When will the new Manchester United stadium open? Red Devils offer update | Football

Manchester United’s new stadium plans are ‘on track’ but the new venue will not be opening as soon as some fans may have hoped.

The ambitious project was revealed in March 2025, with the Red Devils hoping to build a new 100,000-seat stadium near their current home at Old Trafford.

The new arena is expected to cost around £2bn to construct, with the eye-catching ‘circus tent’ design creating plenty of buzz about the project.

Co-owner Jim Ratcliffe suggested that the plans could be completed in five years, saying in March: ‘We can spend 10 years building a new stadium, or we can spend five years building a new stadium.

‘And I’d rather spend five years then 10 years. I might not be here in 10 years!’

Architect Norman Foster backed that prediction, saying: ‘Normally, a stadium would take 10 years to build. We half that time. Five years.

‘How do we do that? By prefabrication. By using the network of Manchester Ship Canal. Bringing it back to a new life. Shipping in components, 160 of them, Meccano-like.’

Those comments left some fans expecting the stadium to be opening up in 2030, but that is not the case.

Instead, the five-year prediction is from when work actually starts on building the club’s new home, which is yet to happen.

Collette Roche, Manchester United’s CEO of New Stadium Development, told Inside Carrington: ‘I think when we launched the idea of a new stadium 12 months ago, we did say it would take between four and five years for construction and that’s right.

‘But I think people read that as we might have the stadium ready for 2030. But as you know with a stadium build as complex as the one we are going to enter into, it does take one or two years to get ready for construction, to get the land assembled, the gets the funds in place and to get the planning permission, so that’s the part we are doing right now.

‘We have not named a date for opening but we are on track.’

When will the new Manchester United stadium open?

As Roche states, there has been no date announced for the stadium’s opening, but she also says: ‘We’ve made a lot of progress over the last 12 month.’

ESPN report that the plan is to have the new stadium ready for the start of the 2032/33 season.

The BBC have suggested a longer wait, stating: ‘Manchester United are still aiming to have their new stadium built and ready to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup final.’

On that prospect, Roche told MUTV that it would be ‘incredible’ to host that match in the summer of 2035 ‘if we could pull that off.’

‘Our plan is to be able to host other international sporting events and entertainment events,’ she said.

‘Andy Burnham, the mayor, said his ambition would be for us to host the final for the Women’s World Cup in 2035, so if we could pull that off, that would be incredible.’

Roche confirmed that the plans unveiled a year ago are unchanged and explained what has been done over the last 12 months.

‘First and foremost, on the land assembly, we want to make sure we get the best possible position for the stadium, one which has got plenty of land around it to put the right facilities in place, one that is connected and offers a great matchday experience,’ she said. ‘I have been spending a lot of time talking to all of the local land owners to understand where that needs to be and we are progressing that really, really well. I am hoping to be able to share some positive news on that front in the next few months.

‘The second area that we’ve done a lot in is around investment and I am delighted to say we’ve had a lot of interest. There’s a lot of people and organisations that want to invest, not just in the stadium but also in the wider stadium district. Those conversations are naturally going to be behind closed doors.

‘And the third part but arguably the most important work we have been doing is really laying the foundations and relationships with the people that are going to make things happen. So primarily it’s the local authorities, it’s working with the newly established Mayoral Development Corporation.’

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