MIPIM | Man United’s new-build stadium is right choice, says Trafford leader
Cllr Tom Ross said the club’s decision to build a new 100,000-capacity stadium next to the existing Old Trafford ground will help to maximise the regeneration potential of the wider area and attract investment.
Manchester United has today revealed it has appointed Foster + Partners to design the much-talked-about project and that it has eschewed the option of redeveloping the ground it has called home for more than 100 years in favour of a new ground likely to cost around £2bn.
Featuring a public plaza bigger than Trafalgar Square and a “vast umbrella” structure, the stadium is billed by Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Radcliffe as having the potential to be “the greatest in the world”.
The project sits at the heart of Trafford Council’s plans to deliver transformational change across more than 300 acres around the stadium.
“This is incredibly exciting news for Manchester United, but also for Trafford as well,” Cllr Ross told Place North West at MIPIM.
“I know the club went through some significant engagement over the last few months and I feel that they’ve listened to what the overall message was. A new stadium brings so much potential, so much investment potential to that area.”
He added: “We’re so proud that they’ve made that decision to build a new stadium, remaining attached to the Old Trafford area.”
The stadium forms part of a wider regeneration project focused on the Wharfside area of the borough. It has the potential to generate £7.3bn per year to the UK economy and is arguably the country’s largest ever regeneration schemes.
The ambition is to deliver 17,000 homes around the ground, and it is this element of the project that the Leader is most excited about.
“We’re looking at what opportunities there are for our residents, for our businesses, things that we can do with a sports-led regeneration project like the one that they’re proposing now,” he said.
Cllr Ross said the council would be collaborating with its partners, including the club, to ensure the opportunity is maximised.
“We’ll be working very closely with Manchester United, with our neighbours in Salford City Council, with wider landowners and strategic partners in the area to make sure that we realise our Wharfside masterplan.”
When asked about what he would like to see the club do with its existing ground, Cllr Ross deferred to Manchester United but added that the owners would have Trafford’s support in making the decision.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, co-owner of Manchester United, said the announcement marks “the start of an incredibly exciting journey to the delivery of what will be the world’s greatest football stadium”.
“Our current stadium has served us brilliantly for the past 115 years, but it has fallen behind the best arenas in world sport. By building next to the existing site, we will be able to preserve the essence of Old Trafford, while creating a truly state-of-the-art stadium that transforms the fan experience, only footsteps from our historic home.”
Manchester United’s plans for a new ground will be dependent on securing land from various neighbouring sites and funding.
Ratcliffe said the opportunity for a new stadium would be a “catalyst” for wider growth.
“Just as important is the opportunity for a new stadium to be the catalyst for social and economic renewal of the Old Trafford area, creating jobs and investment, not just during the construction phase, but on a lasting basis when the stadium district is complete. The government has identified infrastructure investment as a strategic priority, particularly in the north of England, and we are proud to be supporting that mission with this project of national, as well as local, significance.”
Lord Norman Foster, founder and executive chairman at Foster + Partners, gave a flavour of what to expect.
“It all starts with the fans’ experience, bringing them closer than ever to the pitch and acoustically cultivating a huge roar,” he said.
“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.
“The outward-looking stadium will be the beating heart of a new sustainable district, which is completely walkable, served by public transport, and endowed by nature. It is a mixed-use miniature city of the future – driving a new wave of growth and creating a global destination that Mancunians can be proud.”
- Click any image to launch gallery. Credit for all images: Foster + Partners
Related Articles
Analysis
VIDEO | Leveraging investment to drive growth in Bury
Like many local authorities across the country, Bury Council is on a mission to breathe new life into its town centres. Chief executive Lynne Ridsdale spoke to Place North West about how her organisation is funding that vision.
The circus is in town appropriately.
By Anonymous
Biggest development story of MIPIM week but not announced at MIPIM.
By Bob Allatt
Hi Bob, you’re not wrong, but our story is led by the response of Trafford Council’s leader to the new-build decision, having spoken to him at MIPIM this morning. Thanks, Neil
By Neil Tague
If they manage to build this it will be an amazing achievement. Its not to my taste but its certainly better than what is there now and maybe it will grow on me. Very curious about the financing here – dont think the government should be involved at all in paying for the stadium but the wider development may be a profitable opportunity. Also very interested in the station redesign. There has been a lot of appetite for the construction of an iconic skyline building in Manchester – I did not think that would be a stadium. Feel like even with the 5 year construction timeline there are so many areas to address before they get anywhere near starting. Good luck to them
By H
Regardless of the stadium design, this yet further shows how embarrassing this nation is outside of London because the ambition and scale of such a masterplan could rival those of any big league international city and yet the difference being that those cities would have in place multi-billion pound mass transit systems to accommodate such numbers (or be construction the necessary infrastructure required) yet here in the UK we will proposed a 100,000 stadium and 17,000 new homes with the Design and Access strategy referring to a couple of bus stops and a tram line that runs two carriages every 15 minutes as being ample enough. It’s going to take decades to realise anything of the likes as those images and yet you can guarantee there’ll not be so much of a whimper of suggesting investment in transport in that time frame.
By Anonymous
Needs a proper Wembley style redevelopment here to make the surrounding area a proper destination for people and tourists to live, eat, work and play
By Anonymous
Are they really going to build a giant circus tent? Send in the clowns.
By Dom
Somewhere between a middle eastern world expo folly and the pavilion at Butlin’s
By Anon
Expect it to look nothing like this – thankfully!
By Anonymous
At last, some world class architecture in Manchester’s redevelopment!
By Justin
Definitely the right decision. If you look at Wembley, and the area around it, it is a perfect model for what Old (New) Trafford could be. If the CGI’s are accurate (I know, big if), that stadium will be unique, iconic, and create a great area for people to work and live. I’m not a United fan, however I am a fan of football and progress, and that redevelopment will do wonders for both club and city.
By MC
Certainly is the right idea to build a new stadium but it looks like it’s been plucked out of a desert in the Middle East. A new big top for the circus and clowns at Man United.
By Dover
“The outward-looking stadium will be the beating heart of a new sustainable district, which is completely walkable, served by public transport, and endowed by nature. It is a mixed-use miniature city of the future – driving a new wave of growth and creating a global destination that Mancunians can be proud.”
As long as they don’t expect taxpayers to put one penny towards it, fine, have your circus tent.
By John
a giant circus tent to house all the clowns
By Scott Chegg
I thought Manchester United were hoping to move away from the perception that their club was a circus?
By Andrew Powell
Couldn’t agree more with H & Anon – whilst I have misgivings about the stadium’s appearance, it’s an ambitious vision. A world class arena; new life to the canals; mid density housing; even the landscape design looks a step change for Manchester.
Unfortunately, I have to be the voice of cynicism. Whilst the new stadium could be erected within 5 years, I’d be amazed if business cases for the new railway station & metrolink lines could be done within 5 years, let alone spades in the ground.
By Anonymous
Getting past all the circus jibes from Citeh and Liverpool fans, this is simply STUNNING! I hope the final result will carry through from these CGI’s!
By IMHO
No coincidence that it looks like something from a middle eastern desert. Needs to be attractive to the next owners
By Council Tax Payer
Just another remarkable story about the onward march of Manchester.It is nothing short of miraculous what is happening there, and it does not show any signs of slowing down. More billionaires than the capital of Germany, two stadia which are world class, two arenas, and that is excluding the city centre, the building of bigger and higher structures, announced almost daily. The transport infrastructure is, totally inadequate now, and if Burnham gets the power he needs, he can get a grip of that, because it is woeful at present, apart from that, we are looking at an astonishing renaissance. Reeves and Starmer need to get out more from the South East bubble, if they really want to level up this country, the only way is Manchester.
By Elephant
I was hoping for something more substantial and impactful like the Bird’s Nest stadium in China. Tent designs always seem a bit flimsy and involve lot of technical structure to achieve. As for the interior – again – four sharp corners and a lack of imagination. Was Lord Foster in a hurry with this one?
By Send in the Designs
Once this is finished this will be the biggest and best stadium in the Championship League!!
By Egg
I see the ‘jokes’ have been rehearsed and synchronised…ooh it ‘looks like a circus tent ‘ god bless em not an original thought between em!😂
By Johnny Notbright
It’ll take 20 years to get realised and it will look nothing like the image (thankfully).
By Anon
Well , it’s always nice to have an initial design even if it will bear no relation to reality. Impressive in its own way though and you have to have ambition if you’re starting from scratch.
By Anonymous
Bring fans closer than ever to the pitch? Security issues there.
By Francis
If they pull this off it will make city’s monolithic recent addition seem like small beer. Glad however to see the scale of ambition at both clubs . Really helping to drive Manchester like almost nowhere else.
By Anonymous
And shifting the two rail container terminals out west, and linking them to other southward-pointing lines and many motorways will free the Castlefield Corridor (two-line viaduct between Piccadilly and Castlefield/Deansgate) from freight trains and so part-solve the Manchester/North West passenger train bottleneck. Killing two-birds with one big stone. That will be champion.
By Anonymous
Just thought I’d be original too and compare it to a circus tent like all the other jesters here. LOL – good one guys. 😉
By Clown