Up to now, it has been 1 year since Man United announced the new Old Trafford stadium project. Collette Roche - Man United's new stadium development CEO revealed that the project construction may not begin until 2027.
In March 2025, Man United announced a new stadium project worth about 2 billion pounds. Sir Jim Ratcliffe estimated that the stadium construction would take about 5 years if it received adequate support from local authorities in terms of mechanisms.
Also at the project announcement ceremony, when asked about whether it would be in time for the 2030-2031 season, CEO Omar Berrada shared quite confidently about this project. However, in reality, everything is quite slow due to site clearance issues.
Collette Roche is also not worried about the 5-year progress, but she is not sure when it will be possible to start construction. Roche shared on Man United's Podcast that it takes 1-2 years to prepare for construction, site clearance, and raise enough capital before it can apply for a construction permit. To synchronously implement these tasks, many stages are needed and it is not certain that it will be completed this year to start construction.
The site clearance issue is causing Man United the biggest headache. The railway freight transshipment station is operated by Freightliner Ltd. Man United valued the land at around £50 million, much lower than the £400 million price Freightliner requested in last year's negotiations.
In September 2025, after realizing it was impossible to pressure Freightliner prices, Man United planned to cancel the new stadium roof to save costs and focus money on site clearance. However, Ms. Roche believes that everything will soon find common ground.
“We have made a lot of progress in the past 12 months, but to be fair, most of the progress achieved took place in the later items. So, people may not see that.
We want to ensure the best location to build this stadium, a location with plenty of land around to build suitable facilities, a good connectivity location and bring great experiences during the competition day.
I spent a lot of time talking to all local landlords to understand the necessary position. Man United is progressing very well in negotiations and hopes to provide some positive news about this issue in the next few months" - Collette Roche shared.
Besides site clearance, another issue that is also of concern is which sources Man United will mobilize 2 billion pounds from. Last year, Sir Jim Ratcliffe himself confidently shared that he could mobilize the full amount of money and did not need public investment.
Although Sir Jim affirmed so, to raise 2 billion pounds, Man United will definitely have to borrow more. In the latest financial report, the team has a financial debt of up to 777 million pounds.
Collette Roche is confident that it can attract more investors because this project not only has a new Old Trafford stadium, it will be a sports entertainment complex with a lot of room for commercial exploitation.
