Last year, Sir Jim Ratcliffe told the Mirror that the prospect of selling the naming rights to Old Trafford “would be heresy” – but now it appears to be on the table.
Or at least they’ve found a loophole.
According to reports, initially in The Athletic, the club is exploring options should they need to either build a new stadium, or carry out extensive refurbishment of the current one.
United are said to have held “exploratory talks” with institutions, including the Bank of America, as they look at how to raise capital.
The well-publicised problems with the current Old Trafford are well known. Ratcliffe himself described it as the “third-highest waterfall in Britain” as rain flooded in last season.
The 114-year-old stadium has always been known as Old Trafford and in July last year, Ratcliffe told the Mirror that he “hadn’t thought of” renaming Old Trafford.
“That would be heresy. I would not change it. It’s always Old Trafford,” he stated.
Hence the loophole, because should it remain in situ and just building work carried out, then the club may pursue an “associated partner” rather than selling full naming rights to the stadium. That would be a similar situation to Wembley, which is “connected by EE” rather than being the EE Wembley Stadium.
Which brings us to the “Wembley of the North.” Should that project be greenlit, then a multimillion pound deal to sell the naming rights would most likely form part of that financing.
