By Lori Ewing
MANCHESTER (Reuters) -Manchester United plan to build a new two billion pound ($2.59 billion) 100,000-seat stadium that will be the biggest in Britain, next to the existing Old Trafford, the club announced on Tuesday.
“Today marks the start of an incredibly exciting journey to the delivery of what will be the world’s greatest football stadium, at the centre of a regenerated Old Trafford,” United’s co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said in a statement.
The British billionaire had been open about his desire for a new, state-of-the-art “Wembley of the north” since he became a minority owner in February of last year, and the club have been studying whether to redevelop the existing stadium, which has been the club’s home since 1910, or build a new one.
United appointed Foster + Partners in September to develop a masterplan for the area around Old Trafford as part of a regeneration project.
The club unveiled architectural designs for the new stadium, which will feature an umbrella design, at an event on Tuesday morning in London.
“This has to be one of the most exciting projects in the world today,” Norman Foster, Foster + Partners’ executive chairman, said in a statement. “It all starts with the fans’ experience, bringing them closer than ever to the pitch and acoustically cultivating a huge roar.
“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 stadium will be part of a wider regeneration of the Old Trafford area, with British finance minister Rachel Reeves recently giving government backing for the plans.
United say the project could create as many as 92,000 new jobs and will lead to the construction of 17,000 homes, and will be worth an additional 7.3 billion pounds per year to the British economy.
Old Trafford has not had any major redevelopment since 2006 and criticism of the 74,879-seat stadium, England’s biggest club ground, has grown in recent years, with issues around its leaking roof and recent rodent sightings.
Despite Old Trafford’s size, the club have fallen behind the likes of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium that host extra events and concerts to boost revenue – similar to what will be seen at Everton, who will leave Goodison Park at season’s end for their new venue at Bramley-Moore Dock.
Arch-rivals Manchester City moved into the Etihad Stadium in 2003 and are in the process of expanding the capacity to more than 60,000.
FAN PROTEST
Old Trafford, which was rebuilt after being heavily damaged in World War Two, was affectionately known as the “Theatre of Dreams,” but has become the stuff of nightmares in recent months, with the team finishing eighth in the Premier League last season and currently languishing 14th.
Thousands of black-clad fans marched to the stadium ahead of United’s draw with Arsenal on Sunday in a protest against majority owners the American Glazer family.
United’s current total debt, including 300 million pounds in outstanding transfer fees, is in excess of 1 billion pounds, and a second round of redundancies that could result in up to 200 people losing their jobs was recently announced. Some 250 employees departed the club last year.
The new stadium will have a gross seating capacity of 104,000, the second largest in Europe behind Barcelona’s Camp Nou (105,000) and topping the 90,000-seat Wembley.
The stadium’s tallest mast will reach 200 metres in height, which will tower over Manchester’s tallest building Beetham Tower at 169m. Wembley’s arch is 135m.
The club said the stadium will be visible for up to 37.4 kilometres, from both the nearby Peak District, parts of Cheshire, and the outskirts of Liverpool in optimum conditions.
($1 = 0.7736 pounds)
(Reporting by Lori Ewing in Manchester, Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by Louise Heavens and Christian Radnedge)
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