'The Theatre of Dreams' is seeped in history, but lost its status as England's top ground long ago – tearing it down is the only way forward
"The past was yours but the future's mine" read the banner in Plaza Mayor, where Manchester City fans had gathered ahead of the Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid in 2016. The words originally belonged to Manchester band The Stone Roses, but it did not take a genius to work out who they were referring to. At a similar time, City fans started singing 'You live in the past, just like the Scousers, you live in the past'.
Manchester United supporters, to be fair, could not convincingly argue otherwise then and nor could they now. The Red Devils have an inarguably glorious past, with more league titles than anyone else in England, 12 FA Cups and three European Cups, while some of the finest players of all-time have graced Old Trafford. For too long, however, they have been trading off their past and getting stuck in it, going nowhere while their rivals in England and Europe speed way ahead of them.
And Old Trafford itself is a case in point. The stadium is the biggest club ground in Britain and among the largest on the continent, yet it is fast becoming a symbol of United's decline. Indeed, visiting supporters have delighted in the Red Devils' torrid home form this season by singing 'Old Trafford is falling down'.
The stadium has undergone no major update since 2006 and has been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. Meanwhile, clubs that United consider their rivals have moved into shiny state-of-the-art arenas, as have many they do not.
New minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is expected to prioritise upgrading the stadium after his INEOS firm bought a 25 percent stake in the club and he will have to decide whether to renovate the creaking stadium or build an entirely new arena on the same site.
Many fans favour the former option as they love the ground's history and its unique feel. But the only way for United to compete with the biggest clubs in Europe is to break from the past and build a state-of-the-art stadium that can propel its commercial growth and become a place where fans truly enjoy spending their time.
Getty Ahead of the game…in the 90s
Rather like the team's results, United were way ahead of their rivals when it came to their stadium in the 1990s and 2000s, before stagnating. Old Trafford's capacity had shrunk from 60,000 to 44,000 after the Taylor Report recommended all British stadiums become all-seater in response to the Hillsborough disaster, so the club responded by knocking down its North Stand in 1995 and building a giant, three-tiered stand in its place, increasing capacity to 55,000.
United had by far the biggest stadium in the country and the increased ticket revenue fuelled their success in the 1990s, culminating in the historic treble triumph in 1999. However, just like any forward-thinking business, they sensed the need to keep growing, and by 2001 had added second tiers behind both goals, raising the capacity to 67,000. It meant United could count on almost 30,000 more seats than Arsenal, their closest rivals at the time, and 22,000 more than historic rivals Liverpool.
The club made yet another update by filling in the corners by the North Stand in 2006, taking the capacity to over 75,000. It meant United's stadium was among the largest in Europe, level with Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena and San Siro in Milan, while only trailing Santiago Bernabeu and Camp Nou. The works were approved before Malcolm Glazer's controversial takeover in 2005, and since the American family took control, there have been no major upgrades while the capacity has been reduced to 73,300 to accommodate more disabled supporters.
AdvertisementGetty Images Everyone is catching up
Rather like their attitude to many other aspects of the club, the Glazers felt there was no need to upgrade the stadium. After all, they could argue there was no need, as the club topped the Premier League table in matchday income, pocketing an average of £4.1 million ($5.2m) per match last season. But when you choose to stand still, your competitors inevitably catch up with you.
Manchester City moved across town from Maine Road to the City of Manchester Stadium in 2003, boosting their potential attendance by 15,000. United fans loved to joke that City could not fill their new ground – since renamed the Etihad Stadium – but that is no longer true, and after an upgrade in 2015, their neighbours' average attendance is now 53,000. The Cityzens have agreed another refurbishment which will raise their stadium's capacity to over 60,000.
Arsenal moved into the 60,000-capacity Emirates Stadium in 2006, and in 2016 West Ham swapped Upton Park for the London Stadium, which houses more than 62,000. The spectacularly-modern Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which holds 62,000 and is widely regarded as the best ground in England, opened in 2019.
Liverpool, who City fans also taunted for 'living in the past', have modernised and grown Anfield twice within the last decade, lifting capacity from 45,000 to 61,000 after completing work on the Anfield Road End in December. Their local rivals, Everton, are set to move into their new 52,000-capacity stadium next year, while Newcastle are proposing increasing St James' Park capacity to 65,000.
So in a few years' time, six teams other than United will have stadiums that hold over 60,000 people. Old Trafford will still be the biggest ground, but it has long ceased to be the best.
GettyLeaky roof, rodent problems & boiling pies
Proof of Old Trafford's fading status came when the Etihad Stadium was chosen ahead of the Theatre of Dreams for the 2028 European Championship, which will be held in Britain and Ireland. But it only takes one trip to the stadium to see that it is lagging behind the country's other top arenas.
“The ground looks great cosmetically on TV, but in terms of comparing it to other grounds in Europe and this country, it’s second rate," Gary Neville told . And he was putting it kindly. There is the infamously leaky roof, with videos of fans getting soaked going viral every time it rains during a match. Given Manchester's reputation as one of the rainiest cities in the UK, it is inconceivable that it has still not been fixed. In 2015, meanwhile, there was a rodent infestation.
The stadium feels dated in so many ways. It has tiny scoreboards, which cannot be seen from large sections of the ground anyway. There are no big screens (Tottenham and Arsenal introduced theirs in the 1990s) for replays, which has become an even bigger problem in the era of VAR, with match-going fans kept in the dark for too long about major decisions. WIFI, which has been common in most stadiums for years, was only introduced at the start of this season.
The ground also has problems with acoustics. The most vocal supporters at Old Trafford are based in the Stretford End, but the noise they make often struggles to carry down the other end where the away supporters are based. There is an appetite among many fans to turn the Stretford End into a giant, single-tiered stand like The Kop at Anfield, Borussia Dortmund's 'Yellow Wall' or the South Stand at Tottenham. But doing that is almost impossible without severely reducing the capacity at Old Trafford in the meantime, which would in turn impact on matchday revenue.
The concourses are cramped, leading to never-ending queues before kick-off and at half-time, while the lack of space also means the selection of food and drinks is severely limited. Carling is the only lager available, while the pies are so hot consumers risk burning their mouths every time they take a bite. The club also recently saw its food hygiene rating downgraded from five stars to just one after it was found to have served raw chicken to 30 guests at an event.
There are big problems of overcrowding before and after matches due to the sheer amount of pillars, leaving fans often feeling unsafe. Once in your seat, there is hardly any legroom, meaning adults of above-average height tend to scrape their knees on the back of the seat in front of them.
Getty Images 'Updating is crucial'
The truth is that a refurbishment, or adding another tier or two to the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand, will not fix these problems. Some parts of the stand remain the same as they were when the stadium was first built in 1909, even surviving being bombed during the Second World War. And stadium insiders believe that many materials in the ground are reaching the end of their tether.
“The building is reaching the end of its natural life – the cabling, the electricity supplies, everything is nearing its sell by date. And the interiors are very cramped and difficult in places," Chris Lee, chief executive of the architectural firm Populous which designed Tottenham's stadium and the Lusail Stadium, which hosted the 2022 World Cup final, told “I would say updating is crucial not just to maintain the club’s position, but just to keep the place functional.”
Lee is in favour or a brand new stadium adjacent to Old Trafford, which would be a break from the past but allow the club to keep its ties to the local area. United own 40 acres of land around Old Trafford and parts of the area could certainly do with a major facelift, not least the derelict tower block, covered in graffiti and peppered with broken windows, on the corner of Sir Matt Busby Way.
"I feel the new build may well turn out to be the most cost-effective solution. Yes, the initial outlay is obviously the highest of the three options, but there is so much land available to develop there. They [United] could carry on using the existing ground while building work is underway, meaning no decline in matchday revenues. Architecturally, in the space available you could do something really innovative and exciting. There would be no space constrictions."
City, for what it's worth, have regenerated the previously run-down east side of Manchester thanks to the construction of the City Football Academy, building a university, housing and helping construct the Co-Op Arena, the biggest indoor venue in the UK. United could do the same in the area of Trafford, which is close to Salford Quays, one of the city's most thriving areas and where BBC Sport is based.