The majority of Manchester United fans are in favour of building a new stadium at Old Trafford, a study conducted by the club has found.
A task force chaired by Lord Sebastian Coe including mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham and former club captain Gary Neville among others, was established earlier this year to explore options for the future of the club’s home, including either redeveloping the existing structure or building a new stadium entirely.
A deadline of December 31 has been set to deliver a report outlining the task force’s final recommendations for the project.
Ahead of that United commissioned a survey of more than 50,000 supporters including season ticket holders, members and executive club members to gauge their views.
The results reveal that the 52 per cent of those polled said they are in favour of a new-build stadium at Old Trafford with redevelopment of the existing stadium preferred by 31 per cent of fans. 17 per cent declared themselves unsure, the club said.
Rick McGagh, the club’s director of fan engagement, said: “We know how important our home is to fans and we need to listen to them and gain all their views and insights in order to develop the world-class stadium they deserve.
“We are able to view the results through different lenses to understand if our season ticket holders feel differently about anything than say our official members. And if younger fans have different views to older fans. This insight is incredibly helpful and allows the project team to understand the differences as well as the commonality in our fanbase.”
Fans back new stadium but questions remain over plans
Analysis from Manchester United correspondent Mark Critchley
That a majority of United supporters favour a new stadium over redeveloping Old Trafford may come as a surprise to some, but many fans are happy with starting from scratch so long as their new home is right next door.
Staying on the club-owned land around Old Trafford — United’s home since 1910 — is complicated though, hence why part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe appointed a task force to investigate how best to do it.
United have also entered a partnership with Trafford Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority, to align their plans with the local authorities who are seeking to regenerate the surrounding area.
The task force are set to deliver their recommendations on whether to build a new stadium or redevelop Old Trafford by the end of the year, at which point it will up to the club to make a decision on how to proceed.
Funding remains the biggest question mark, whichever option they choose. United have been at pains to point out that any public money would only be used for transport and infrastructure costs related to the wider regeneration project rather than the stadium.
But with United short on cash and the cost of a new build estimated at £2billion or more, that leaves quite a shortfall to make up. Taking on more debt, selling naming rights, or Ratcliffe putting his hand in his pocket after already injecting $300m — nothing can be ruled out yet. We will likely only know how they plan to proceed in the new year.
(Michael Regan/Getty Images)
