Old Trafford - Tired, Worn - Jamie Jackson piece

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My only complaint from my September visit was how cramped the seating was. Literally shoulder-to-shoulder with your neighbours.
 

red thru&thru

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OT needs a revamp. A stadium is only ever iconic, as long as the teams winning. Like teams, players, managers, they all lose that iconic status when it falls below standards. Let's not forget, OT had been revamped many a time during Fergies years, it never lost its iconic status. A stadium revamp does not lose its iconic status, its teams lack of success does.

If you're one of the biggest clubs in the world, everything else has to follow.
 

Djemba-Djemba

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Hahahaha..

If you're in one of the quadrants, you feel like you're going do drop of, it is that tight.
Haha you're right. It feels like a sheer drop. I mean I suppose in a positive sense it encourages you to have a chat to the person next to because you're practically sat on top of one another.

I'm not sure what the solution is, it's an old stadium so it's not like it was built with the intention of housing 75,000. I never want us to leave OT though.
 

Class of 63

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Tottenham's stadium built yesterday is more modern than Manchester United's which was built when Adam was a lad, well i'll go to the foot of our stairs!

And since when does 2 inches make that much difference?

Surprised nobody has said it's a shit stadium because in emergency you can't land a helicopter on the pitch.
 

red thru&thru

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Haha you're right. It feels like a sheer drop. I mean I suppose in a positive sense it encourages you to have a chat to the person next to because you're practically sat on top of one another.

I'm not sure what the solution is, it's an old stadium so it's not like it was built with the intention of housing 75,000. I never want us to leave OT though.
Very true. I wouldn't want to leave OT but we can still revamp it.
 

Rood

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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!
The idea that OT is crumbling is bollocks, yes some refurb work is needed but it's really not that bad. of course quite a few clubs have built brand new stadia in recent years with flashy facilities but just ask a West Ham fan if they prefer the Olympic Stadium or Upton Park and the answer will be unanimous that they miss the atmosphere of the old ground

OT is more than a hundred years old and there is a huge amount of value in the legacy of the stadium compared to some of the sterile bowls that have been built
 

Ish

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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.
Yeah, seemingly we were only after the "right" players and didn't want to just sign someone/anyone for the sake of it, or because they were overpriced. I'm happy with that strategy.

Jose's last summer spending might have been the Board just losing faith in his transfer dealings (why on earth the contract renewal, I know) and wanting him to try and get the best out of his signings first, before splurging on ageing, overpriced players (Willian, Alderweireld, as an example) again. Because they were happy to pay for Maguire this summer.

I guess it's all a bit of guesswork by us, anyway. But they've always seemed willing to spend post SAF.
 

TMDaines

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A lot of the most awe inspiring buildings I have visited all over the UK and Europe are tired and worn. There's bits of OT I would change and invest in, but I love the history of the place. I love seeing the stadium out of my bedroom window and walking through the rows of redbrick houses to reach the ground.

Wembley might be new and shining, but it is so devoid of any soul and character. Trips there are miserable and done simply to watch United. Please bear in mind a lot of the these journalist pieces are looking this through a very narrow perspective of travelling to various grounds to cover a game. I don't doubt there are warmer, more comfortable places elsewhere, with better press and IT infrastructure. We shouldn't conflate this with what a football stadium actually primarily acts as.

I think we could invest more, but I'd never want to leave.
 

TMDaines

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My only complaint from my September visit was how cramped the seating was. Literally shoulder-to-shoulder with your neighbours.
Sounds fantastic. That's exactly what you a surely want for a great atmosphere, packed terraces.
 

sp_107

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Old Trafford is good but with another 30-50 millions investment they can really re-decorate it well so it wouldn't look out of pace with other modern ones.

We can keep the basic as it is but just few contemporary touches along with gaint screens would do
 

TRUERED89

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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.
You mean dot the i's no?
 

RedPed

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What a pile of nonsense nothing wrong with old Trafford. leave well alone.

You saying it's perfect?? It's far from. It definitely needs updating. Not necessarily a full rebuild but it definitely needs some serious upgrading.
 

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Old trafford is still one of the best stadiums in England. But I would say that if a lot of money needs to be spent on Improvements in some areas, the Glazers would rather sell than spend a couple of hundred million on refurbishing.
 

TRUERED89

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A lot of the most awe inspiring buildings I have visited all over the UK and Europe are tired and worn. There's bits of OT I would change and invest in, but I love the history of the place. I love seeing the stadium out of my bedroom window and walking through the rows of redbrick houses to reach the ground.

Wembley might be new and shining, but it is so devoid of any soul and character. Trips there are miserable and done simply to watch United. Please bear in mind a lot of the these journalist pieces are looking this through a very narrow perspective of travelling to various grounds to cover a game. I don't doubt there are warmer, more comfortable places elsewhere, with better press and IT infrastructure. We shouldn't conflate this with what a football stadium actually primarily acts as.

I think we could invest more, but I'd never want to leave.
That's really cool, are you walking distance from the ground? Or you can just see it?
 

Redplane

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Old trafford is still one of the best stadiums in England. But I would say that if a lot of money needs to be spent on Improvements in some areas, the Glazers would rather sell than spend a couple of hundred million on refurbishing.
Dolphins swimming around the pitch shooting laserbeams wouldn't cost that much.

Or how creating a moat with sharks in it - would mean keeping yourself and the ball in play becoming a lot more critical. Entertainment is what it's all about - not fancy smancy skyboxes.
 

Sandikan

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The leg room is pretty cramped, but what do people suggest?
To revamp it would mean you'd probably have to lose say 5-8 rows or so in the 40 in East 2 as an example to create the extra space

Would people be happy with losing 1000s from the capacity?
 

TrustInOle

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They don't call it OLD Trafford for nothing do they? Heh heh.

Seriously though, I don't mind it. I've only been to the King Power recently and that was cramped for leg space too.
I could handle less creature comforts if it meant the stadium actually got looked after. No mould or cracks, no leaks, re-grouted, re-painted and another whole lot of problems that we probably aren't even aware of. When was the last time anything happened at Old trafford whilst over the last 10 years we have watch most rivals and also foreign teams continually improving their stadium and experience for supporters. But, whatvthe fans want is far from what is in the Glazers mind.
 

Adamsk7

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Thing is, updating the stadium brings no financial gain for the Glazers. To them, it’s wasted money - people want to see the team and ultimately they’d sit in pig shit to do so.

OT does NEED a huge update from a spectators perspective though. Compared to the Emirates and Spurs new stadium that I’ve been to recently, it’s quite shocking the difference.
 

DickDastardly

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Fecking hell, bunch of pansies.

Cramped?! Well that's how it's supposed to be!

If you can't take an hour and a half of standing - yelling your lungs out - and celebrating with complete strangers who share your passion for the club, then feck it, just return the ticket.

If anything, i'd make it smaller, and bring back the standing stand.
 

TrustInOle

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Thing is, updating the stadium brings no financial gain for the Glazers. To them, it’s wasted money - people want to see the team and ultimately they’d sit in pig shit to do so.

OT does NEED a huge update from a spectators perspective though. Compared to the Emirates and Spurs new stadium that I’ve been to recently, it’s quite shocking the difference.
Agree completely with your point. Unless it benefits the Glazers, nothing gets put into this club by them. Literally being left behind in all aspects of football, but they won't care till it affect revenue, sponsorship ect.
 

stubie

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I’ve expressed my opinion on this subject a few times but the bottom line is the stadium is outdated, looks ugly, had weeds sticking out when I went on a ground tour.

That’s why I’m in favour of going down the Spurs route but it needs Bin Salman’s resources to achieve that.
 

Pexbo

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Old Trafford is good but with another 30-50 millions investment they can really re-decorate it well so it wouldn't look out of pace with other modern ones.

We can keep the basic as it is but just few contemporary touches along with gaint screens would do
It doesn’t need redecorating, it needs fundamental and structural redevelopment.