Sport

Animator shows what an Old Trafford redesign could look like

The majority of fans would struggle to say goodbye to the Theatre of Dreams, but virtually everyone can agree on one thing: it needs some serious TLC.

Danny Jones - 26th February 2023

With Manchester United on the verge of finally being bought out and actually playing some decent football again, the issue of Old Trafford’s redevelopment is one that’s on many fans’ minds.

Despite being one of the most iconic stadiums in the world, the Theatre of Dreams is actually one of the older, more outdated football arenas in the Premier League, especially given the size of the club which inhabits it.

That being said, United fans have been calling for renovations at Old Trafford for a long time and while the Glazers never looked particularly keen on investing in the stadium, the potential sale of the club could mean a new lease of life is now on the horizon.

Obviously, nobody knows what a hypothetical Old Trafford redesign would look like but YouTuber Bondibot has taken it upon himself to mock up a few options.

As you can see, the 3D animator who specialises in stadium designs and concept art took multiple approaches when it came to visualising how Old Trafford’s redevelopment could unfold; the first and arguably most likely being the expansion of the existing South (Sir Bobby Charlton) Stand.

Currently the section with the smallest capacity and the only one that doesn’t share the recognisable white railings on the roof, his first option to ‘Expand’ Old Trafford would see the same features duplicated all the way around, including all four corner pillars copying the more geometric design of the existing two on the north side.

Option B, ‘Upgrade’, would see an entirely new facade built around the original Old Trafford, essentially wrapping the old ground in a more modern shell without having to destroy any of the existing fixtures.

Can’t lie, it gave us big, shiny bedpan vibes — no offence.

The final and perhaps most divisive option posed by Bondibot was a complete ‘Rebuild’: erecting a brand new, redesigned stadium right next to Old Trafford as it is now, before ultimately bulldozing the 113-year-old sporting institution and building a new training facility and wider club complex on the land.

Despite being a marked upgrade from The Cliff which United trained at up until 1999 at the time, another criticism of the club’s lack of evolution over the past decade or so has been their primary training ground at Carrington, which many have noted is also now a little outdated.

Not only would a new training complex in close proximity to the ground, similar to Man City, make much more sense on the whole, but it would create opportunities for fan spaces, more room for matchday concessions, larger parking facilities and so on — again, not unlike the Etihad Campus.

Each possible Old Trafford redesign has its pros and cons but fans might genuinely have to start considering which one they’d prefer if this takeover goes through. One thing, however, seems certain: a name change just wouldn’t feel right. They rarely do…