MANCHESTER UNITED REVEAL PLANS FOR A 100,000 SEAT SUPER STADIUM
Sean O'Conor
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasuredome decree...so twice five miles of fertile ground with walls and towers were girdled round." - Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1797.
You cannot fault Sir Jim Ratcliffe's PR savviness.
Having just slated some players and their excessive wages while defending his eyebrow-raising cull of 450 administrative staff and swinging cuts at Manchester United, he quickly threw a dead cat onto the table to draw our attention from the purge.
And it has largely worked. Now we are all talking about United's megastadium project instead of the head of player operations' bizarre financial priorities at Old Trafford, his group's mistakes over hiring Dan Ashworth and rehiring Erik Ten Hag and his hitherto lack of impact on results on the pitch.
All eyes were cleverly switched from a self-inflicted house fire to a teaser trailer of a £2 billion blockbuster, albeit a still unfilmed one. United veteran Gary Neville carefully donned two hats in two days, bringing his man-of-the people soul to an interrogation of Ratcliffe, who like him is Manchester born and Red, before ditching his familiar criticism to voice over the video of the dream arena, which the club hopes to build in five years.
100,000 Seats
The promo displayed a 100,000-seat fortress of the future in glorious AI, a sea of singing shirts in a Mediterranean climate rarely experienced in Lancashire. The video is introduced by Sir Norman Foster, the 89-year-old Manchester-born starchitect who designed the new Wembley as well as the Lusail Stadium used at Qatar 2022, amongst dozens of high-profile buildings around the world. Nothing but the best for United.
Foster, in typically flowery terms, spoke of creating, "The beating heart of a new sustainable district…endowed by nature…a mixed-use miniature city of the future - driving a new wave of growth and creating a global destination…" He also mentioned "acoustically cultivating a huge roar", which was also part of his company's pitch for replacing the old Wembley's dated seating and poor sightlines. The current Old Trafford, by all accounts, is obsolete compared to comparative clubs' arenas and given there are frequent waterfalls through the leaky roof, most recently in May last year, renovation or replacement is urgently needed. Even in the drizzle, the new arena will be a vast improvement.
Press Launch
In his press launch, which for some reason was held in London instead of Manchester, Ratcliffe spoke of creating a "catalyst for social and economic renewal" and "a truly state-of-the-art stadium that transforms the fan experience", and said the new ground could host England matches to boot.
He then referenced the lack of a stadium of the calibre of the Bernabeu or a Nou Camp in the Premier League, adding that London had sporting icons in Twickenham, Wimbledon and the Olympic Village but had only won two Champions League trophies to the North of England's ten. Whether by accident or by design, he failed to mention Wembley or Tottenham's excellent new home.
But anyway, Old Trafford does need renovation or replacement and the new arena will be the nation's largest, although the £2 billion required is not in place yet so there is something of a fantasy feel to it all, rather like a child's sketch presented as a fait accompli. And yet, Man United, despite its much-publicised debts, approximately £1 billion today, is not about to be wound up in court.
Despite its torrid time on the field since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, and this season they have slipped as low as 15th in the Premier League, drumming up the funding for a new home is not hard when you have a name that remains one of the globe's biggest sporting brands. Yes they will triple their debts, but big clubs are run on credit, which makes Ratcliffe's warning about running out of cash by Christmas rather disingenuous.
Deloitte Rankings
In the latest Deloitte rankings for football revenue, United are classed fourth behind Real Madrid, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain but sit second in the Forbes list of valuable football clubs, narrowly behind Real Madrid. Brand Finance rates United as fourth wealthiest in the world after Real Madrid, Manchester City and Barcelona and all of these brands are effectively too big to fail.
Keeping up with the Jones is part of being a big club and United's home has not kept pace with its rivals. North-western neighbours Manchester City have a more modern arena, Liverpool have rebuilt much of Anfield while Everton move into a new home next season. The two Spanish giants have rebuilt their historic homes recently while the north London giants have modern venues to put Old Trafford, untouched since 2006, in the shade.
Given the day before the stadium announcement Ratcliffe had spoken of the club becoming insolvent this winter unless he made cuts, who pays for this stately pleasuredome is thus the key question arising. There will probably be stadium naming rights for the first time, following the model of the Emirates and the Etihad, some public money but also an increase in debt through new bond schemes. As it stands United do not have the money to pay upfront for their home renovation.
The big fear from supporters is yet more eye-watering ticket price rises, hauling the people's game ever further from the people but fans' voices are always the last to be heard. Talk of regenerating the area around the stadium and building 17,000 new homes implies a well-timed plea for government help. As Britain has had a housing crisis and a moribund economy for a while, and now has a new government desperate to kick-start growth and produce some bread and circuses, the stage is surely set for an injection of state assistance.
Manchester Ship Canal
The fact Greater Manchester's mayor is a Labour man in favour of the project confirms the playing field has been well-laid. A promise of 92,000 jobs and an annual £7.3 billion injection to the national economy sounds too tasty to turn down in these gloomy times. If the government can stump up the £200-300 million required to remove the rail freight terminal, the whole project should take flight soon afterwards.
Foster also tugged at the nostalgic heartstrings by promising to use the Manchester Ship Canal to transport prefabricated pieces of the stadium from the sea to the site to ensure it could be up and running in five years from breaking ground, a similar time frame to the construction of the 89,000-seat Lusail arena.
A marvel of Victorian engineering designed to bring ocean-going vessels inland to Manchester, the waterway in question opened in 1887, nine years after United had begun playing as Newton Heath, and was a key part of the city's Victorian boom, but is little used today and the city docks have now been redeveloped for other uses. Seeing big ships sail into Manchester again is a time-travelling, tantalising carrot for the authorities to approve the plan.
Design
As for the stadium design, it has less in common with the current one than with the Qatar 2022 arenas, the most stunning set of football grounds yet built. The spider's web covering is redolent of Munich's groundbreaking Olympic stadium roof from 1974 and the three spires also echo the Olympiastadion, but being rather spindly do not seem to command the Manchester horizon as claimed. It is worth recalling that Foster's initial crown design for the new Wembley lacked visual presence and, perhaps because of the critical reaction, was replaced by the great tilted arch that stands there today.
The three spines rather resemble radio transmitters, TV antennas or even minarets. Foster & Partners call the 200-metre high constructions "soaring masts", which sounds like a nod to Manchester's naval heritage (both City and United have sailing ships on their badges), but that isn't directly referenced. Instead the website says the spires "take inspiration from the Red Devil's (sic) trident emblem and reflect the verticality of Manchester's industrial skyline," similarities which at first glance are hard to detect.
Fan Reaction
The fan group The 1958 correctly criticised "the circus-like aesthetic" that "prioritizes spectacle over substance…more akin to a modern entertainment venue than a football cathedral." It is interesting Ratcliffe referenced Manchester's 152 annual days of rain as a reason for an external roof twice the size of Trafalgar Square, in the hope of creating a space where fans will spend time and money outside the arena, in rejection of the traditional idea of a stadium as a stronghold, which the group was calling for.
Wider Development
Football fans can forego the facilities as long as the game is good, but these owners are emphasizing other priorities. It appears a new stadium has to be part of a wider development in order to secure the funding these days.
Without the ubiquitous United crest, the images supplied could easily be mistaken for things other than a football ground, with the exception of the two aerial views of the project, where the new stadium is lit up like an alien spaceship that has just landed on a primitive planet. The next image of the approach to the stadium, what Foster calls "a processional way", does seem to show a vast circus tent at the end of it, while the one of the covered plaza reminds one of London's Millennium Dome, another multi-functional entertainment centre. Indeed, it looks like a spotlit concert is in progress in the heart of the square, but is that a football stadium? Another image brought back memories of the inner concourse of London's King's Cross Station.
Then there is a painting of a local match in progress in a community garden edged by swaying poppies and liatris as an old man waters his flowers, hijab-clad women wander amid cyclists and joggers while a robin and a blackbird flit around a bird table, with the new Old Trafford towering over the whole tableau. The vibrant colours, verdant nature and forceful sunshine looked like the leaflets Jehovah's Witnesses push through the letterbox.
The Caribbean skies are back in another image of short sleeved young and middle-aged couples on deckchairs gazing across a canal, complete with ducks, towards the shining new arena. Again, it does not scream Old Trafford matchday, although Foster defended his declining to create "a fortress surrounded by a sea of cars," which is the NFL standard, but rather building something that was "open" and "welcoming" and "arguably the largest public space in the world."
It is all quite overwhelming, and the most ambitious British club stadium project yet floated.
But even if from the outside it does appear to be an elaborate confusion, at least from inside the bowl it looks extremely ripe for a big footballing experience. The steepness of the stands echoes the Camp Nou's atmosphere while the translucent roof should let in plenty of light while putting an end to Old Trafford's embarrassing roof leaks. And yet, it is worth wondering why a sliding roof was not included, given it rains a lot in the north-west and Foster's Wembley has one, as does Cardiff's excellent Millennium Stadium.
External Funding
Much of the plan becoming reality depends on external funding for buildings beyond the football stadium as well as removing neighbouring freight train traffic in order to build a new passenger railway station. Ratcliffe spoke of the need for a multi-functional area renovation and not just a housing estate, noting how London's 2012 legacy has become a model of sport-led wider development. The Stratford Olympic Park still has sport at its heart with West Ham and the Velodrome, basketball and hockey but has also welcomed a university, theatres, museums, art centres as well as commercial and residential buildings, alongside a vast shopping mall.
As a publicly listed company Manchester United claim they are prevented from revealing financial discussions related to their plans but have clearly advertised via this media blitz their willingness to borrow more money as well as accept any public handouts from a government striving for feel-good news and public inspiration. The support of Manchester mayor Andy Burnham with his Whitehall connections is an ace in their pack.
The Glazers
The team's beleaguered fans accept the need for a new ground so spy a few chinks of light in the news of a new stadium, but at the same time worry that they will be priced out before long as United ratchet up their global brand status. The Glazers, whose debt-laden leveraged buyout of the club has never been popular and have triggered waves of protest, are still there and still invisible, and of course have not even been mentioned in this whole project.
However stunning the press release was, the financing for the dream arena remains incredibly opaque and frankly fiction for now, while the club's future ownership is unclear too. If Ratcliffe succeeds in steering this megaproject to fruition, expect him to launch a bid to become the majority shareholder and finally defenestrate the unloved Glazers. For now, this hope sustains United fans into giving him the benefit of the doubt, but if the years until the stadium is built entail bottom-half finishes for the Red Devils in the Premier League and a European exile, their patience will probably run out before the cathedral is complete.
So while the conception of England's finest stadium has been announced and by implication, a renaissance for the biggest football club in the country is afoot, the red devil is very much in the detail. Fantasy is an eternal part of football's psyche of course and Ratcliffe knows he is tapping into that shared desire for something beyond the status quo. But he also knows reality will bite sooner or later so he will have to deliver on and off the field.
While there remains drama aplenty right now at Old Trafford, the question is will the plan for a 100,000-seat palace remain just a theatre of dreams?
Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile.com
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