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Public funding to back United's new stadium?

Fans of other clubs may be less than pleased to hear about the prospect of public funding for Manchester United’s new stadium, but the funding would be for associated works rather than the stadium itself.   In other countries, not least the United States, there is public funding for stadium projects because of the claimed wider benefits.   Indeed, local governments compete to attract sport franchises.

Influential Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham says he is expecting to secure more than £200mn in government funding for the regeneration of Old Trafford in the forthcoming spending review, paving the way for Manchester United to build a new stadium.  Burnham told the Financial Times that he was having accelerated talks with ministers about his funding request and was confident of a “quick answer”.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is due to outline the government’s public expenditure plans for the rest of the parliament on June 11. Asked if he was expecting a promise of cash in the spending review, Burnham said: “I am. Because if you’re going to go for growth in the way the government wants to, you just have to . . . get on with it.”

Prominent figures, including Burnham and former London Olympics chair Lord Sebastian Coe, believe the plan can also be a catalyst for far wider regeneration in the surrounding area, south-west of Manchester city centre. 

However, in order for the club to build its new ground as intended, an adjacent rail freight hub would need to be moved to IPL North, a proposed new logistics hub in St Helens, Merseyside, said Burnham.  The move would have the added benefit of freeing up rail capacity through Manchester’s existing congested rail corridor, he said, adding that a business case had been drawn up to justify government funding for the regeneration plans.

In January, Reeves said she was backing the Old Trafford regeneration project, which is expected to include thousands of new homes around the dramatically upgraded new stadium.  Since then the mayor has been discussing his related regeneration plans for the area with the Treasury and the ministry for local government.

Due to a new accelerated process for mayors, Burnham said he no longer had to throw funding requests “into a black hole” and then wait for “white smoke”, adding that they had made “real progress” in those discussions.  Reeves is also expected to visit Old Trafford in the near future, he said, “so that we can show her the site in a much more practical way”.

But the financing of the stadium remains unclear. The club made losses totalling more than £300mn in the three years to 2024 and Ratcliffe said that without severe cost-cutting measures introduced in recent months, the club could have run out of cash by the end of the year.  

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