Why Man Utd have made the right decision about Old Trafford | OneFootball

Two things are very apparent from the polished video Manchester United have produced to unveil the club's intention to build a brand-new Old Trafford.

The first is the opening message, a famous quote from 19th century prime minister Benjamin Disraeli.

"What Manchester does today, the world does tomorrow."

It harks back to the late Victorian age, when Manchester – having been dubbed Cottonopolis – was the industrial centre of the world. With industrial success came other innovations and new ways of thinking, a cosmopolitan atmosphere and vibrant culture.

It ties into the 'best in class' ethos that Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS have wanted to work towards since a minority takeover and agreement to assume day-to-day control was completed last year.

One of Ratcliffe's first ambitions was to create a 'Wembley of the north' that could be the leading stadium across the whole United Kingdom, and that is what the confirmed plans now point to following the announcement of a 100,000-capacity venue.

The other is a line delivered by former club captain Gary Neville, who narrates the video and forms part of the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force.

"A new future on familiar ground," he said.

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That is because Old Trafford quite as we know it will be no more. The stadium is to be bulldozed and a new structure built on the site the club has called home since 1910. The plans are certainly striking, three spires, the tallest pointing 200m into the sky, representing the prongs of the Red Devil trident.

It was clear that Old Trafford, while still the largest club stadium in the country, had been overtaken as the 'best in class'. No major redevelopment had taken place in almost two decades, it has been getting a little tired around the edges, the kind of modern open spaces of other rival stadia are lacking, and the leaking roof has been a problem since at least 2012.

Demolishing Old Trafford and building a brand-new home on the same site was one of three options. The others were to redevelop the existing stadium, or to leave the site altogether and start afresh somewhere else in the city. The latter was pretty soon discounted.

The problem with redeveloping Old Trafford as it sits proved overly complicated for years. The club built the north stand, now known as the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand, up to three tiers in 1995. The Stretford End to the west had been rebuilt a few years earlier as part of the movement towards all-seater stadia in England following the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. A redeveloped East Stand, complete with the famous glass-panelled facade above a new Megastore, opened in 2000. The quadrants between those three stands were then later filled in by 2006.

But the south, renamed the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand, has remained significantly smaller due to its awkward location and the engineering headache associated with building upwards due to the functioning railway line that runs parallel across the back of it.

Ultimately, United have long since outgrown the small wedge of land between the railway on one side and the Bridgewater Canal on the other. Moving as little as 100m to the west, onto land currently occupied by the club's car parks, suddenly opens up a lot more space.

Redeveloping Old Trafford, potentially raising the capacity to up to a maximum 87,000, was eventually deemed less cost effective and too much of a compromise on the overall goal of a national-leading stadium to be considered the acceptable outcome of this process.

It feels like the club has made the right decision to start over from the ground up.

The obvious argument against bulldozing Old Trafford and rebuilding it is the history factor. United moved to the site in 1910, won the First Division title in their first full season in their new home, and went on to become England's most famous and most successful club. Old Trafford, eventually coming to be known as the 'Theatre of Dreams', is a huge part of the identity of Manchester United.

But what of its true century-plus 'history' actually remains? Today, the stadium is unrecognisable, even from just three decades ago. Much of it was destroyed and rebuilt in the 1940s after being repeatedly hit by Second World War bombs targeting nearby industrial sites. The only surviving part of the original 1910 build is the halfway line tunnel, disused since 1993. Most of the rest of Old Trafford has been heavily rebuilt or redeveloped within the last 35 years alone, to the point where its architecture is a relic of the 1990s and early 2000s, most definitely not of 1910 Edwardian England.

It might be where the Busby Babes emerged, where George Best thrived, and where the Class of '92 took their first steps. But, in the same breath, it’s also not.

What's important is that the memories are preserved by keeping the heart of Old Trafford alive. The Munich clock and the tributes to those who sadly died in 1958, the statues of Sir Matt Busby, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jimmy Murphy and the Trinity all must be lovingly incorporated into the new stadium, and they will be. And it’s that which really makes Old Trafford home, no matter if the bricks are new.