Manchester United plan to build a new $2.59 billion 100,000-seat stadium that will be the biggest in Britain, next to the existing Old Trafford, the club announced yesterday.
The stadium is expected to be completed in five years, the Premier League side added.
“Today marks the start of an incredibly exciting journey to the delivery of what will be the world’s greatest football stadium, at the centre of a regenerated Old Trafford,” United’s co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said in a statement.
The British billionaire had been open about his desire for a new, state-of-the-art “Wembley of the north” since he became a minority owner in February of last year, and the club have been studying whether to redevelop the existing stadium, which has been the club’s home since 1910, or build a new one.
United appointed Foster+Partners in September to develop a masterplan for the area around Old Trafford as part of a regeneration project.
The club unveiled architectural designs for the new stadium, which will feature an umbrella design, at an event yesterday morning in London.
“This has to be one of the most exciting projects in the world today,” Norman Foster, Foster+Partners’ executive chairman, said in a statement. “It all starts with the fans’ experience, bringing them closer than ever to the pitch and acoustically cultivating a huge roar.
“The stadium is contained by a vast umbrella, harvesting energy and rainwater, and sheltering a new public plaza that is twice the size of Trafalgar Square.”
Foster was optimistic that they could speed up the building process by utilising the region’s canal network.
“Normally a stadium would take 10 years to build,” Foster said. “We halve that time. Five years.
“How do we do that? By prefabrication. By using the network of Manchester Ship Canal. Bringing it back to a new life, shipping in components, 160 of them...”
United say the project could create as many as 92,000 new jobs and will lead to the construction of 17,000 homes, and will be worth an additional 7.3 billion pounds per year to the British economy.
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