Man Utd Old Trafford redevelopment update as condition explained | Football | Sport

Sebastian Coe has conceded that the timeline for constructing Manchester United’s new stadium remains “slightly uncertain”, while insisting the project was “moving in the right direction”. The Red Devils confirmed in March last year plans to redevelop Old Trafford into a new 100,000-seater stadium.

Lord Coe, who oversaw London’s 2012 Olympic and Paralympic bid, serves as chair of the Mayoral Development Corporation for the Old Trafford regeneration scheme.

The former IOC president previously headed a task force established by United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe to examine stadium options for the club as part of a broader regeneration of the surrounding area.

Coe is now playing a pivotal role in the development of the 100,000-seater stadium, which Ratcliffe hopes will become the ‘Wembley of the north’. However, he disclosed that securing the land required for the project – estimated to cost around £2billion – was proving “complicated”.

“I love regeneration projects and I was really pleased to be asked to get involved in that,” Coe told The Sports Agents podcast.

“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.”

On the subject of the potential timescale, Coe added: “Well, again, it’s slightly uncertain at the moment. The stadium is being scoped and being improperly 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.”