The Mancunian Way: Wembley of the north
13.03.2024 - 19:05
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
By the start of the 2025/26 football season Manchester and Liverpool will be home to three stadiums with a capacity of more than 60,000 and a fourth above 50,000. But that’s not stopped Sir Jim Ratcliffe making a plea for public funding to help turn Old Trafford into a ‘Wembley for the north’.
In today’s Mancunian Way, football writer Tyrone Marshall runs the rule over a ‘fairly cynical ploy’ to get taxpayers to fork out to rebuild a crumbling stadium that’s become the target of mockery from opposing fans.
Elsewhere we’ll be having a chat with David Tully, the man everyone wants a piece of after the independent candidate surprised many by finishing second to George Galloway in the Rochdale by-election. And we’ll take a look inside Manchester’s huge new superstore which the owners hope to turn into an ‘Afro Asda’.
"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," Sir Jim Ratcliffe said last week after setting up a task force to oversee the redevelopment of Old Trafford. But, in capacity terms at least, Manchester United’s home is already that stadium.
And in a couple of years time, once the Etihad has been expanded, Manchester will be home to two stadiums capable of hosting Champions League finals. Setting aside those practical considerations, the unedifying sight of one of the UK’s richest men asking for public money to help repair the neglect of the Glazer family, another set of billionaires lest we forget, hasn’t gone down well with many, including senior football writer Tyrone Marshall.
“Does it need public funding to build another [stadium]? That is a question that doesn't