Manchester United officially announced its intention to leave Old Trafford, their house for more than 100 years and move into a new stadium.
The proposal was unveiled on Tuesday and was supported by former manager Sir Alex Ferguson. The proposed arena of 100,000 places would exceed Wembley as the largest in the United Kingdom.
He follows the recommendations made by the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force – created over a year ago – and a series of fans’ consultations.
The other option on the table was to redevelop the existing stadium, but the English champions of 20 times have chosen to move to a new house. A source told ESPN that the club would not need to play a game far from Old Trafford during the end of the works.
“Today marks the start of an incredibly exciting trip to the delivery of what will be the largest football stadium in the world, at the center of a regenerated Old Trafford,” said Sir Jim Ratcliffe the co -owner on Tuesday.
“Our current stadium has used us brilliantly in the past 115 years, but it has been late on the best arenas of world sport.
“By building alongside the existing site, we will be able to preserve the essence of Old Trafford, while creating a truly ultramodern stage which transforms the experience of fans only of our historic house.”
Old Trafford, which has a capacity of 76,000 after the last expansion in 2006, was opened in 1910. The plan of United would see a new stadium built on the same site in Manchester with a potential capacity of 100,000, which makes it the largest stadium in the United Kingdom.
Sources have told ESPN that the intention to keep Old Trafford as a home for the women’s team and the youth teams were explored but ultimately overthrown.
The new stadium should be in a wider redevelopment of the area, which could see the construction of 17,000 new houses.
Ferguson, the oldest director of United, said the club was “courageous” to decide to move away from Old Trafford.
“Manchester United should always seek the best in everything it does, on and off the field, and that includes the stadium in which we play,” said Ferguson.
“Old Trafford holds so many special memories for me personally, but we must be courageous and seize this opportunity to build a new house, adapted to the future, where a new story can be made.”
The announcement occurred a few days after thousands of United Fans paraded to protest the club’s property in the face of cost discounts, the price price and continuous failure on the ground.
United is the majority belonging to the American Glazer family, who also owns the Buccaneers of Tampa Bay.
During the investment, Ratcliffe promised to bring back the formerly dominant club to the top of European football after more than a decade since they won the Premier League for the last time.
But his first year in charge of operations was turbulent. United endured its worst Premier League season last year and is about to set a new hollow this quarter, the team currently languishing in the lower half of the classification.
United wants the place to be a wider project to regenerate the surrounding Trafford region, which he said was worth 7.3 billion pounds sterling ($ 9.4 billion) to the British economy. The British government has already expressed its support for the project, although the details of how they are funded are not known.
British architect Norman Foster was appointed designer.
Wembley is currently the largest stadium in the United Kingdom, with a capacity of 90,000, and houses the national football team of England.
Twickenham, which houses the national rugby team, holds 82,500.
Old Trafford is the largest dedicated football stadium in the country, but it is dated compared to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London, which regularly hosts NFL matches.
The information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
