ManU Building 100K-Seat Stadium, Replacing Old Trafford Home After 115 Years
Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 02:59PM By Barry Janoff
March 11, 2025: Think of the Boston Red Sox moving out of Fenway Park or the Chicago Cubs leaving Wrigley Field for a new stadium.
English Premier League Manchester United said it has “thrown its support behind the Government’s growth agenda by announcing its intention to pursue a new 100,000-seat stadium as the centerpiece of the regeneration of the Old Trafford area.”
The club has played in Old Trafford Stadium, which opened in 1909, since 1910.
The new venue will be built on property adjacent to the current stadium, with a projected opening in five years.
Executives put the cost between £1-2 billion (upward of $2.2 billion U.S.).
“Today marks the start of an incredibly exciting journey to the delivery of what will be the world’s greatest football stadium, at the center of a regenerated Old Trafford,” Sir Jim Ratcliffe, co-owner of Manchester United, said via the club.
“Our current stadium has served us brilliantly for the past 115 years, but it has fallen behind the best arenas in world sport. By building next to the existing site, we will be able to preserve the essence of Old Trafford, while creating a truly state-of-the-art stadium that transforms the fan experience only footsteps from our historic home.”
Old Trafford Stadium seats 74,200, second in the U.K. to Wembley Stadium’s 89,000.
"Normally, if you were building a 100,000-seater stadium from the ground up, in an area that needs to be regenerated, it's a 1ten-year project. But if we get going with the government then I think it's a five-year project, not a ten-year project," Ratcliffe told BBC Sports.
The club plans to build large parts of the stadium off-site before shipping it to the Old Trafford site via the Manchester ship canal. There is no confirmed starting date.
"It will be a modular build — that means it can be built far more quickly,”
The stadium, and a wider regeneration project, “have the potential to deliver an additional £7.3 billion ($8 billion U.S.) per year to the U.K. economy,” according to the team.
“Which brings large-scale social and economic benefits to the community and wider region, including the possible creation of 92,000 new jobs, more than 17,000 new homes as well as driving an additional 1.8 million visitors annually.
“Just as important is the opportunity for a new stadium to be the catalyst for social and economic renewal of the Old Trafford area, creating jobs and investment not just during the construction phase but on a lasting basis when the stadium district is complete,” said Ratcliffe.
“The Government has identified infrastructure investment as a strategic priority, particularly in the north of England, and we are proud to be supporting that mission with this project of national, as well as local, significance.”
Photo Concepts: Manchester United
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