Man Utd are right to want a new 100,000-capacity Old Trafford – but Sir Jim Ratcliffe & Co. – not UK taxpayers – must stump up the cash for ‘Wembley of the North’

Ratcliffe has talked a lot about the need to redevelop Old Trafford, and less than a month after officially completing his purchase of a 27 percent stake in the club, a task force was set up to determine the best course of action.

The group, chaired by London 2012 Olympics organiser Sebastian Coe and whose other members include Gary Neville as well as Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, have concluded that the building of a brand new stadium is the best course of action. There are many good reasons why.

First of all, Old Trafford right now is, at best, a large but faded stadium that pales in comparison to the modern arenas of rivals Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham, not to mention the futuristic Santiago Bernabeu, Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena and the proposed new Camp Nou. It has tiny scoreboards, which cannot be seen from large sections of the ground, no big screens and problems with acoustics.

The concourses are cramped, leading to long queues before kick-off and at half-time, and the selection of food and drinks is severely limited. Anyone who tries a pie risks burning their mouth with each bite, and the club’s food hygiene is rated at one star out of five after guests were served raw chicken at an event last year.

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  Falling down

  At worst, it is a stadium that is no longer fit for purpose. There are big problems of overcrowding before and after matches due to the sheer amount of pillars, leaving fans often feeling unsafe. Once in your seat, there is hardly any legroom, meaning adults of above-average height tend to scrape their knees on the back of the seat in front of them.

  Then there is the infamous leaky roof, which left supporters utterly drenched during last season’s game against Arsenal and which led to the dressing room being flooded. Last season, away fans from Manchester City to Bournemouth revelled in the stories about the stadium’s decay, and the chant “Old Trafford is falling down” was heard at practically every match.

  At the very least the stadium needs rebuilding, which would cost around £1.1bn ($1.4bn), almost half the amount of building a brand new ground. That option presents many logistical challenges, including building around an existing railway line.

  Some parts of Old Trafford remain the same as they were when the stadium was first built in 1909, even surviving being bombed during the Second World War. And stadium insiders believe that many materials in the ground are reaching the end of their tether.

  “The building is reaching the end of its natural life – the cabling, the electricity supplies, everything is nearing its sell by date. And the interiors are very cramped and difficult in places,” Chris Lee, chief executive of the architectural firm Populous which United have hired to oversee the stadium project, told The Telegraph last year. “I would say updating is crucial not just to maintain the club’s position, but just to keep the place functional.”

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    Huge ticket demand

    Redeveloping the stadium would also mean severely reducing its capacity while building works go on, depriving the club of matchday revenue and meaning many match-going fans would be unable to see the team for several years. Building the new stadium next to Old Trafford, on land which the club already owns, would allow United to keep playing in front of 73,000 supporters at each game until the new stadium is built.

    A brand new stadium means there will be no restrictions on what type of structure the club can build and there is scope to make it even bigger. The maximum capacity of a redeveloped Old Trafford would be 90,000, but a new stadium could hold up to 100,000. And that is what is needed to meet current demand for tickets. United have more than 330,000 paid-up members, more than any football team in the world, while there are over 120,000 people on the waiting list for season tickets.

    The final argument for building a new stadium is the scope to redevelop the local area of Trafford, in the manner that Manchester City have revitalised the eastern part of the city. And that is where clear lines need to be drawn.

    United want to establish a public-private partnership with the local council and even the British government, looking to the taxpayer to ease the burden of paying for the new project. And that cannot be allowed to happen.

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    Club must pay

    Ratcliffe has been trying to drum up political support for this endeavour. New UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visited Old Trafford in May for the game against Arsenal and, according to The Athletic, he was open to conversations with Ratcliffe around building a public-private partnership with United around the new stadium. Ratcliffe has also been campaigning for government aid via the media, talking of his ambition for Old Trafford to become a “Wembley of the North”

    “There’s a very good case, in my view, for having a stadium of the North, which would serve the northern part of the country in that arena of football,” he told Sky News in May. “If you look at the number of Champions League the North West has won, it’s 10. London has won two.

    “And yet everybody from the North has to get down to London to watch a big football match. And there should be one in the North, in my view.”

    Wembley benefitted from public money when it was redeveloped in the 2000s, but there is no reason why United should get from public money for a similar project in the north. English football has one home already, it does not need another at public expense. And even if there is a case to have a northern home for football, why should United be the ones to benefit from it?

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      Tax exile

      United is a private company, trading on the New York Stock Exchange and headquartered in the Cayman Islands for tax purposes. It was projected to make a Premier League-record revenue of up to £680m ($873m) for last season. It does not need public help.

      Nor does Ratcliffe. The INEOS chief is the fourth-richest person in Britain according to the 2024 Sunday Times Rich List, with a fortune worth an estimated £23.5bn ($30bn). He could finance the project alone with just eight percent of his wealth.

      And there is a rich irony of him wanting support from the UK government since he is a British tax exile, paying no tax in his home country since moving to Monaco. It has been estimated that changing his fiscal residence saved him £4bn ($5bn)double the amount it would cost to build the new stadium.

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      Glazers must chip in

      And what of the Glazers, who pocketed £1.25bn ($1.6bn) from selling the 27% stake to Ratcliffe and still own almost three quarters of the club? The American family, who are worth an estimated £3.6 billion ($4.6bn) according to Forbes, have taken £1.1 billion ($1.6bn) out of the club since buying it in a hugely controversial leveraged buyout in 2005. They have invested next to nothing in the stadium, which received its last upgrade in 2006, though that had been planned and financed before their arrival.

      Manchester mayor Burnham has stressed the need for the stadium to be financed privately, but advocated for public help for other facilities such as transport. Improved transport links, while serving the local area, would ultimately further drive up the value of the land, again benefitting United first and foremost.

      United have invested far too little in their infrastructure in the last two decades and the fact they are prepared to finally prioritise the stadium is good news. But they must compensate for their previous neglect by paying for it, not handing the bill to the public.

      Source goal.com