Sir Jim Ratcliffe inspired by Spanish Giants’ stadium renovation work | OneFootball

Manchester United are reportedly looking to Real Madrid and Barcelona for inspiration for their new stadium plans, as they learn the true costs of a rebuild.

Ever since INEOS have taken over, they have made the improvement of United’s stadium an absolute priority, as fans have been embarrassed for years at the dilapidated state of the famous old ground.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has spoken of his ambition to rebuild Old Trafford and create a “Wembley of the North”.

This has resulted in a taskforce being created to help plan the way forward for the club’s ambitious stadium plans, with the first meeting having been held earlier this week.

Nonetheless, The Times state that “Manchester United are conducting detailed analysis of the stadium projects at Real Madrid and Barcelona, knowing that redeveloping the existing Old Trafford site could be as much as £1 billion cheaper than building a new ground”.

Consequently, “Collette Roche, the United chief operating officer, was spotted last week in Madrid, for Manchester City’s Champions quarter-final tie, and it is understood that the rebuilding projects undertaken by both Spanish clubs are of a particular interest to Old Trafford officials”.

“At this stage sources insist that all options remain open, with an entirely new 100,000-seater stadium on a site adjacent to the present ground still a possibility”.

This is due to the fact that while renovating would be significantly cheaper, the club would miss out financially by having to play home games away from Old Trafford. One massive positive of building a stadium adjacent to the current stadium is that they could continue to play games there and simply move next door when the new rebuild is ready. Therefore, not losing out on massive amounts of matchday revenue during renovations.

Commenting on the work carried out by the Spanish giants, Ratcliffe recently claimed, “if you look at what Real Madrid are doing with the Bernabéu and Barcelona with the Nou Camp, the Bernabéu is fabulous. It’s like a cauldron of noise. The Nou Camp is enormous and they are spending a lot of money revamping it”.

The billionaire owner has previously bemoaned not just the Red Devils but also the rest of the league’s inability to compete with some of the finest stadiums in Europe.

“Manchester United needs to have a stadium that is befitting the club and the brand,” he said.

“You look at the Premier League, we don’t have anything that compares. And yet the Premier League is several times bigger than the Spanish league in terms of size, scale and importance today”.

“That’s where all the money is with TV. The Premier League needs to have some grounds which are the equal of our European competitors”.

The INEOS owner has also spoken of his vision for the future of football, where fans can spend hours before and after a game through various shopping and entertainment experiences, which of course would help the club generate finance to use in the transfer market under PSR rules.

Whatever happens, the fact that it looks like the new owners are committed to making Old Trafford a top notch facility again will be welcomed in the eyes of the majority of fans across the world.

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