- Man United hope to keep their famous stadium despite £2bn new build plan
Gareth Edwards hit the nail on the head when he spoke to my colleague Riath Al-Samarrai in February at Cardiff Arms Park, the scene of his iconic try for the Barbarians against the All Blacks in 1973.
‘I went over in the corner and I’m not sure what’s there now — it might be a toilet,’ Edwards said in the interview.
It was meant in jest but the point is a serious one. When you bulldoze a stadium, you bury a piece of history too. The Arms Park was redeveloped in the 80s and Edwards can no longer locate the exact point where he grounded the greatest try ever scored.
The pitch may only have moved a few metres here or there, but the exact co-ordinates have been lost; locations distorted, memories diluted.
That, essentially, was the dilemma facing Manchester United when they looked at a brand new £2billion stadium. For all the benefits of a state-of-the-art arena built within the broader footprint of Old Trafford, there was no getting away from the fact that the some of the club’s heritage would disappear beneath the rubble.
Man United are looking at building a new £2bn stadium – but Old Trafford could be preserved
Yes, you can relocate statues and the monuments to Munich, but it would never be quite the same for many fans. They couldn’t bear to see Old Trafford disappear completely from the Manchester skyline, even if it paved the way for a new stadium that would allow United to protect their status as one of the biggest clubs in the world.
United fans are not alone in that sense, of course. Survey the football landscape and so many great English football grounds have been lost in the name of progress. Every supporter of every club will have their own view on whether it was worth it.
But what United are now proposing is quite unique in English football: build a new stadium next door to Old Trafford but keep the essence of the old one for posterity.
Keep the Munich clock and tunnel where they are. Keep the statues to Sir Matt Busby, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jimmy Murphy, Sir Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best on the spot where they were erected. Keep the memories intact.
The stadium would me modified but it has always been a work in progress anyway. When it opened in 1910, Old Trafford’s capacity was around 80,000. By the 80s that had dropped to 60,000 and then 44,000 when it became all-seater after the Hillsborough Disaster. It went up again when the current Sir Alex Ferguson Stand was expanded for Euro 96.
If United don’t have the finance to build a new stadium, Old Trafford will be redeveloped at a cost of roughly £1billion. So change is coming either way.
But the preference is clearly to create a 100,000-capacity Wembley of the North, and it’s a plan that ensures the best of both worlds: a new stadium that will allow United to catch up their rivals while preserving the heritage of the club.
Old Trafford will remain as a monument to more than a hundred years of history. Fans can still look upon the pitch where their heroes of yesteryear played. And what better stage for the youth academy than the home of the Busby Babes? In the short term, it means United can stay and play at Old Trafford rather than relocating elsewhere.
Keeping Old Trafford will allow the club to retain the iconic trinity statue outside the stadium
There will be debates about finance, both private and public, for a club owned by billionaires. Naming rights will be discussed. Applications for government funding and council planning. But that’s for another day.
United have a vision that embraces the future and protects the past. If it’s feasible, Old Trafford will rise again, greater than ever.
