Sir Jim Ratcliffe has broken his silence on whether he wants a new stadium for Manchester United instead of Old Trafford.
Ratcliffe was officially announced to have taken over as part-owner of Manchester United on Tuesday night.
It’s an exciting time for Manchester United, with many changes ahead. One of these changes may include Old Trafford.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has finally broken his silence on what his plans are for a new ground.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe on Old Trafford
Ratcliffe told club media: “If you look at our role at Manchester United, there are two key issues that we have to address,” began the Failsworth-born INEOS chief.
“One is the football, which is performance on the field really, which is always going to be our priority with Manchester United.
“But the second one, the second big issue really in the club, which a lot of people talk about and are conscious of, is where the stadium sits today.
“I mean, it’s an impressive stadium and it’s the largest Premier League stadium in the country – the second-largest stadium in the country to Wembley, I suppose,” he said.
“But it’s not quite of the standard you would expect of Manchester United today and it’s fallen behind. Maybe 20 years ago, it was [at the standard], but today, it’s fallen behind.”
“We do need to look at the way forward for the stadium, the redevelopment of that stadium, and that there are clearly two roads we could take: we could refurbish the existing stadium or we could look at building a new stadium. And that’s what we’re looking at, at the moment.”
What’s Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s preference?
In another interview with the BBC, Ratcliffe added that building a new stadium would be his ideal: “If it can be achieved, it would clearly be my preference. I would be very excited for the north of England.”
“Trafford Park is where the industrial revolution began. If you look at that region of Manchester today – only a mile from the centre – it is tired and neglected and parts are quite run down.
“There is quite a big argument, in my view, for regenerating that whole south side of Manchester. The nucleus of it would be building a new world-class state-of-the-art stadium which could take England games, the FA Cup final, Champions League finals. It could serve the north of England.
“There is a bias in the UK in terms of where national stadiums have been built – they are all in the south. There is a lot of talk about levelling up. HS2 has been cancelled and all that is going to be spent on the rail network in London. The people in the north pay their taxes just as the people in the south.
“Why shouldn’t there be a venue in the north of England for England to play at? Why does everyone in the north have to go to the south for the semi-finals of the FA Cup?”
Interesting. Sir Jim wants a new stadium. That will ruffle a few Manchester United fans’ feathers, but is probably the correct decision… what do you think?
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