Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants Manchester United to decide on their stadium plans by December and favours a new facility with a capacity of 100,000 that would cost more than £2bn and take about six years to complete. That would be constructed next to Old Trafford, allowing the use of the existing venue until the new one is ready.
A prime consideration in the build’s aesthetic would be that it is recognisably in the club’s image. The other option is a rebuild of Old Trafford but this would mean a marked drop in revenue because sections of the ground would be closed while being revamped or United would have to play elsewhere while work is taking place.
Collette Roche, United’s chief operating officer, is leading the project for Ratcliffe, the minority shareholder who is in charge of football operations. She has visited a number of the world’s leading stadiums and consulted owners or those principally involved in a venue’s genesis. This has included discussions with Real Madrid executives regarding the reconfiguration of the Santiago Bernabéu, which began in 2019 and is nearing completion, and there has been an in-depth assessment of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Los Angeles County.
SoFi Stadium, owned by Stan Kroenke, Arsenal’s proprietor, opened in 2020 and hosted United’s friendly against Arsenal last Saturday. It has a 70,240 capacity that can rise to 100,240, took four years to construct, cost $5bn-plus and has a 1 million sq ft canopy embedded with 27,000 LED screens that offer prime advertising space with the display able to be seen by air traffic coming into the nearby Los Angeles airport.
SoFi is home to the NFL’s LA Rams and LA Chargers and is a major concert venue. It is situated on the 298-acre Hollywood Park campus site, an entertainment complex that features a retail park, residential apartments and the YouTube Theatre.
United held a number of meetings before their US tour with those responsible for developing SoFi to learn from the project, particularly the campus element, as the club assess how best to use the Old Trafford footprint.
James T Butts Jr, the mayor of Inglewood, who drove Hollywood Park’s development, said: “I’m maybe biased but I think this is the pre-eminent sports venue in the world. The roof is the biggest advertising opportunity in the world.”
