Man Utd unveil plans to build new 100,000-seater stadium to replace Old Trafford with Sir Jim Ratcliffe
11/03/2025
11/03/2025
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00:00Morning ladies and gentlemen, thanks for coming. Fairly short for me. We're obviously going
00:10to talk about a new stadium and I think you'll find the next hour fascinating. I've certainly
00:16found this process over the last 3 or 4 months fascinating and enjoyable. But if I can set
00:22the scene first, in January the government announced its growth plans for this term of
00:31which there were 3 main pillars. There was the new runway at Heathrow, there was the
00:37Oxford Cambridge Silicon Valley corridor, but thirdly was the regeneration of Southern
00:43Manchester, Old Trafford, which was the origins of the Industrial Revolution a couple of hundred
00:49years ago. And that regeneration scheme, if it proceeds, will be the largest regeneration
00:56scheme in Europe. And Rachel Reeves described it as a shining example of growth plans for
01:03the country. Past governments have sponsored a number of these regeneration schemes but
01:10they've all predominantly been in and around London. We've obviously had the Olympic Village
01:15which Sev was very much at the heart of, Canary Wharf, King's Cross, Wembley, O2, a
01:27whole series of regeneration schemes. There have been one or two smaller ones in the North
01:31but nothing of the scale of what we've seen in London. But this will be the first of this
01:38scale in the North of England. So with a project of this scale, a regeneration project
01:49of this scale, it needs to have a catalyst or a nucleus otherwise it just becomes a new
01:56housing estate with a shopping centre. And the reason we're here today is that the club,
02:06Manchester United, would like to announce that we will underpin the government's growth
02:12plans with a new stadium. But it's not just a new stadium, it's a bit more than just a
02:20new stadium, because it's obvious that the more iconic or the more extraordinary that
02:27the stadium is, the more successful the regeneration scheme will be. And I think a really good
02:33example is the Eiffel Tower. Everyone around the world knows of the Eiffel Tower and I'm
02:38sure there are many people here who've visited the Eiffel Tower. You go to Paris, you stay
02:42in a hotel, you spend money. We have one billion people around the world who follow Manchester
02:49United and they will all want to visit this stadium. You will see the design in a moment
02:56and you can take your own view as to how iconic you think it is. But I think everybody in
03:03the world who's interested in football, who's interested in Manchester United will want
03:07to come and visit this stadium. I think it will create enormous value for the north of
03:12England and for Manchester and Oxford Economics, who've done a study on it, reckon that that
03:18would be in the region of seven billion pounds per annum. United is the world's favourite
03:28football club in my view. It's arguably the biggest and it deserves a stadium befitting
03:33of its stature. The Premier League is indisputably the best football league in the world, maybe
03:39the best sports league in the world, and it must have a stadium that's at least the equal
03:44of the best in Europe. And today it has some great stadiums but it doesn't have a Bernabeu
03:48and it doesn't have a Nou Camp. They're bigger and more impressive I think than the stadiums
03:53that we have in the Premier League today. The north of England has won ten Champions
03:59League medals and London has won two, but London's got Wembley. And also London has
04:07got Twickenham and London has got Wimbledon and London has got the Olympic Village. And
04:14I think the north of England deserves to have a stadium where England can play football,
04:20where we can hold the Champions League final and it should be a stadium that's befitting
04:25of Manchester United's stature. If the government really gets behind this regeneration scheme
04:34then we, with Norman Foster's vision, normally my view as the greatest architect in the world,
04:41we will build an iconic football stadium. Thank you.
04:54Thank you very much Jim. I think we can all agree that it's incredibly exciting and as
04:58you said will bring huge benefits, not just for Manchester but the entire region. To speak
05:05more about that and the work of the task force over the last year, we will now welcome on
05:10stage Seb Coe.
05:17Thank you and Jim, thank you for setting the scene. When I received the phone call from
05:24Jim getting on for about a year ago, it was one of those globe wobbling moments as a current
05:32holder of four Chelsea season tickets, somebody who'd been supporting the club, I was born
05:39a few streets away from here, somebody who'd been supporting the club since 1967. It was
05:45really one of those moments. I know that actually I'm not the only one on the task force with
05:53a few affiliate challenges because the supremely talented, hard-working mayor of Manchester,
06:01Andy Burnham, is of course a toffee and I guess that's my sort of slightly tongue-in-cheek
06:08segue into a more important point and that is the extraordinary and borderless nature
06:16of this project, that people from all affiliations, all walks of life have come together, particularly
06:24in the guise of the task force, which I'm very honoured to be chairing, to really drive
06:30a project that has value way, way beyond the curtilage of a football ground or even a small
06:38element of a city. I will go to my grave knowing the most potent social worker in all our communities
06:44is sport, but I will also know that if you create around a sporting hub the infrastructure
06:54and the ambition to think big, you really can transform a neighbourhood. I don't want
07:00to belabour the London story, but I think Jim you mentioned it and it is just worth
07:07for a few moments pondering on what was achieved in East London on exactly the same premise.
07:15This was 520 hectares of land that was in large part devoid of economic activity for
07:23the best part of 60 or 70 years and around sporting infrastructure we have created a
07:29landscape where we built a new city inside an old city in seven years. Attached to that
07:37are homes, jobs, businesses, educational establishments and the largest retail development area in
07:45Europe for 25 years. Actually this project in Manchester built around the reconstruction
07:55of a football stadium has the potential to be bigger and I think that was the recognition
08:01that was dawning on all of us as members of the taskforce and I'm delighted that we've
08:07got many of those members here today when we recognise that this really did have the
08:12potential to be what we believe it will be, which is currently the most potent and the
08:19largest driving force around regeneration and sport anywhere in Europe. We are all going
08:25to be in the south of France tomorrow at Mippin talking in exactly those terms, but the challenge
08:32here is extraordinary and the consultation that has taken place, Jim I know is going
08:38to talk a little bit more about the work we've done with the fans, but the consultation
08:42around local communities is also really extraordinary. Of the 1,200 people that we have consulted
08:51and spoken to, overwhelming positive nature of what they see can be the changes to that
08:58community, to jobs, to houses, to visitor values, to the very nature of ambition particularly
09:05amongst young people in what we know to be one of the hardest pressed areas. So this
09:10project is an extraordinary project, it is based around sport which gives me great satisfaction
09:18because the biggest and the most powerful regeneration projects I've witnessed in the
09:23last 30 or 40 years that I've in some ways been involved with or actually witnessed are
09:29built around sport and I will be forever proud that sport is the real catalyst for this.
09:37The challenges are profound, we don't sit there thinking that we've anywhere near scoped
09:44the full project, but it will be in concert with local communities because the most important
09:51client group you ever have are not people like me or the chairs or the owners of football
09:55clubs, it's those communities that you are looking to create greater and further opportunities
10:02and through sport that is open, it's applicable and people understand it. So I can tell you
10:08as chair of the task force I'm delighted to be working with some of the most visionary
10:14people that really do understand the Manchester landscape and are driving an ambition that
10:20sits in the bucket called big and that's the way it should be. Manchester United is
10:26one of the biggest sporting properties in the world, it deserves a stadium that befits
10:32that status and it is really important as somebody that was brought up in the north
10:39of England that we absolutely drive those opportunities. It's not about the economics
10:46of displacement, it is simply about what we can do through sport to help engage local
10:52communities and forever drive up those ambitions. So Jim, thank you for giving me that opportunity
10:59and I'm delighted to be here today and thank you to the task force for being here as well.
11:06Thank you guys for joining me up on stage, well that's the best place to start Jim, that
11:11is incredible, I'm sure you've seen it so many times that video but it's still inspiring
11:16every time you do see it and it has been a journey to get to this point, tell us more
11:22in detail how you arrived at this decision. Well it just started from the point that we
11:29needed a stadium which befitted the stature of Manchester United and Manchester United,
11:34I mean obviously there's a degree of bias because I was brought up in Manchester, I've
11:38always been a fan of Manchester United but I think it is the greatest football club in
11:42the world, it's certainly the most well known football club in the world and it needs a
11:45stadium of that stature I think. It's more challenging obviously to build a stadium of
11:52100,000 but I think the UK needs a stadium of that sort of presence and the north of
12:00England I think is the best place to build it and I just think it will become recognised
12:07throughout the world and at the end of the day that will also help Manchester United
12:11obviously. The design is absolutely incredible. Seb of course you've mentioned it before,
12:16you led the task force on the project and you produced a detailed options report to
12:22the club and to local government executives, can you talk us through the process of that
12:27and how you arrived then at the conclusions of the report? Yeah I mean in simple terms
12:32the task force represents all that is good in Manchester, it's across the business community,
12:39it's clearly the political leadership of Manchester and the executive teams, we've got two vice
12:46chancellors from local universities, we've got people who are really steeped in urban
12:51planning but have also held us all and the club to a very, very high set of standards.
12:59I made the point just a few moments ago that the one thing that is often overlooked is
13:08that the most important group of people that you are ultimately responsible to are yes
13:15obviously the fan base of any sporting organisation that you're seeking to make adjustments to
13:23but also the community that you're putting that in, I mean neighbourhoods, people, networks
13:32and so we did a lot of work with the fans and actually the chair of the Manchester United
13:41fan group is on the board, Duncan, but we also went out of our way to really understand
13:48what local communities were saying and I can tell you, I've put a bit more meat on the
13:52bones, we surveyed over 1200 people in different groups and very carefully identified as people
14:01that really this project would have an impact on and the overwhelming response was everything
14:07from carbon footprint through to green spaces through to meaningful sustainable jobs, housing,
14:14the creativity around a second and third generation business base and the recognition
14:22that the area could really be turbo charged through the focal point being the football
14:29club and the ambition of the task force. I think, I hope I'm not speaking on behalf of
14:35the task force today in a way, but I think every one of us would agree that we just got
14:40more excited as the project developed and the ambition got bigger and the recognition
14:46that we had a real responsibility to create and carve out some options that would survive
14:53when the rubber hit the road.
14:55That looks amazing as I said and Omar thank you for joining us on stage. How important
15:00is this project for the future that you and your team are building at Manchester United?
15:07Yeah, very important clearly. Our ambition as you heard is to have the best football
15:12teams, men and women's playing in the best stadium and I would add the most iconic football
15:17stadium. As you know we're working very hard to get our finances in order and the best
15:24position possible so that we can invest both on the talent and the pitch as well as our
15:30infrastructure so we started that with the project in Carrington which will be open this
15:33summer. It will be a state of the art training facility. But back to the stadium, a new stadium
15:39as part of the wider regeneration project for us would be a game changer. As you know
15:44we have the biggest stadium in the Premier League but we still can't accommodate for
15:48all the fans that want to come in because we have the most demand. So we'd like to be
15:53able to build a 100,000 capacity stadium to accommodate all the fans, to give them the
15:57best experience, to create the best atmosphere for our fans and for our players and also
16:02to give opportunities to our partners to be able to integrate their brands and their
16:05products in a way that's quite meaningful. So all in all I think this will make a massive
16:09difference for the club. We're excited about it.
16:12Certainly. Thank you Omar. Jim, do you have an idea of timeline at this stage? Lord Foster
16:18speculated that it could be halved. How do you achieve that? How's it done?
16:23I think there are two comments to make on timeline. The first one is that it starts
16:29with a discussion. It depends how quickly the government get going with their regeneration
16:35programme because we underpin a regeneration programme and it's a fundamental part of the
16:42government's commitment to regenerate that area. So in a way it depends how quickly the
16:49government... I think they want to get going quite quickly because they want to see progress
16:54in this term. So I'm assuming that will go well and it will go quickly. The second part
17:03of the answer is that it will be a modular build. There will be an immense amount of
17:08work for the local people of Manchester but the modules which you heard Norman Foster
17:16talk about means that we can build a stadium much more quickly. So there are yards in the
17:24world which specialise in building very large structures which are then shipped to locations
17:30around the world. We have an example of that in Antwerp at the moment where we're building
17:37probably the largest petrochemical facility that's been built for the last 50 years and
17:43it's been built in Abu Dhabi, an Indonesian ship in Thailand and the components are being
17:47shipped in and they weigh 5, 6, 7,000 tonnes each and they come in by ship and then they're
17:53wheeled in on these extraordinary sort of vehicles with a lot of wheels and we will
17:57do the same thing. The thing that allows us to do that of course is the Manchester Ship
18:00Canal. If we didn't have the Manchester Ship Canal we wouldn't be able to do that. So that
18:04halves the time. I think normally if you were building a stadium of 100,000 brand new from
18:09ground up in an area that also needs to be regenerated is a 10 year project but I think
18:15if we get going with the government and I know they're enthusiastic to get going quickly
18:19then I think it's a 5 year project not a 10 year project. It's got those two provisos.
18:23That's amazing. Omar clearly there's still feasibility work to do but at this early stage
18:31how do you think the plans can be financed? Yeah as you say it's still quite early and
18:36also as a PLC we can't speculate too much about the funding but what I would say is
18:42the new stadium as the centrepiece of the wider regeneration project is a very attractive
18:49investment opportunity so we're quite confident that we'll be able to find a way to finance
18:53the stadium. Okay thank you Omar. Seb clearly there's a massive opportunity not just for
18:59the club, you've all touched on it for the community and the region. Can you talk more
19:03about the economic impact of the project? Yeah I can. The one point that I would make
19:11it wasn't the toughest negotiation with Jim when he asked me to do this but one of the
19:16things I really wanted to make clear at the beginning is that I wanted to really and the
19:22task force was very keen to make sure that we were unlocking economic social impacts
19:29that went way beyond the curtilage of the football stadium. Jim's right if you have
19:34a, if you're not careful then you basically only have a new stadium and the rest becomes
19:42a housing project but the interlocking parts here are really important and one of the best
19:47examples of that is the work that we're currently doing about moving the freight yards from
19:54one side of the stadium. That's not just for ease of access and allowing us to optimise
20:01the curtilage of the land, it also frees up everything from housing opportunities, business
20:08opportunities, it moves freight off passenger routes in that part of the North West, commuter
20:20routes as well. And it's really important because the work that Oxford Economics have
20:26done for us has really identified and we really pushed them on this that we wanted this also
20:32to have a regional impact both in supply chains and all the sorts of things that you have
20:37to have together, the operational integration that goes onto into the development of a site
20:43like that. So simply moving the freight allows us or allows government to meet its freight
20:50targets, it will actually add to the ecological advantage of the local area, certainly emissions
20:59as well and allows us to absolutely tap into and unlock other opportunities like fresh
21:05housing and new business opportunities. So that is just one example of why the thinking
21:12around the stadium is so much bigger than simply the delivery of a world-class stadium,
21:18much that it is needed.
21:19Yeah, it's going to have such an impact on all the people of the North of England as
21:23you say. We do have a special guest by way of a video who's going to explain how important
21:30this will be for Manchester and the wider area.
21:35Our common goal on the taskforce has been to try to unlock the full power of the club
21:40for the benefit of its supporters and for Greater Manchester as a whole, creating thousands
21:45of new homes and jobs. If we get this right, the regeneration impact will be bigger and
21:52better than London 2012. Manchester United could and indeed should have the best football
21:58stadium in the world. To me that means one, that it's true to the traditions of the club,
22:04affordable to all with nobody priced out and setting new standards in the game globally.
22:11I believe this vision can be realised and if so, the benefits for Greater Manchester,
22:17the North West and the country will be huge.
22:23Good to hear the thoughts of Andy Burnham. Just before we conclude the questions on the
22:29stage, Jim, can you explain why this project is so important to you and the club?
22:36Yeah, I think it's repetition unfortunately. I mean I've been a lifelong fan of Manchester
22:45United so I do have a bias but everywhere I go in the world, I meet Manchester United
22:54supporters. Irrespective of where I am, there are always Manchester United supporters. A
23:00year or so ago we crossed the border having done a rather arduous trip across the Gobi
23:08Desert. We crossed the border from Mongolia to China in a tiny little dusty town and we
23:16were the first Europeans to have entered China on that border since the lockdown in Covid
23:25and they were not interested in looking at the passport. The only thing they wanted was
23:30to talk about Manchester United and we were in the middle of nowhere. So in my view, it
23:37is the world's favourite club. It is the world's biggest club and I think, because this is
23:44biased, I think it's the world's best club. It's obviously had a difficult period for
23:47the last 12 years but it deserves to have the finest stadium in the world in my view
23:53and that is very much my objective in building a new stadium, that it's the most iconic,
24:01it's the biggest, it's the most iconic, it's the most recognisable.