Update on new Man Utd stadium as club create special task force with Olympic gold medallist and Gary Neville involved

MANCHESTER UNITED have set up a special task force to explore options for a new stadium.

Olympian Lord Sebastian Coe will chair the group and Gary Neville will provide advice as the club aim to regenerate Old Trafford.

Lord Sebastian Coe will chair the special task force

The club will seek advice from local leaders and national experts to bring economic and social benefits to the Trafford area of Manchester.

That includes improving transport hubs, amenities and building mixed income housing.

As well as former player Neville, the task force will include Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and the Chief Executive of Trafford Council Sara Todd.

Lord Coe said in a statement: “Throughout my career in sport, I have seen the potential for stadiums to become focal points for strong communities and catalysts for social and economic development.

“That was certainly true of the venues we built in east London for the 2012 Olympics, and we are overdue a project of similar scale and ambition in the north of England.

“I am honoured to have this opportunity to share my experience in support of this tremendously exciting project.”

Neville added: “I’m incredibly fortunate to have had the privilege of playing hundreds of games at Old Trafford, and no one can take away those amazing memories.

“But Old Trafford has evolved throughout its history and it’s clear we are at a point where it has to change again to ensure that Manchester United has a world class stadium befitting the world’s greatest club.

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“While I want the best for Manchester United, I also want the same for the surrounding community. Old Trafford should be a stadium that the whole of Greater Manchester can take pride in, and be a catalyst for sustainable, cohesive growth in an area of the city that has been neglected for too long.”

New United investor Sir Jim Ratcliffe is keen to explore options on the current Old Trafford site, including bulldozing the Theatre of Dreams to make way for a new state-of-the-art venue.

Ratcliffe said: “This can be a major regeneration project for an area of Greater Manchester which has played such a key role in British industrial history, but which today requires new investment to thrive again.

“The north-west of England has a greater concentration of major football clubs than anywhere else in the world, yet we don’t have a stadium on the scale of Wembley, the Nou Camp or Bernabeu.

“We will not be able to change that on our own, which is why this task force is so important to help us seize this once-in-a-century opportunity.”

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