Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham suggests that Old Trafford renovation could help city of Liverpool | OneFootball

The mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, has highlighted yet more positives about a potential redevelopment of Old Trafford.

Under Glazer ownership, the once great stadium has been in decay for nearly two decades now and many United fans have called for the stadium to be upgraded.

This was in full evidence for the world’s cameras when a torrential downpour on Sunday, after United’s home defeat to Arsenal, created a waterfall that wouldn’t have looked out of place in National Geographic.

This is even more galling when teams like Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid have recently done incredible work to their new stadiums to put them lightyears ahead of the current Old Trafford.

Naturally, one of INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s biggest ambitions is to redevelop United’s home into something they can once again be proud of.

The British billionaire would prefer a complete rebuild on land adjacent to the current Old Trafford and make it the “Wembley of the North”.

However, renovating the current Old Trafford is also said to be very much still on the table.

A taskforce headed by Lord Sebastian Coe, with the mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham and former captain, Gary Neville, both sitting on the committee, has been set up to discuss the issue and met for the first time in April.

Burnham has already lavished praise on United’s regeneration plan around Old Trafford and speaking to BBC Radio Manchester (via the Manchester Evening News), he has continued to speak glowingly of United’s plans.

He claims that a potential Labour government would “want to support the club in its plans to rebuild or refurbish Old Trafford.”

“There’s an opportunity to bring benefits to people in Greater Manchester. There’s a freight terminal right behind Old Trafford which means freight trains [need to] come through Piccadilly and Oxford Road.”

“Here is the opportunity to take it away from Old Trafford and put it into Port Salford or Parkside, a scheme in development in Wigan [to take trains away from the Castlefield Corridor tracks] and then Manchester United have an easier space to use with regards to the redevelopment.”

“This is not about public money being used improperly. It’s a win-win opportunity.”

The mayor then made the controversial statement that the city of Liverpool could also benefit from Old Trafford being renovated.

“This could have benefits for both of those schemes and the Port of Liverpool. Then if you were to regenerate the Old Trafford area and link it to the plans Trafford Council have [for the area] it could be a scheme that benefits everybody in the North West. It would have to be a public-private partnership… but it would have to be the club to fund the stadium and associated Manchester United facilities.”

United’s involvement with the government is hardly likely to be popular with opposition fans but it does represent a fantastic opportunity for United to finally get plans moving on the stadium that they deserve to match their loyal support of the club.

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