Man United confirm new 100,000-seat stadium site as CEO addresses £1.3bn debt concern

Manchester United have confirmed that their planned 100,000-seat stadium will be built 350 metres from the current Old Trafford, on land recently acquired from Indurent — with the club’s stadium development CEO, Collette Roche, providing the clearest public update yet on the project’s direction.

Because of the distance between the two sites, United will continue to play at Old Trafford throughout the construction period. What ultimately happens to the existing ground, however, remains entirely unresolved.

“We just don’t know, and that is the genuine answer,” Roche said. “The focus at the moment for me personally is around getting the new stadium built, making sure that the facilities around are in place, the transport networks are in. And then I think everything else is phased. Then at that point we’ll think, what should we do with this? Should we keep it? Should we knock it down? Should we redevelop it into something different? Should it become houses? I don’t know.”

Roche also moved to calm concerns over the club’s financial exposure, urging supporters not to become “over-obsessed” with debt. United currently carry £1.3bn in borrowings, and while the stadium was originally budgeted at £2bn, Roche declined to confirm whether that figure remains accurate.

Her central argument was that the new venue would generate sufficient revenue to service its own costs over time — and that the financial upside would eventually feed back into the playing side of the club.

“The revenue that’s going to be generated, where does that go? That’ll go back into the club, that goes back into the team, that goes back into growing our football,” Roche said, suggesting the project could provide a long-term boost to transfer budgets.

On the choice of location, Roche was clear that building away from Old Trafford’s current footprint was not a difficult call. The new site is viewed internally as a practical solution that allows construction to proceed without forcing the club to find a temporary home elsewhere in the city.