CONFIRMED: Manchester United have decided to change the name of their stadium. It will no longer be called Old Trafford! See the new name
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Manchester United considering selling Old Trafford naming rights
Ratcliffe
Adam Crafton
By Adam Crafton
Manchester United are considering selling the naming rights to a refurbished Old Trafford or a newly-built stadium as part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe seeks to drive up revenues to fund the project, while the club is also deliberating over substantial ticket price rises.
United have also held exploratory talks with major financial institutions, including Bank of America, as they explore a series of funding options to raise the capital required to cover a potentially multi-billion pound project.
Manchester United declined to comment on all points raised in this report, but club sources â who spoke anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matters â insisted that while discussions have taken place, no decisions have yet been made. Bank of America did not respond to a request for comment.
It is unclear at this stage whether the club or INEOS, the company owned by Ratcliffe, would carry the burden of fresh debt if money is borrowed to fund the infrastructure project. Unitedâs financial results posted in the second quarter of the financial year in March stated that the club still have debt totalling ÂŁ653.3m, excluding money owed in transfer fees, largely as a legacy of the Glazer familyâs sole ownership of the club, before they sold a stake to Ratcliffe and handed over operational control of the club to the British businessman.
Those financial results also revealed that ÂŁ120m of Ratcliffeâs ÂŁ238m cash injection into the club â which had been pledged to go towards infrastructure â had been used to pay down money on Unitedâs revolving credit facility. Unitedâs logic may have been that reducing the debt on the high-interest credit would allow them to subsequently borrow money through a different mechanism at a lower interest rate and use it towards infrastructure investment.
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Unitedâs 114-year-old stadium has always been known as Old Trafford and the club has never before sold its stadium naming rights. While stadiums across Europe and the United States have long been associated with major brands, it has been a more contentious issue in England, where supporters cherish the history of a stadiumâs name.
More recently built stadiums, such as Arsenalâs Emirates Stadium or Manchester Cityâs Etihad Stadium, have taken on lucrative naming rights contracts. In each case, the airlines have acquired the rights not only to the stadiumâs name but also the front-of-shirt sponsorship.
A number of clubs have entered into naming rights deals for stadiums (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
In the event of a refurbishment, one option may be for United to retain the name Old Trafford but seek to have an associated partner. The English national arena, for example, is called Wembley Stadium, connected by EE, for which the network provider pays a reported ÂŁ10m-per year. A similar approach has seen teams retain traditional names for stadiums by attaching a sponsor â such as the Spotify Camp Nou in Barcelona or cricket grounds including the Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester and the Kia Oval in London.
In the event of a new build, however, United are open to selling the name altogether, which they hope would command tens of millions of pounds.
United have not yet revealed how they intend to fund either a refurbishment or a new build, but the Glazer family have never shown an inclination to self-fund Unitedâs ambitions while Ratcliffeâs INEOS will likely seek a mixture of public funds and private partners or debt in order to carry out the work.
It then opens up long-term questions as to how revenues will enable the club to recover the costs. Naming rights is one route, while ticket price increases were presented as a way for the club to increase revenues when the Glazer family pitched to potential investors during the strategic review process that culminated in Ratcliffe becoming a part-owner earlier this year.
United will already increase the price of their season tickets by five per cent for the 2024-25 season. It is the second increase they have put on season tickets after 11 consecutive seasons of price freezes, after also introducing a five per cent increase for their 2022-23 season tickets. However, in the event of a substantial stadium project, United are now considering further ticket price increases to help handle the costs of the project and keep revenues high enough for the team to be competitive on the field.
Unitedâs stadium plans were brought into sharper focus in May after the clubâs longstanding issue with a leaking roof was further exposed when Old Trafford appeared washed out towards the end of the Premier League defeat against Arsenal.
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Speaking to British and international journalists in February, Ratcliffe said the stadium is secondly only to the teamâs on-field performances as the most talked-about issues at United. Ratcliffe himself described Unitedâs stadium as a âwaterfallâ in an interview this month. He stressed that in a world of tightening financial fair play, where clubsâ losses are more closely monitored by both the Premier League and UEFA, optimising revenue from best-in-class stadia is essential.
He estimated that a refurbishment of Old Trafford could cost around ÂŁ1billion â a scenario in which United would take the capacity up to between 80,000 and 90,000 people. He said a newly-built stadium, which he explained was his personal preference but not necessarily feasible, would cost ÂŁ2bn.
Ratcliffe has spoken of his desire to create a âWembley of the Northâ and he has enlisted Sebastian Coe, who chaired the organising committee for the London 2012 Olympic Games, to lead a task force to explore the regeneration of Old Trafford. Former United captain Gary Neville is also a member, while Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Trafford Council CEO Sara Todd are also involved.
The task force will explore how to finance the project. A variety of potential private funding sources will be explored, with the cost of building a new stadium and/or a wider regeneration plan likely to require additional financial partners. In May, Ratcliffe met with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who may soon be the prime minister, to discuss the proposals for the stadium to be the centrepiece of a potential sports, leisure and business campus.
Ratcliffe is overseeing big changes at Old Trafford (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Ratcliffeâs previous call for public funding assistance refers to the regeneration of the broader area rather than Unitedâs stadium itself, and this has been encouraged by Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, but the general public may require some persuasion given that Ratcliffe is domiciled in Monaco and Unitedâs controlling shareholders, the Glazers family, have extracted over ÂŁ166m in dividends from the club during their ownership, while they recently received $1.3bn from Ratcliffe for 27 per cent of the club.
Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) questioned the need to raise ticket prices to help cover the cost of the Old Trafford refurbishment or new build, and called for fan consultation before the stadiumâs naming rights were sold off.
A spokesperson for MUST said: âEveryone agrees the stadium needs development and we understand that needs to be paid for. But we do not believe fans should bear the brunt for capital investment via ticket price rises. Funding for capital projects should ideally be sourced from new shares issues rather than debt.
âAs to whether the the club should sell off stadium naming rights this has long been a highly emotive issues which affects fans directly. Fans need to be at the heart of these decisions and we expect the club to start consultation before decisions are made. MUST will be consulting supporters so that their views are heard.â
Speaking to The Athletic in 2022, Unitedâs legendary forward Eric Cantona said he would âquit football foreverâ if United sold their naming rights. Cantona remains involved in marketing campaigns with United, most notably recently helping the launch of their jersey with new front-of-shirt sponsor, Snapdragon.
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Cantona said: âNow all the stadiums are called Emirates or Allianz. These stadiums lost the soul and history of the club, like Arsenal and West Ham. I played at those old stadiums, like Highbury and Upton Park. I spoke with some Arsenal fans and they hate these (new) stadiums. These fans lost the soul of their clubs.
âFortunately, Old Trafford is still Old Trafford. Anfield is still Anfield.
âBut can you imagine Old Trafford becomes a new stadium called by a brand? If one day they do that, I am sorry but I am not a fan of United anymore. And I quit football forever!
âBut please, donât call this stadium Nestle, or Amazon, please. Old Trafford is Old Trafford.â
(Top photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)
Adam Crafton covers football for The Athletic. He previously wrote for the Daily Mail. In 2018, he was named the Young Sports Writer of the Year by the Sportsâ Journalist Association. His debut book,âFrom Guernica to Guardiolaâ, charting the influence of Spaniards in English football, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2018. He is based in London.