Manchester United executive co-chairman Joel Glazer has pledged to “accelerate” upgrades to Old Trafford as part of what the English Premier League football club has described as “a new era of dialogue and consultation with fans”.
On Friday afternoon, United set out its vision for a new Fan Advisory Board and a Fan Share Scheme, with the club having been widely criticised for its aborted attempt to join the failed breakaway Super League scheme in April.
At the heart of the fan consultation will be improvements to United’s famous home, which holds nearly 75,000 fans.
“Old Trafford is at the heart of Manchester United and while we have spent over £100m over the last 10 years on infrastructure projects, we will now accelerate the process of planning much more significant investment and upgrades to the stadium,” Glazer said. “Rest assured, we will consult with supporters throughout the process to end up with a result we can all be proud of.
“The same goes for our training ground. Preliminary planning work is already under way and there will be significant funding available to further enhance our facilities and ensure they remain world class.”
Glazer, who acknowledged the need to upgrade Old Trafford last month, added: “We want this club to always be successful and win trophies. To compete for trophies requires significant investment. The commercial growth at the club has helped deliver the revenue which ultimately underpins that investment in a sustainable manner.
“That approach has allowed us to have among the highest net transfer spend in world football over the last five years and have one of the highest wage bills. Also, as a direct result of our commercial business, we have kept ticket prices affordable for all fans and not raised season ticket prices in over 10 years. This is an area that we as a club are very proud of.”
Image: Abhijit Tembhekar from Pune, INDIA/Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)/Edited for size
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