OpinionManchester United selling Old Trafford naming rights would be a shame but stadium needs expanding
- Gary Neville’s comments spark debate among Man United fans, but the issue is less about price than availability
- Demand for increased capacity is there, but the Glazers are reluctant to spend hundreds of millions needed
“Manchester United have said that they will never put naming rights to Old Trafford, but I would sell the naming rights to Old Trafford for £60, £70, £80 million year,” the former Manchester United defender Gary Neville told Stan Collymore’s podcast this week.
“On the understanding that from the £800 million generated over 10 years that the whole of the Stretford End cost £10 and a proportion of those tickets went to young people … the whole of the Stretford End would be bouncing with hungry, raw individuals who’d be able to drive that next generation of United fans and allow the [local] communities of Hulme, Stretford, Broughton and Salford and Ordsall to get into Old Trafford.”
It’s a positive sentiment. Old Trafford has been full for practically every league game since 1992 and been expanded four times since to its current 76,000 capacity. It’s still not enough.
The match going demographic is an ageing one and local kids struggle to get tickets to the club they support in an overwhelming majority over Manchester City. The packed buses which I took to Old Trafford as a kid have long been empty of fans going to football. United sign young footballers from the areas mentioned by Neville – yet they never went to games until they became associated with the club.
Local youngsters are detached from the club on their doorstep – some are more likely to ask a fan if they want their car minding than go into the stadium with them.