Old Trafford Redevelopment — Man Utd Start Work At Old Trafford Ahead Of New Season

The Daily Telegraph reported in February that Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants to create a new stadium for United, who have spent the last 114 years at Old Trafford, which holds nearly 74,000 spectators.

The plan, according to the report, would see United create a ‘Wembley of the North’ to rival the 90,000-seater national stadium in north London.

Billionaire Ratcliffe, who founded the INEOS group and acquired a 25 per cent stake of United for a fee of £1.2bn at the end of 2023, then set up the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force, putting himself as chair. Other members in the task force include Lord Coe, Gary Neville and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Plans to improve Old Trafford before building a new structure

Manchester United have begun to make summer upgrades to Old Trafford ahead of the new season.

There is currently a screen erected beside the Megastore at Old Trafford, which prevents public access to the turnstile area beneath the North East corner.

The South West Quad and North West Quad will be given a new lick of paint and a rubbish skip was spotted outside the away team turnstiles near the Munich Tunnel.

United sources privately conceded ‘some parts of the stadium struggled to cope’ but reiterated that Ratcliffe has created an Old Trafford task force to address such issues.

It’s understood the task force will conclude their findings by the end of the summer and the early expectation is that will come no later than the end of July.

Once the best course of action, whether to revamp or rebuild, is decided and the implications for the regeneration project are considered, there will be movement.

In February, Ratcliffe declared his preference to rebuild Old Trafford and said: “In an ideal world, I think it’s a no-brainer, a stadium of the north, which would be a world-class stadium where England could play and you could have the FA Cup final and it’s not all centred around the south of England.

“So in other words, the fans could come there and do some stuff. So include the campus in both cases, in very simple terms you are talking about one versus two [billion].

“I think the refurb would take longer than the new one because it’s more complicated because obviously you’re building and you have to build over a main railway line which is quite complicated and expensive.”

Manchester United are pressing ahead with plans to restructure the footballing operations department at Old Trafford following investment from Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS Group.

His £1.25billion deal was formalised on Christmas Eve and subsequently ratified by the Premier League in February.