’ time and have that stadium.”
Echo claim that Lord Sebastian Coe – who chairs the Old Trafford task force – is expected to speak alongside Ratcliffe at a stadium project update held in London on Tuesday.
Presumably, this is where the announcement will be made.
Featured image Alex Livesey via Getty Images
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