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Manchester United’s potential new stadium could see it compete with Wembley stadium for major sporting events like the biggest boxing matches.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has aired his views numerous times that United need to build a new modern arena that can function as something of a “Wembley of the North” to give fans in the north of the country greater access to major sporting and cultural events.
Currently a taskforce set up last spring is debating the best way forward for the stadium, but after pictures leaked of a model of a new stadium at the Labour Party Conference, it appears that a new build seems to be gathering support.
The new stadium would not only eclipse Wembley in size as it would theoretically be able to hold 100,000 fans, but it could also outdo the London stadium in matters outside of football.
The Daily Mail report that “Manchester United’s plans to build a Wembley of the North will extend to competing with the national stadium to stage boxing mega-fights in the future.”
96,000 fans crammed into the English national stadium to see Anthony Joshua knocked out by Daniel Duboi last weekend but United are “confident that a new 100,000-seater stadium would be able to accommodate a record boxing crowd of 110,000, potentially turning Old Trafford into Britain’s big-fight capital.”
Manchester has history of hosting boxing events as Old Trafford hosted the 1993 bout between Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank.
“The MEN (now AO) Arena has staged some epic nights – not least when Ricky Hatton was in his pomp – but the capacity there is 21,000, and the new larger Co-op Live only holds 23,500”, but a new Old Trafford would be no match for these arenas.
Ratcliffe has already spoken in the past about how he sees the future of how football teams generate money changing, especially with new PSR rules taking root.
In an interview earlier in the year he claimed football stadiums would become entertainment zones where fans spend money hours before and after the game and is said to be a big fan of Real Madrid and Barcelona’s new stadium ideas.
“Rebuilding Old Trafford would also turn it into an attractive venue for the NFL, although United are reluctant to tailor the design to suit Gridiron as Tottenham have done with their new stadium by having bigger dressing-rooms for instance.”
Ineos and the probable architect behind the huge project, Lord Foster, “are committed to creating a world-class football venue for United, with any other benefits seen as a bonus.”
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