New Manchester United investors Ineos are doing their best to unwind the damage done to the club, and it is not easy.
Trying to get the sporting performances on the pitch right is just part of the puzzle for Ineos. There are huge tasks at hand to improve and overhaul the club’s infrastructure.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe and co. have a once in a lifetime chance to make a decision on a new stadium. It is a legacy defining project for the billionaire.
Ineos have been exploring whether to build a new stadium. This would be the most costly option, and is the most ambitious. It is also the most controversial from a historical perspective.
New Man Utd stadium
A consultation has been ongoing, with Manchester United publishing the results of a fan survey.
52 per cent of supporters voted for a new stadium. 31 voted for renovation of the existing Old Trafford, and 17 voted ‘don’t know’.
It is enough for Ineos to justify moving ahead with a new stadium, the largest percentage of voters backing the project. If it had been 90 per cent against, for instance, the project may have stopped in its tracks.
It is not an overwhelming majority though, opinion is still split.
Walking away from Old Trafford is not something Manchester United can take lightly.
This is a stadium with decades of history, graced by some of the greatest players in world football, club legends from George Best and Bobby Charlton, to Eric Cantona and Wayne Rooney.
Old Trafford survived World War Two. Yet it may not survive the Glazers.
Changing stadiums
Leaving Old Trafford is the reluctant choice. No Manchester United fan is desperate to walk away from years of history, to swap the fabric of the club to chance on starting from scratch at a soulless new arena.
Yet it is a decision fans are willing to sign off on, because there is an acceptance it needs to happen, for Manchester United to be back at the top.
Manchester United proclaim to be the biggest club in the world. And while the current Old Trafford may have the biggest capacity of any club stadium in England, it is not the best stadium by any measure.
United are being left behind. Old Trafford is creaking. We have all seen the clips of seats coming off their hinges, of rain pouring like a waterfall from the roof. It is embarrassing.
Owners the Glazers have failed to invest in the stadium over the past two decades, to show any commitment to any kind of innovation or improvement.
If they had arrived in 2005 with desire to invest, like Ineos have shown in 2024, we may not be in this position.
Years of neglect have piled on the problems, and made the need for improvement more pressing, and more expensive. If there had been continual renovation and changes over the past 20 years, the question of a new stadium would not even be being asked.
Now it has, and Manchester United fans have indicated a desire to move. This sounds good in theory, yet will be painful and sad in reality, a leap into the unknown. Necessarily, yet avoidable.
The vote from the fans for a new stadium is a recognition of need, rather than want, and a fear that renovation at this point simply won’t be enough.
It is a damning verdict on the Glazers and their lack of activity and care, since taking over as custodians of the club. This wasn’t a decision fans wanted to have to make.
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