Old Trafford - Tired, Worn - Jamie Jackson piece

Alabaster Codify7

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It genuinely does feel that they are just biding their time before leaving, to me. Might not be this summer, but they can't allow our once-amazing stadium to decay and under-invest on the field and expect it to look like they're committed to the long-haul. Eventually something will give.

Jose's last summer, he got £70m.

Ole got £70-80m last summer.

It appears that they've capped their spending on the football club in the past couple of years - probably because of horrific spending the previous few years (in terms of quality, not amount). It feels a bit to me like they are asset-stripping and preparing to fly the nest and Ole's the perfect public face for such an operation because the fans will still keep turning up and cheering a bit while they cross the tees and cross the i's.
 

DomesticTadpole

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Best as it's so iconic. Emirates and Spurs new stadium are soulless. Particularly the former.
Nobody is saying move. It does need major upgrade though for fan comfort, feck the ones in hospitality and the corporates, the people sat in the stadium who have gone for years and years should be thought of first. Their comfort and safety. Cramped seating cannot be great for safety in an emergency.
 

youngrell

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Weird article, talking about Spurs and LA being more cultural hubs. I would say it is the complete opposite and OT is the one with culture etc.

Football fans go to watch football, not to watch singer songwriters performing in posh bars on the concourse as part of the match day experience.

Maybe I'm getting old.
 

AdamColeBebe

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Weird article, talking about Spurs and LA being more cultural hubs. I would say it is the complete opposite and OT is the one with culture etc.

Football fans go to watch football, not to watch singer songwriters performing in posh bars on the concourse as part of the match day experience.

Maybe I'm getting old.
No you're right. Old Trafford absolutely is the "cultural hub" of everything that football is in this country
 

Okey

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Definitely could do with a revamp, but I wonder if this is being overplayed due to our current struggles on the pitch. Anfield may have been recently extended but is hardly shiny bling. Last season when Barca came here, we heard so much of this worn OT narrative, only for me to go to Nou Camp and feel so angry seeing a stadium just as worn, if not worse than OT!
 

Sandikan

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Let's get the team on the pitch right first eh!? Much bigger priority!
 

Dr. Dwayne

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Definitely could do with a revamp, but I wonder if this is being overplayed due to our current struggles on the pitch. Anfield may have been recently extended but is hardly shiny bling. Last season when Barca came here, we heard so much of this worn OT narrative, only for me to go to Nou Camp and feel so angry seeing a stadium just as worn, if not worse than OT!
Yes, these criticisms have a real kick 'em when they're down feel.

The English media like to drive change in the Premier League, we see it with managerial sackings. Now they want SA to buy the club so they can talk about how United have sold their soul, dirty money, despicable club, etc.
 

sullydnl

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Old Trafford's history makes it special. In fact it would still be special even if it was a dilapidated hovel. Which in effect means that type of special is irrelevant to what the article is on about when it compares OT to the likes of the Spurs stadium.

There's absolutely no reason for OT not to modernise and provide better facilities for matchgoing fans. Having history shouldn't mean skimping on that, or ignoring where OT falls short. We had a thread on this recently where someone pointed out how inaccessible it is for fans with mobility problems, for example. That's pretty shit for a club as big as ourselves.
 

Tom Cato

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It genuinely does feel that they are just biding their time before leaving, to me. Might not be this summer, but they can't allow our once-amazing stadium to decay and under-invest on the field and expect it to look like they're committed to the long-haul. Eventually something will give.

Jose's last summer, he got £70m.

Ole got £70-80m last summer.

It appears that they've capped their spending on the football club in the past couple of years - probably because of horrific spending the previous few years (in terms of quality, not amount). It feels a bit to me like they are asset-stripping and preparing to fly the nest and Ole's the perfect public face for such an operation because the fans will still keep turning up and cheering a bit while they cross the tees and cross the i's.
We tried to trade Lukaku outright for Dybala. The club was well prepared to have a spending bill of £150m this summer and then some if the players would have been available. We bid for Sean Longstaff. There's plenty of things to criticize the owners for, but saying they are being stingy on the transfer budget is very, very unfair.
 

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Jamie Jackson - tired, worn.
:lol: I was tempted to put 'tired, worn Jamie Jackson' without the hyphen as part of the title. But I genuinely thought it was a good read.

I was a season ticket holder until the end of the 12/13 season and then I moved abroad. It always seemed special to me at OT, but it was a bit long in the tooth. I was just surprised at the fact that the Glazers are allegedly reticent to modernise in case it loses that specialness.
 

Tom Cato

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Old Trafford's history makes it special. In fact it would still be special even if it was a dilapidated hovel. Which in effect means that type of special is irrelevant to what the article is on about when it compares OT to the likes of the Spurs stadium.

There's absolutely no reason for OT not to modernise and provide better facilities for matchgoing fans. Having history shouldn't mean skimping on that, or ignoring where OT falls short. We had a thread on this recently where someone pointed out how inaccessible it is for fans with mobility problems, for example. That's pretty shit for a club as big as ourselves.
Old Trafford was upgraded for £20m this summer. Not the big splash we all want, but the facilities aren't flat out ignored. Among the things that were upgraded were the disability facilities including 2 in the Stratford End, a "atmophere" section in the same area, the VIP lounges, new kiosks, the VAR system wasn't free. The stadium seats are all being replaced as well over the next 5 years, 15,000 a year. AND security systems have had an upgrade both inside and outside the stadium.

There is considerable infrastructural issues related to upgrading the south stand unfortunately. But work is being done on the stadium.
 

izzydiggler

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I went to the Spurs stadium consecutive weeks for NFL games a couple of months ago. First week I was wowed and it’s a really impressive modern stadium...by the end of the second game I was over it.

I’d much prefer OT to a brand new stadium with no history or character, named after the highest bidding corporation.
 

11101

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It might be below par for him and other media/sponsor types who want to sit in air conditioned comfort sipping lime sodas but for the fans? Give me Old Trafford or Anfield over any of the soulless corporate entertaining facilities that Arsenal, West Ham and the like play in.
 

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I went to the Spurs stadium consecutive weeks for NFL games a couple of months ago. First week I was wowed and it’s a really impressive modern stadium...by the end of the second game I was over it.

I’d much prefer OT to a brand new stadium with no history or character, named after the highest bidding corporation.

When OT was built it had no history but it was the most modern stadium in the world. History is great but it shouldn't get in the way of improvement or innovation. I suspect all of Archibald Leach's stadia were soulless when opened.
 

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If new stadiums are soulless, then its either because they look generic/plastic, have bad acoustics for atmosphere, or not a lot of history has happened in them.

There's gotta be a way to create something modern while still retaining the history, soul, etc. Using materials that have similarities to the history of Manchester for instance. One of the most charming things of the city of Manchester to me is the industrial history and the red brick houses. There's hard work, struggle, unity, passion and history in that style and those bricks. There's gotta be some way to build with a similar touch but In a modern way
 

freeurmind

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Dave Pennington, the vice-chair of the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust, says: “Supporters have no faith in the owners committing the substantial long-term investment needed. There’s been no major development since the quadrants were built in 2006. The subsequent investment has been limited to mandatory – but still welcome – expansion of disabled facilities and corporate hospitality. Old Trafford is still the biggest in the Premier League but it’s now far from the best – the facilities are limited and outdated.”

Barney Chilton, of Red News fanzine, says: “Old Trafford carries memories, history. And a soul. The key is what the crowd in the near future might want – and a younger audience will want what others provide elsewhere … I remain convinced that under different owners we’d have seen Old Trafford remain at the forefront of design and upgrades. We have had token work done on it, and doesn’t it show? The leaking roof is a fitting analogy for the recent United.”
 

VeevaVee

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There is no soul in big modern architecture. You can’t have soul and modern in a big building. Or rather you can, but it won’t happen. Look at all big new builds compared to the parts of Manchester with many large old buildings for example. They really don’t make em like they used to.
 

dove

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Surprisingly (or not really) people don't know the difference between "best" and "iconic". While Old Trafford is surely one of the most iconic stadiums in the world, it's surely not the best in England. It desperately needs some work done (replacing this goddamn awful roof should be priority not only because of how ugly it looks but also because it ruins the view for 1/3 of fans completely). This is the least we can do.
 

decorativeed

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People must be absolutely kidding themselves with this 'Still the best in the country' line. As someone who has spent a lot of time in football stadiums of late through work, it absolutely is not. Bits of it are on a par with the Emirates or Wembley, but as a whole it's woefully behind them, and needs serious cash spending on it just to keep up. I'd prefer us to do what we used to and try to be better than the rest, but we're nowhere near.

Also, I don't buy this 'soulless' stuff at all. If a building has soul, it's provided by the people in it, not by the architecture, and there's nothing particularly interesting about the current architecture of OT, the oldest bits are about 50 years old and the majority round 25 years old. All the interesting old bits were torn down decades ago, and replaced with what I'm sure many would have described as 'soulless' back in 1995.
 

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Nobody is saying move. It does need major upgrade though for fan comfort, feck the ones in hospitality and the corporates, the people sat in the stadium who have gone for years and years should be thought of first. Their comfort and safety. Cramped seating cannot be great for safety in an emergency.
What are you suggesting, cushions on the seats?

I have never been uncomfortable at OT.