Berrada promises stadium news 'in weeks or months' as United chase land deal

Manchester United CEO Omar Berrada has indicated the club is close to sharing a significant update on its new stadium project, telling the club’s podcast that news could arrive “in the next weeks or months” — though a critical land deal with freight operator Freightliner remains unsigned.

United unveiled plans for a 100,000-seat replacement for Old Trafford at an event in London last year, with the ambition of having the ground ready in time to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup. Construction has not yet started, and Berrada made clear that breaking ground depends on first securing the surrounding land.

“Once we’ve secured the land and we know the exact location of where the new stadium could be, then we will proceed to finalise the design,” Berrada said. “Which will then lead us to have a very good understanding of what the potential cost is.”

Reports last summer suggested Freightliner valued the land at £350 million, a figure Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham publicly dismissed. Burnham has since indicated that compulsory purchase powers remain an option if negotiations do not produce a breakthrough, and no agreement has been publicly announced.

Collette Roche, appointed as United’s chief executive officer for new stadium development in January, offered a more detailed progress report in March. Speaking on the club’s podcast, she said significant work had taken place away from public view, particularly around assembling the land required for the project.

“We’ve made a lot of progress in the last 12 months,” Roche said. “But to be fair, a lot of it has been behind the scenes. I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to all the local landowners to understand where that needs to be, and we’re progressing that really, really well.”

Roche also addressed the timeline, reiterating that construction itself would take between four and five years once it begins — a detail she noted had been misread by some supporters as the date by which the stadium would be finished.

The club has consistently described the Women’s World Cup in 2035 as a “brilliant opportunity” for the region, giving the project a soft deadline that, if met, would require construction to begin within the next few years.