‘Very Shortly’—Man Utd Reveal Significant Development in New Old Trafford Stadium Project

The ambition is for Manchester United to have the largest stadium of any club in England.

Old Trafford has stood where it is since 1910. | Oli SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images

Manchester United hope to submit a formal planning application to build a new stadium on the Old Trafford site within the next 18 months—by September 2027.

Rebuilding a brand-new Old Trafford, creating what co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe envisions as a ‘Wembley of the north’ seating 100,000 people, is an ongoing project still in its infancy.

A new stadium on the existing site is seen as the best option, favored over redeveloping the current stadium—made extremely complex by engineering challenges associated with an adjacent railway track, or building a new stadium on a different site elsewhere in Greater Manchester.

The biggest obstacle so far has centered on acquiring neighboring land currently occupied by a major freighting depot—at present, row upon row of shipping containers sit around 200 meters behind the Stretford End. This week, United’s chief operating officer, Collette Roche, suggested that could be resolved “within the next couple of months,” allowing for “stage two” to commence.

Roche, speaking at a property event in southern France, explained that stage two, lasting seven months, is for a “more detailed design” to be put together. So far, only concept illustrations of what a new stadium could look like have been released. The eye-catching canopy in those images might still happen, having been rumored to be dropped, but only with the additional land purchase.

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Planning Application Follows In-Depth Designs

Following the design is the “planning strategy.” But Roche, quoted by The Times, said the club isn’t waiting for each stage to finish before starting the next, instead working more concurrently to move things along—Ratcliffe previously estimated completion by 2030 and the future stadium has already been included in the U.K’s unrivaled bid to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup.

“When we get through [the design stage] we will come out with the planning strategy. But we are already starting to work as part of the wider master plan. We’re not starting then; we’ve already started now,” Roche stated. “Hopefully by the time we get to the planning application, which will be probably in about 12 to 18 months, we’ll have had a lot of conversations.” 

In a similar vein, United, aligned with architecture firm Foster + Partners on the project since 2024, have already begun to consult construction firms with the capability of taking on such a build.

“We are not leaving that until further down the track. As a club we are already reaching out to the top partners we think we need to work with,” Roche continued.

“We will lock that in. Then we start to build the plans. It starts now. It will be phased. Everybody says ‘when will it be built?’ We’ve got to go through planning and that’s only phase one of the stadium.

“We’ve got to decide what we are going to do with the current Old Trafford. This is not going to happen overnight but we are getting those relationships in place, ready to go and hit the ground running very shortly.”

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Man Utd Won’t Need Temporary Stadium

Spurs played at Wembley Stadium for almost two full seasons. | Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

United are confident that, unlike Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur, they won’t have to temporarily move while a new stadium is built. “There is no suggestion United will be forced to relocate in the meantime,” an update from the club in March 2025 confirmed.

The site, once the freight center has been vacated, should be plenty big enough for a new stadium to be built and the existing Old Trafford still remain in normal use.

At that point, the original ground could be demolished, or adapted.

One idea floated since the project was launched is a redeveloped stadium with a reduced capacity that could house the club’s women and academy teams. But whether that concept is cost effective or carries sufficient ambition for growth of the women’s side remains to be seen.

“I would love for a women’s team to be using this [new] stadium as their only stadium,” chief executive Omar Berrada stated last year.

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