Manchester United are planning to build a new 100,000-seater stadium, with co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe suggesting taxpayers could fund the £2bn project.
Andy Burnham has insisted that “not a single penny of public funding will be provided” for Manchester United’s new stadium. Back in March, United unveiled ambitious proposals for a 100,000-seater state-of-the-art stadium at an event in London, with co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe suggesting the plans could be completed by 2030.
Mr Ratcliffe suggested that £2bn of taxpayers’ money could be pumped into the project, arguing: “People in the north pay tax so there is an argument that we could consider more ambitious projects in the north, such as a Champions League final or an FA Cup final, which would be appropriate for England.”
Greater Manchester Mayor Burnham has previously vowed that the stadium itself will not be publicly funded, and he reinforced that position on The Added Time podcast.
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Despite this, the Manchester Evening News reports that a Mayoral Development Corporation has recently been set up to carry out regeneration plans around the stadium, which will bring significant economic benefits.
Burnham explained: “It’s not about giving them money, because we have really clear principles when we start working with the Mayor’s Development Corporation. The stadium will be paid for by Manchester United. Not a penny of public money will go into it.”
“But given the economic benefits it brings, we have an absolute role to play in making everything around the stadium as good as possible. If you think about it, there’s a station behind the stands there that hasn’t been used for years for safety reasons.”
“As part of that, the station will be relocated a little bit to Loo Macari Chippy or nearby, and that will be re-opened and it will be a huge benefit to the existing community, Ghost Hill, Stretford and the people who live there, so this public benefit is going to be huge.
“It’s much bigger than the ground itself because there are thousands of new homes, thousands of new jobs.”
The Manchester Evening News, the Mirror’s sister publication, reported that United and the City Region share an ambition to secure key matches for the 2035 FIFA Women’s World Cup as hosts, with the showpiece final being one of those goals.
Outlining the goal of hosting the 2035 World Cup final in Manchester, Mr Burnham explained: “I have been closely involved to the point where I have asked the council to create a Mayoral Development Corporation, which is a vehicle, a legal entity, to oversee the wider regeneration of the whole area.”
“That’s more of my responsibility and the wider environment around the new stadium. It’s a huge opportunity for us as a city and as a region. If you think about that area, it’s the area around the old Salford Docks.
“At the other end you have Media City. If things go well, this could be a world-class place. I can see why people here are struggling to understand why it would affect life on this end of the M62 (Liverpool), but in reality there is a freight terminal behind the existing Old Trafford, which feeds a lot of trains into Manchester city centre.
“This is the main reason for the havoc on trains across the north, as it causes traffic jams in Manchester. Therefore, all trains passing through the country are often delayed in reaching Liverpool.”
“So this is a project that actually makes sense on a number of levels. It will actually relocate the freight tunnel to St Helens and therefore lead to growth here (Liverpool).”
“This is a major growth project for the whole of the North West, and I think the attractive prospect in my mind is that if this really goes ahead, we have a pretty good chance of hosting the Women’s FIFA World Cup in 2035.”
“Imagine that final at the new Old Trafford. It would be quite something, wouldn’t it?”
Blueprints for the proposed land are on hold while negotiations continue over the purchase of the required land.
Freightliner owns the rail yards surrounding Old Trafford, and securing this site remains important to the plans.
United remain confident of securing a deal to purchase land for a new stadium project.
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