Sebastian Coe has admitted the timeline to build Manchester United’s new stadium was ‘slightly uncertain’ and opened up on the enormous project ahead.
Lord Coe, who oversaw London’s 2012 Olympic and Paralympic bid, is chair of the Mayoral Development Corporation for the Old Trafford regeneration project.
The former IOC president previously chaired a task force set up by United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe to look at stadium options for the club amid a wider regeneration of the surrounding area.
Coe is now playing a key part in the development of the 100,000-seater stadium, which Ratcliffe hopes will become the ‘Wembley of the north’.
However, he revealed that acquiring the land needed for the project – set to cost an estimated £2billion – was proving to be complicated.
Speaking on The Sports Agents podcast, Coe said: ‘I love regeneration projects and I was really pleased to be asked to get involved in that.
A mock-up of what Manchester United’s planned 100,000-seater stadium could look like
‘I do actually believe in good, locally-funded projects to make lives easier for local people. And I also saw from the London model that if you build it around sport, the multiplier impact of getting other stuff done is far quicker than it would have been.
‘Land acquisition is always complicated. I know that from London, so, at this moment, it’s just putting the stuff together sequentially and incrementally and using a world-class stadium to be a catalyst for so many other things, including inward investment.
‘So, it’s about jobs, it’s about housing, it’s about educational aspiration and I’ve seen sport so often used properly, changing local landscapes and this is an exciting project.’
As for the timescale, Coe added: ‘Well, again, it’s slightly uncertain at the moment. The stadium is being scoped and being properly scaled.
‘But again, that is also dependent on the purchasing and the acquisition of various other parcels of land in that space.
‘That’s all taking place at the moment and I won’t maintain a running commentary on that, but we’re moving in the right direction.’
Last month, Daily Mail Sport revealed that United hope to submit a planning application in the next 12 to 18 months, and the club’s CEO of stadium development Collette Roche believes the project is on course to meet Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s target of hosting the women’s final in nine years’ time.
‘Our plan is to be able to host other international sporting events and entertainment events,’ Roche told MUTV in an interview. ‘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.
Lord Sebastian Coe, pictured at Cheltenham Festival this year, is in charge of the project
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‘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 that we’re going to enter into, it does take one or two years to get ready for construction.
‘To get the land assembled, to get the funds in place and to get the planning permission. So that’s the part that we’re doing right now. So we’ve not named a date for opening, but we are on track within those timescales.
‘We want to build a stadium that’s befitting of our past, but also fit for the future. We want to make sure that we keep what’s important, the special memories that people have had, and not just for our fans, but for our players.
‘So we need to create a new stadium that retains that essence – the match day routines, the emotion, the intimidating atmosphere for the away fans and make sure we build something really, really special. And we think we can do that through a 100,000-seater stadium.’
