Manchester United have been told they could be facing a £15million loss in order to fulfil Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s goal of making the “Wembley of the North”. Ratcliffe has lofty ambitions for Old Trafford, which is currently lagging considerably behind Europe’s top-tier stadiums.
He envisions the club having a modernised 90,000-seater ground, a transformation that would necessitate substantial renovations or even a full-scale rebuild alongside the present location.
Foreseeing a significant financial blow for the Red Devils regardless of their chosen route, Rob Wilson – head of finance, accounting and business systems at Sheffield Hallam University – has explained the revenue setbacks they’d have to deal with.
Via the Mirror, he told BestAnonymousCasinos.com: “There will be a revenue hit if they have to close parts of the stadium. And naturally, those teams that are in and around the North-West are much smaller in terms of venues and are unlikely to want to do a [stadium share] deal with Manchester United.
“It will be really interesting to see what option Manchester United go for. If they decide for a rebuild then they will need to relocate and that will cost them several million pounds as just an arbitrary figure, which if they left for a few seasons could cost them upwards of £15million or so in terms of lost revenue.”
Even downsizing to a slightly smaller home in the meantime would have a huge impact on the club’s revenue, with Wilson continuing: “They probably generate between £3-4million per match through matchday sales and the additional ancillary services as well.
“If you moved out of a 75,000-seater stadium to a 60,000-seater stadium, you are probably going to lose something like £1-1.5 million per match.”
United find themselves in somewhat of a catch-22 situation. Continuing to play games at Old Trafford while work is carried out will result in lower income too.
“Conversely, if they decide to redevelop Old Trafford then they are going to be in a situation with Real Madrid and the Bernabeu which is going to see greatly restricted attendances. This again is going to cost them dearly on that basis,” Wilson declared.
However, those figures will of course increase in the long term, making it a wise investment if minority owner Ratcliffe can stomach the losses in the interim. However, he’s already had his suggestion to use public funds seemingly knocked back by the government.
Wilson concluded: “It’s difficult to give a precise figure, but I would imagine it would be more than £10m for the relocation, but I would imagine they would be able to get those numbers back relatively quickly as a result of having a new purpose-built or enhanced stadium with more seats than the current stadium.”
