Manchester United has released its Q3 financial report, and much of it makes for interesting reading. Alongside the club reporting an operating profit of £37.7 million, and agreeing new contracts for star first team players Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo, Manchester United state “Work continues behind the scenes on our ambition to build a new 100,000 seater stadium“.
The financial report is pretty good news for United – bar having to pay a whopping £16.7 million to axed manager Ruben Amorim – but what we’re really interested in is that tiny bullet point that reassures fans things are positively moving forward in terms of the huge new stadium set to replace Old Trafford.
Although it’ll likely be a while before we see those wild spires poking up through the south west Manchester skyline, the financial report provides some hope for the project moving forward – and with a healthy profit reported, things like this are much more feasible.
New Manchester United stadium plans
The 100,000-seater stadium (beating Wembley Stadium’s capacity of 90,000) is set to be the centrepiece of the regeneration of the Old Trafford area.
The stadium, and wider regeneration project, have the potential to deliver an additional £7.3bn per year to the UK economy 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.
Once construction is complete, the club’s existing Old Trafford home will be demolished – it has been Manchester United’s home since 1910.
Conceptual images and scaled models of what the new stadium and surrounding area could look like have been released by Foster + Partners, the architecture group appointed to design the stadium district.
Old Trafford Regeneration Mayoral Development Corporation
Mayoral Development Corporations (MDCs) are statutory bodies set up by the mayor, designed to speed up development and attract investment within a specific area. They represent a significant part of the devolved powers in Greater Manchester.
According to Trafford Council, the MDC will support the ambitions for the new, world-class football stadium for Manchester United as part of the wider infrastructure and regeneration of the area. The Old Trafford Regeneration scheme is set to be the biggest sports-led regeneration project since London 2012, and the MDC will bring together the expertise and the drive to make it a success.
This should mean that the new Manchester United stadium should be fast-tracked, ensuring the project moves along and the club can move in as soon as possible. As always, we’ll keep you updated.