These should be the lavish surroundings demanded by fans – with no more leaks and waterfalls from the roof during matches.
They’ve seen Manchester United fall far behind their rivals in the Premier League on and off the pitch.
There are better stadiums, if not bigger, at Arsenal, Tottenham, and – painfully – Manchester City.
While the men’s team has been in decline on the pitch, Old Trafford has deteriorated too.
Can a 100,000-seat stadium – the biggest in Britain – be built while rebuilding a squad?
And do the numbers add up in an ambitious timeline?
A price point that raises plenty of questions
Sir Jim Ratcliffe hopes to build the new £2bn stadium in just five years, before demolishing Old Trafford, adding to the club debt that already exceeds £1bn.
Could the Glazers – after rejecting a Qatari buyout in favour of Sir Jim’s 29% share purchase – turn to sovereign wealth funds?
Taxpayer cash could be limited to the wider regeneration project that Sir Jim believes will turn this mammoth redevelopment into a tourist attraction to rival the Eiffel Tower.
Certainly the area around the Manchester Ship Canal is in desperate need of regeneration – with waterside dining to one day replace industrial sites and office buildings.
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Fans hope ultimately they don’t pay the price with higher ticket prices.
The supporters’ trust is concerned local fans will be priced out, harming the atmosphere.
And how do the 450 staff being cut feel about the club now finding a way to fund a £2bn project?
United CEO Omar Berrada told Sky News: “The way it marries up is a short-term focus to improve our finances, and then the long-term ambition is to have the best stadium in the world.”
It would be the biggest stadium in the country. Pic: Foster + Partners/PA
Will the team itself miss out?
Funding all this could add to financial pressures just as manager Ruben Amorim needs to overhaul his team.
“We’re in a transformation phase and sometimes when you want to make radical changes, you have to take two steps back before you can move forward,” Mr Berrada said.
“And right now, what you see with Ruben is that he’s making some changes in the squad. He’s changing the culture in the dressing room. He’s instilling a very clear football identity.”
He also pointed to the fact that coming in during the season – after the sacking of Eric ten Hag – means Amorim hasn’t had “enough time to really put in place those ideas”.
Old Trafford was an absolute fortress for years under former manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Pic: Reuters
‘We won’t wait to start winning again’
But this season looks set to end with Liverpool matching United’s record of 20 league titles – and it’s now 12 years since Sir Alex Ferguson won the Premier League for the last time before retiring.
“We think that in the very short term, we can build and invest in the squad,” Mr Berrada said.
“The new stadium shows the ambition and the vision.
“I think we’re already seeing partners want to commit to going with us on this journey.
“We’re probably going to be able to tap in and to have new creative ideas of how we can generate new sources of revenues around the concept we’ve exposed today.
“So we are not going to wait for the stadium to be built for us to start winning again.”
But with United 14th in the league, that could be as hard to visualise as having a new stadium funded and in place by 2030.
