Manchester United unveiled plans for their new 100,000-seater stadium back in March but club chiefs have had to be patient after a series of challenges in the development process
Manchester United chief Collette Roche has revealed that the club are closing in on a ‘milestone’ moment in plans to redevelop Old Trafford. United unveiled scale models and images of what their new stadium, which is expected to cost £2billion, will look like at a London event earlier this year.
But a number of issues have arisen during the development phase and have led to delays. Now, though, Roche is confident that the new year will mark the next phase of the project, with the launch of a Mayoral Development Corporation set to take place in January.
In an interview with Sky Sports, United’s chief operating officer explained: “We’ve still got a huge ambition to build a new stadium here at Old Trafford. There’s clearly a lot of work that needs to be done to get us to the point before we put any spades in the ground.
“We’re currently in several conversations with local landowners to make sure we can secure the best piece of land that we wanna put this stadium on that will hopefully be there for over 100 years. And in the background, we’re doing a lot of work with the local authorities to make that happen.
“They’re gonna launch Mayoral Development Corporation, formally, in January and I think that will be a good sort of milestone if you like, in terms of the wider regeneration. We’re really, really ambitious, a lot of work is happening – albeit behind the scenes – and hopefully soon we’ll be able to come forward with some bigger news.”
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One hurdle that United must overcome is with Freightliner, which owns the railway depot that surrounds Old Trafford. Securing that portion of the site remains vital to the project, with club sources said to be confident that an agreement will be reached.
In February, United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe suggested that the stadium could be open as soon as 2030. No Government money will be put towards the stadium itself, although they’re backing the regeneration project in the Trafford area.
Speaking on The Added Time podcast, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said: “It’s not about giving them money because we have a really clear principle here at the start of this journey with the Mayoral Development Corporation.
“Manchester United will be paying for the stadium. There will not be a penny of public money going into that.
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“But we have absolutely a role to play in making everything around the stadium as good as it can be because of the economic benefit that brings. If you think about it, there is a train station behind the stand there and it’s not been used for a number of years for safety reasons.
“Part of it would see that station relocated a little bit, maybe a bit nearer Lou Macari’s chippy or somewhere near there, and that would then reopen and massively benefit existing communities; Gorst Hill, Stretford and the people who live there, so the public benefit of this would be massive.
“Thousands of new homes, thousands of new jobs, so it’s much wider than the ground itself.”
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