Even in the midst of financial and competitive struggles, Manchester United is thinking big—very big.
Less than three weeks after a meager quarterly report and a little more than two months after its worst Premier League finish, the club is now actively considering the development of a new stadium seating 100,000 and costing at least $2.6 billion. The facility, if constructed, would immediately become the U.K.’s largest, surpassing Wembley Stadium’s 90,000, and it would be aimed in part at advancing European facility standards that often have trailed modern U.S. venues.
Under the leadership of co-owner Jim Ratcliffe, Manchester United has been operating an “Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force” evaluating whether to renovate its venerable, 114-year-old facility (above) increasingly showing its age or construct a new one. According to multiple reports, that panel is now favoring the new-build option. Such a move is increasingly seen as a much more impactful choice than upgrading Old Trafford, and more formal plans for a new stadium are expected by the end of the year.
A new Manchester United facility would be built on land adjacent to Old Trafford. Financing, however, remains a question mark. The project would likely involve a mix of public and private financing, but there, too, specifics need to be developed.
U.S. Influence
During this deliberation process, club staff has been closely studying modern U.S. facilities to learn about design choices, amenities, and development processes. Among those venues is SoFi Stadium in California, the home of the NFL’s Rams and Chargers and where Manchester United lost a friendly to Arsenal on Saturday. Stan Kroenke, owner of the Rams and SoFi Stadium, also owns Arsenal.
“I don’t draw this comparison lightly, but you can see a parallel with the opportunity back home in Manchester,” said Andy Cole, a former striker for the club who was part of the traveling party for SoFi Stadium match. “Manchester United fans and everyone in the north of England deserves a truly world-class stadium, and SoFi set the standard to aim for. This is the kind of arena the best players in the world want to be playing in, and fans want to be experiencing.”
A new stadium, meanwhile, would additionally be impactful as many entities of European soccer, including the Premier League, experience a growing divide between the economic haves and have-nots. The club’s eighth-place finish last season and the recent quarterly report showing a $91 million net loss and 20% drop in revenues further signaled the risk of Manchester United getting left behind top-tier clubs such as its crosstown rival, Manchester City—winner of the last four and six of the last seven Premier League titles—or Arsenal.
Manchester United, a dominant club in the 1990s and early 2000s, hasn’t won a Premier League title since 2013.
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