Man United are set to publish architect designs for a new Old Trafford Stadium on Tuesday.
Fans will be keen to find out whether the plan is for a new 100,000-seater stadium or the redevelopment of the existing one.
Co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is keen for a new-build stadium on the same site at Trafford Park and chancellor Rachel Reeves has voiced her backing for a proposed regeneration of the area in south Manchester.
Sir Jim has presided over a severe cuts at Man United. Last month, the club announced plans to make up to 200 more redundancies, with staff expected to learn their fate in April. Those redundancies follow 250 job cuts made last year.
United recently announced they had lost more than £300million over the past three years.
And, on Monday, Sir Jim claimed that there was ‘no money left in the club’. He also went on to blame the financial hardship on the squad, moaning that some of his United stars were paid too much.
Man United are expected to make an announcement about their stadium project on Tuesday
Man United minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe insists the club can afford the project
It remains to be seen whether the plan is for a new 100,000-seater stadium or the redevelopment of the existing one
Despite that, Sir Jim insisted that the club could afford the massive expensive of building a new stadium.
‘I think it is financeable,’ Ratcliffe told The Times.
‘But key to it is being part of the government regeneration project for southern Manchester which, you know, Rachel Reeves has talked about as one of those three major planks of their growth strategy.
‘We’re not going to ask the government for any money to build the ground but we can’t afford to do all of the other stuff around it.
‘But we want an iconic stadium and I would like to do think those billion fans around the world will all want to come to Manchester and see it, which will create value for the club and the north economy. If you look at Oxford Economics they estimate £7billion per annum.’
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