Reports have come out that Man Utd are ready to "abandon plans" to keep the Theatre of Dreams if they decide to build a new stadium. "They now realise that scaling down Old Trafford to around 30,000 capacity, hosting Academy and Women's fixtures, will be too complex and unlikely to work" - Chris Wheeler.
The idea was to scale down Old Trafford and keep all of the memories while allowing the academy and Women's team to play on that sacred turf.
The new stadium would have then been built somewhere in the surrounding area where the men's team would play all their home fixtures. During the period it would take to build the new stadium, the men's team would continue to play at the current Old Trafford until the new stadium was ready. The scale down would've followed.
The new stadium would cost £2b.
Wheeler says that the reason as to why this scale down could be abandoned is because of "what is effectively a separate stadium project would be too complex and cost hundreds of millions of pounds."
He adds that United will "setup a heritage focus group to make sure the historical elements of Old Trafford are preserved if they do knock it down."
Recently, it came out that the club will send an email survey to club season-ticket holders and members tomorrow to get their thoughts about the stadium plans.
Fans are divided on whether to keep and renovate the current stadium while others, like ex-captain Gary Neville - who is part of the task-force who are in charge of this new stadium assignment that is headed by Lord Sebastian Coe - feels that the whole nostalgia and emotion of the stadium is being over-exaggerated.
Neville mentioned that "most of the stands have been built between 1993 and 2005" and that "we'd not be keeping anything that is 100 years old." He does agree that certain memorabilia such as the Munich clock, the statues and the tunnel should be part of the new stadium but that the location of the pitch, despite it meaning something to some, may not be the biggest deal as he compared it to Tottenham's new stadium: "I don’t think any Tottenham fans went there thinking about the location of the pitch and that it’s different to the one Glenn Hoddle played on."
Final Thoughts
We should NEVER move from Old Trafford. That is our home.
Much like your own house, moving away to somewhere else or knocking it down, it makes you really sad.
I'm sure many of you have stayed in your houses for many years and what it's currently like isn't what it was when you first moved in. You've maybe renovated many rooms, added a pool if you didn't have one, put some sort of awning outside, built a pizza oven or whatever, but the fact is you made changes.
That is exactly what we need for Old Trafford, improvements to our current stadium rather than knocking it down and building a new one even if it is right next door.
It just wouldn't be the same.
All the great clubs have done it. Real Madrid renovated the Bernabeu to become the best stadium in football; Barcelona are currently doing it with the Camp Nou; Liverpool improved Anfield.
Those stadiums aren't what they used to be but they are still in the same location and they are still called the Santiago Bernabeu, (Spotify) Camp Nou and Anfield. The history and emotions of those stadiums are all maintained just in a newer look. They still play on the same ground that legends and greats of yesteryear all played on.
Gary Neville mentioning how Spurs fans aren't too bothered by the location of the pitch is stupid. Why is he comparing Spurs to United? That is already a mistake. Secondly, with all due respect to Spurs, they don't have the history we do, they didn't have so many greats play for their club at White Hart Lane as we do/did at Old Trafford.
I feel like the club and Neville, are trying to sell to us that the best option is to build something completely new at a different spot and destroy the old one.
That isn't the best option, let's be honest. The best is to keep Old Trafford, renovate it, let the team play somewhere else like Barcelona are doing at the moment, and then go back to the new Old Trafford when it's completed.
That is the best option.
We get the best of both worlds: we keep the history, the memories and turf, as well as get the new state of the art stadium that our club deserves.
With a completely new stadium, I also don't think that opposition's will be intimidated by it (not that they are with current Old Trafford given it's state and the fact that we suck on the field) but it would still be Old Trafford, with all it's aura and history.
The new arena would need to build this sort of aura over time and may not give us that advantage like Old Trafford does, at least not straight away.
Highbury and The Emirates is the best example of this.
I believe that Arsenal lost a part of who they are when they moved from their iconic old home. Now it is literally a home as Highbury has become a block of flats.
I don't want that to happen to the Theatre of Dreams.
With all that being said, I don't blame Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS. They just came to the club in December, the stadium had been rotting for many years, and they don't even own the entire club.
The majority of it still belongs to the Glazers, which is where the true blame lies. They have been at the club since 2005 and have done nothing to improve and better our home. They just let it crumble and rust over the years which is why we have so many leaks, 'Old Trafford falls' and the disgusting toilets.
They are the true reason as to why it's come to this in the first place.
Should this new stadium project go ahead and OT be knocked down, I won't blame INEOS. They are just trying to make the best decision possible even if it is one I wholeheartedly disagree with.
With money being an issue, there probably is no other option. Although, instead of trying to present this demolition job and new stadium as the best solution (if that is what they are trying to do), I'd rather they just be honest and say that that is all they can do because of the shortage of funds, which again, goes back to our majority owners.
The debt which stands at $990m, the overpaying for players, the overpaying of wages, the taking of the dividends and much more, all adds up and has gotten to a point where the club doesn't have enough money. This is why we looked to have operated on a sell-to-buy basis in the transfer window.
All because of the Glazers.
I am not in favour of the knocking down of Old Trafford and building a new stadium on different land. I would prefer renovating the current one and keeping all it's history.
However, I don't think that that is the way they're going to go.
Background Image: Old Trafford at night | Photo by Winston Tjia on Unsplash