Old Trafford officially announces completion of new expansion

Old Trafford has been home of the most successful team of the Premier League era, hosting the Sir Alex Ferguson reign at Manchester United that saw the Red Devils win 13 Premier League titles.

It has been home to some of sport’s biggest events, including the 2003 UEFA Champions League final between AC Milan and Juventus, as Andriy Shevchenko scored the winning penalty in Milan’s shootout win.

The stadium has also been host to matches at the 2012 London Olympic Games, many Super League grand finals, games in both the Rugby Union and Rugby League World Cups and potentially further events in the future.

The state of Old Trafford has been subject to much media talk.

With Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s plans to replace Old Trafford and with a new “Wembley of the North”, with the new development set to cost around £2 billion.

However, in the interim, there have been some expansions to Old Trafford, prior to the Monday Night Football clash with Everton.

Manchester United have revealed on their official club website, that their new safe standing area will officially open tonight.

There will be an extra 6,000 rail seats present in the second tier of the Streford End, work that has been approved by the Sports Ground Safety Authority.

This now means there is a total of 13,577 rail seats, which were first introduced to Old Trafford in 2021, which cover all four sections of the ground. This works out as 18% of the stadium’s full capacity.

Whilst eats were introduced into all English grounds after some horrific fan tragedies, there has been a movement to attempt to bring it back and make it safe for all involved. Fans were even quesitoned on the matter before it was approved.

The majority of clubs in the Premier League now have a safe standing area, as stadiums look to bring back these types of seats to football games, but with a lot more focus on the safety of fans.