Manchester United minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe discussed the possibility of new Old Trafford this week
An AI-generated image of a potential new Old Trafford, complete with a roof(Image credit: OLBG)
AI-generated images have shown what a potential new 100,000-capacity Old Trafford could look like after Sir Jim Ratcliffe discussed the potential of a new stadium for Manchester United.
Ratcliffe completed his minority 27.7 per cent purchase of the club last month and has taken control of football affairs at the Red Devils.
The billionaire has previously discussed the need to either renovate or rebuild the club’s Old Trafford stadium following a period of neglect.
An AI-generated image of the outside of a potential new Old Trafford (Image credit: OLBG)
This week he has mooted the idea of a new state-of-the-art stadium that could potentially have a capacity of 100,000 seats, which would make it by far the biggest in the Premier League.
"I mean we can refurbish the ground and we'll do a really nice job of that, it will be a fantastic stadium,” Ratcliffe told the Geraint Thomas Cycling Club podcast. “And that would cost about a billion [pounds] to do that and the club can shoulder that burden.
An AI-generated image of a potential new Old Trafford (Image credit: OLBG)
"But you have got this opportunity if you choose to, to build a completely new ground because we have got enough space to build a completely new ground. If you built a completely new ground it would absolutely be state of the art, world-class, 90,000 or maybe even 100,000 (capacity)."
An AI-generated image of a potential new Old Trafford (Image credit: OLBG)
But how would it look? Thanks to AI, we have an idea of what such a project could look like, after OLBG used AI programme Midjourney to conjure up some images to whet the appetite of fans.
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Manchester United have been in their current Old Trafford home since 1910, with the stadium currently having a capacity of 75,000.
For more than a decade Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor, with stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others. He is the author of four football history books that include tomes on Leeds United and the England national team.
