Ahead of the upcoming season, Manchester United has started making summertime improvements to Old Trafford.
At Old Trafford, a screen has been installed next to the Megastore to block public access to the turnstile area under the northeast corner.
As part of their “regular summer upgrades,” United began painting in anticipation of the upcoming season. The screen was up since the previous paint had been sandblasted off.
A trash skip was seen outside the away team turnstiles next to the Munich Tunnel, and the South West and North West Quads will receive fresh paint.
Just a few weeks prior to the summer modifications, a poster featuring Lisandro Martinez and Katie Zelem, a player for United women, was taken down from the East Stand glass.
With Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s purchase of a minority stake, Old Trafford has become a hot topic of conversation. Renovation or reconstruction plans are already in motion.
Even though Old Trafford was once a cutting-edge stadium, it has regressed over the past ten years. On May 12, during United’s 1-0 loss to Arsenal, there were horrifying scenes as a torrent of rain pounded Manchester and spilled into the ground, covering seats.
According to the club, there was 1.6 inches of rain in the two hours following the final whistle—more than half of the total amount of rain that fell on Old Trafford in May 2023.
Although United officials acknowledged in private that “some parts of the stadium struggled to cope,” they emphasised that Ratcliffe had established an Old Trafford task team to deal with these problems.
The task force is expected to complete its report by the end of the summer, and it is anticipated that the report will be completed by the end of July at the latest.
There will be movement after the optimal course of action—remodeling or revamping—is determined, and the ramifications for the regeneration project are taken into account.
“In an ideal world, I think it’s a no-brainer, a stadium of the north, which would be a world-class stadium where England could play and you could have the FA Cup final and it’s not all centred around the south of England,” stated Ratcliffe in February when he expressed his preference to rebuild Old Trafford.
In a perfect world, of course, that is where I would be, but you have to have a realistic outlook on life. In general, a refurb entails one [billion] and a new stadium; both would involve the campus, which means that, for example, the museum’s c**p and the shop are too tiny, and you would have the Xbox device to amuse the spectators.
To put it another way, fans might visit and engage in various activities. In other words, take into account the campus in both situations; in essence, you are comparing one to two [billion].
“I believe the renovation would take longer than the new one because it is more complicated—you have to build over a major railway line, which is a costly and complicated construction process.”