Manchester United officials looking at plans to expand Old Trafford capacity to 88,000 | Scrapped?

[Stu1975]

Barca had plans to start renovating the Camp Nou a few years ago and then the economic crash came and everything was put on hold....this was a club until recent years would take no money from shirt sponsorship and for years we have topped everyone else in marketing.

I agree O.T. ain’t that bad in terms of it’s overall condition but the B.C. stand and the roofs around the ground need to be done sooner rather than later....I bet you would see and hear a difference in atmosphere then.

 

[Adisa]

I think the "it's too difficult" line is an easy way of say don't bother us for now.
The difficulty will not change between now and 2028 for example.

 

[Adisa]

Thanks for the explanation.

It still makes you wonder why we keep using the same lame excuse of the railway line in this technological advance era.

Also, does anyone know who did the work on the north stand and the quadrants, if i was United i would be looking to sue the construction company?

Was at the top of the north stand a few years ago. Will never spend money on that again.

 

[Stu1975]

I think the "it's too difficult" line is an easy way of say don't bother us for now.
The difficulty will not change between now and 2028 for example.

Yeah and I think they will continue to use that until they see fit to begin work(if ever)on the south stand.
Cost vs income seems the real reason behind it so why really bother is more the attitude.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Was at the top of the north stand a few years ago. Will never spend money on that again.

Same here. Felt very detached from the rest of the crowd, not great with heights so was scared of actually leaving my seat. Actually enjoyed watching the game from above. You could see how the players were moving into position, but not sure I would ever want to go up there again.

 

[Nate Dogg]

Was at the top of the north stand a few years ago. Will never spend money on that again.

Sat in the third tier a couple of times....ffs never again.

 

[Gopher Brown]

Those stadiums aren't even big enough for season ticket holders.

Correct.

Choosy beggar

 

[Dennis Viollet]

play away from home for years, while we are rebuilding the team? No thanks.

 

[Catt]

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At least the Etihad would experience being full for once.

 

[stevoc]

No need, there is existing vacant one. Swansea or Wembley (after Spurs) would do, just have to forget about HOME advantage for a few seasons.

The liberty stadium only holds 20,000 plus i imagine Swansea will still want to play there. I don't see Wembley being an option it's just too far away from Manchester, the Millenium stadium is a bit closer.

 

[Nate Dogg]

We could play at Cardiff's stadium, doesn't that hold in excess of 60k?

 

[Dan]

We could play at Cardiff's stadium, doesn't that hold in excess of 60k?

The Millennium stadium is 74,500.

 

[stevoc]

We could play at Cardiff's stadium, doesn't that hold in excess of 60k?

No i think it's only 30,000 odd. The Millenium is 74,500 though so pretty much the same as OT.

 

[Nate Dogg]

No i think it's only 30,000 odd. The Millenium is 74,500 though so pretty much the same as OT.

Sorry i meant Millennium stadium.

The fact it holds the same amount would be perfect from a capacity perspective and also it would be better than locating to Wembley.

 

[Coops73]

Sorry i meant Millennium stadium.

The fact it holds the same amount would be perfect from a capacity perspective and also it would be better than locating to Wembley.

Similar sort of distance and time from Old Trafford, wouldn’t be very fair on local match goers.

 

[VeevaVee]

Was at the top of the north stand a few years ago. Will never spend money on that again.

It's a long time since I've been up there but I don't remember it being that bad. Might change my mind if I did it again. In fact, the last time I was there was when Batistuta scored that screamer against Bosnich

 

[Big Andy]

“It’s too hard to build over a railway”

Erm, no it’s really not...

 

[Big Andy]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.citylab.com/amp/article/362771/

 

[Spoony]

Sorry i meant Millennium stadium.

The fact it holds the same amount would be perfect from a capacity perspective and also it would be better than locating to Wembley.

Seems unfair to expect fans to go down to Cardiff every other week.

 

[Nate Dogg]

Seems unfair to expect fans to go down to Cardiff every other week.

We could relocate to Wembley....apparantley that is where majority of our fans are from lol

 

[stevoc]

Seems unfair to expect fans to go down to Cardiff every other week.

Definitely unfair, the club could offer to cover transport costs. But i can't even begin to imagine the cost and logistics of transporting 60-70,00 people 150 miles every fortnight.

The alternative isn't ideal either though. If the club came to a deal with City to play at the etihad thousands of season ticket holders would basically lose their seats for a year or two.

 

[Spoony]

Definitely unfair, the club could offer to cover transport costs. But i can't even begin to imagine the cost and logistics of transporting 60-70,00 people 150 miles every fortnight.

The alternative isn't ideal either though. If the club came to a deal with City to play at the etihad thousands of season ticket holders would basically lose their seats for a year or two.

Which is why I think new stadium next to OT seems the best bet.

 

[Sandikan]

We could relocate to Wembley....apparantley that is where majority of our fans are from lol

I for one would love it...20mins away!

 

[Lennon7]

Is a refurb not viable over the summer period? Or in stages so that we can carry on using OT whilst work is done during away games/through the week?

Real Madrid did it, I think.

 

[RedPed]

Genuine question for my red brothers out there:

If United said they're going to go all out and redo Old Trafford into a state-of-the-art 90K seater that would put the club back on the map BUT it may mean 3 years of not being as competitive as before and we actually end up with some 6th/7th place finishes due to relying on the youth to replace some of our ageing stars, would we join them for the ride?

Or would we go Gooner against the board?

 

[3KDré]

Genuine question for my red brothers out there:

If United said they're going to go all out and redo Old Trafford into a state-of-the-art 90K seater that would put the club back on the map BUT it may mean 3 years of not being as competitive as before and we actually end up with some 6th/7th place finishes due to relying on the youth to replace some of our ageing stars, would we join them for the ride?

Or would we go Gooner against the board?

Why would a state of the art stadium 'put us back on the map'?
Edit: Aren't we already back on the map?

 

[RedPed]

Why would a state of the art stadium 'put us back on the map'?
Edit: Aren't we already back on the map?

Sorry I mean in terms of the stadium, facilities and match-going experience. People have already said how shit Old Trafford is and how it's showing it's age. Spurs and Chelsea will be the new standard in the future.

 

[stevoc]

Which is why I think new stadium next to OT seems the best bet.

Personally i hope not, but i also can't see the Glazers ever committing to spending £1-2b for a new stadium.

 

[Canagel]

The Sir Bobby Charlton stand desperately needs expanding. Currently it makes the whole stadium look disjointed. It has to happen sooner or later.

 

[BK Frem]

Hey

Not a local lad and only been to Old Trafford once - vs City 09 (2-0) - but been a fan all my life, not sure when it started but probably with Schmeichel. I’m 33 myself today.

Couldn’t we somehow use Old Trafford cricket ground while we expand? I know we would have to use some money for either som temporary stands or some sort of change to it to fit football but could it work? I got the idea only because I went on google earth on my phone to see how much space we actually had to expand and this giant green spot drew my eyes on to it. It seams the pitch could be there? It’s just around the corner, it’s still called Old Fecking Trafford the local lads could still go to the stadium! “Tourists” fans like myself would have to forget about it for a year or two, so fecking what!? The atmosphere would be absolutely insane!

If this is an insane idea please don’t shoot me!

 

[Nate Dogg]

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[cyril C]

Sorry I mean in terms of the stadium, facilities and match-going experience. People have already said how shit Old Trafford is and how it's showing it's age. Spurs and Chelsea will be the new standard in the future.

Do you mean you or some fan would stop following the club because of the condition of OT? Training facility and Academy facility will affect the condition of the team, and the future of the club. What might affect Utd performance is the condition of the pitch, not whether they serve Mac or prawn sandwich at the back. If the roof is leaking, bring a hat. How many stadium out there in the world that has no roof and without air conditioning?

You can argue that certain section of the stadium is a weak link and affect the atmosphere hence handicapping the HOME fear factor, but I thought it was the team performance that create the Home fear factor, like how we lost it during Moyes era, and how we feared the City stadium when we visited their turf.

IMO, if it is not economical to rebuild the SBC stand, then simply renovate the rest of the stadium. Renovate the toilet for example. That shouldn't take more than 10 months, right?

 

[Nickthepip]

We’ve shared with City before after all, don’t think it’s impossible. Any payment would make for an interesting debate given the ground was more or less gifted to them.

What might interest the club but be incredibly unpopular with fans might be “United on Tour”, games in Dublin, Cardiff, Wembley etc. Doubt the Prem would let them include the US, Asia etc but you could imagine some marketing executive somewhere dreaming that up.

 

[RedPed]

Do you mean you or some fan would stop following the club because of the condition of OT? Training facility and Academy facility will affect the condition of the team, and the future of the club. What might affect Utd performance is the condition of the pitch, not whether they serve Mac or prawn sandwich at the back. If the roof is leaking, bring a hat. How many stadium out there in the world that has no roof and without air conditioning?

You can argue that certain section of the stadium is a weak link and affect the atmosphere hence handicapping the HOME fear factor, but I thought it was the team performance that create the Home fear factor, like how we lost it during Moyes era, and how we feared the City stadium when we visited their turf.

IMO, if it is not economical to rebuild the SBC stand, then simply renovate the rest of the stadium. Renovate the toilet for example. That shouldn't take more than 10 months, right?

Ridiculous comment and completely off the point I was making! If it was that simplistic then Arsenal wouldn't have done it. Spurs, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid, CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, Barcelona etc. would not be bothering either using your simplistic and ridiculous argument!

 

[Cal?]

We’ve shared with City before after all, don’t think it’s impossible. Any payment would make for an interesting debate given the ground was more or less gifted to them.

What might interest the club but be incredibly unpopular with fans might be “United on Tour”, games in Dublin, Cardiff, Wembley etc. Doubt the Prem would let them include the US, Asia etc but you could imagine some marketing executive somewhere dreaming that up.

The rest of the PL might oblige if we give them a share of what no doubt will be crazy high ticket income.

Conservative estimates of an average £200 per ticket and 80,000 people per match, so £16 million in ticket income.

Another few million for the matchday sponsor, etc.

You could be looking at half a billion over the season.

 

[Vidic's Head]

Interesting to see how the bitters would react to seeing their ground sold out every fortnight.
How would season ticket holders be treated on derby day?

 

[Vidic's Head]

The rest of the PL might oblige if we give them a share of what no doubt will be crazy high ticket income.

Conservative estimates of an average £200 per ticket and 80,000 people per match, so £16 million in ticket income.

Another few million for the matchday sponsor, etc.

You could be looking at half a billion over the season.

How much?

 

[sglowrider]

Back to our roots -- put up temp stands at The Cliff.

 

[GlastonSpur]

Given that your stadium was built 108 years ago, it seems self-evident that sooner or later it will need replacing, as distinct from simply upgrading bits of it.

So if not now, then when? In other words, when does a long-term perspective hold sway - including in terms of economics - over short-term fixes?

 

[SwansonsTache]

Given that your stadium was built 108 years ago, it seems self-evident that sooner or later it will need replacing, as distinct from simply upgrading bits of it.

So if not now, then when? In other words, when does a long-term perspective hold sway - including in terms of economics - over short-term fixes?

Cost for the size stadium United would be looking at would probably be ridiculous.