Manchester United’s financial circumstances have garnered significant attention in recent months, particularly following the implementation of various cost-reduction strategies by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
The Premier League club has unveiled plans to construct a stadium with a capacity of 100,000 seats as part of the government’s initiative to revitalize the Old Trafford area.
An expert task force, which includes Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham and former defender Gary Neville, has advocated for this new development rather than enhancing the current stadium.
Ratcliffe has expressed his ambition for the new stadium, projected to cost approximately £2 billion, to become the “world’s greatest” and aims for its completion within five years.
Stefan Borson, a former financial advisor for Manchester City, exclusively informed Football Insider that the total cost of the project could reach around £3 billion when factoring in interest expenses during construction.
Despite reporting a net loss of £113.2 million, United achieved a record revenue of £661.8 million for the 2023-24 season.
Currently, the Manchester club’s debt is approximately £1 billion, reflecting the financial difficulties it has encountered in recent years.
Man United debt could soar after new stadium plans revealed
Borson insisted United’s debt could continue to increase during the new stadium build process.
He told Football Insider: “I think financing it is a big question generally because obviously United already have quite a lot of debt and this is not a cheap stadium.
“What’s happened over the years in stadium building, particularly in the UK, is there’s been a huge amount of inflation in the cost of these stadiums and we’re now looking at £2billion.
“If you do the maths on it, this isn’t starting tomorrow. The likelihood is that, even during the period of the build, you’re going to have not just cost inflation in that it’s going to run over budget, but also just general inflation.
“It’s hard to know what the assumptions are within the £2billion, but it could easily turn into £2.5billion or even £3billion because they’re clearly not going to have the benefits of the additional revenue that the stadium is going to generate during the build.
“If the stadium generates in today’s terms £150million a year additional revenue, that essentially falls to the bottom line because a lot of that will be ticket revenue. Let’s say even in the best case, the stadium is worth another £150million a year of profits, that’s not available during the build.
“What that means is that you’ve got to fund it in stages, you’ve got to fund the cost of the stadium, so during that five years, it could be easily be £500million a year.
“In the first year you’ve got £500million, in the second year your debt’s up to £1billion, in the third year it’s up to £1.5billion and all the way along that’s generating interest cost but you don’t have the revenue that’s coming in from the stadium to pay for the interest cost.
“The likelihood is that what happens during the build process is that the club rolls up the interest onto the principal amount. That could easily be another £500million of interest over that five-year period during the build process.
“All of a sudden, a build that just on its own in terms of the build cost of £2-2.5billion has the interest cost for paying for the stadium as it’s being built before you’ve got revenue. The bottom line is, it’s a very expensive project.”
| Ranking | Stadium | Capacity |
| 1 | Old Trafford (Man United) | 74,197 |
| 2 | Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (Tottenham) | 62,850 |
| 3 | London Stadium (West Ham) | 62,500 |
| 4 | Anfield (Liverpool) | 61,276 |
| 5 | Emirates Stadium (Arsenal) | 60,704 |
| 6 | Etihad Stadium (Man City) | 52,900 |
Jim Ratcliffe could make Man United takeover demand to fund new stadium
Ratcliffe is exploring various financing options for the new stadium project following his assumption of control over football operations at Old Trafford in February of the previous year.
On February 13, Football Insider reported that Ratcliffe might seek additional shares in Manchester United to support the funding of this initiative.
The INEOS chairman currently holds a 28.9 percent ownership in the club, whereas the Glazers’ shareholding has recently decreased to 48.9 percent.
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