‘The hard work starts today’ as Old Trafford MDC launches
Stakeholders gathered at the Imperial War Museum to usher in a new dawn for the 370 acres around Manchester United’s stadium, which represents an opportunity to transform the underperforming area and a £7bn economic prize for the country.
The project, for which a masterplan is currently being drawn up, could deliver 15,000 homes and a new 100,000-seater stadium for the football club. To drive it forward, the Old Trafford Regeneration Mayoral Development Corporation has been established.
In attendance at the launch of the MDC today [Friday] were newly-appointed project director Karen Hirst, as well as GMCA chief executive Caroline Simpson, Manchester United’s chief operating officers Colette Roche, and Trafford Council Leader Cllr Tom Ross.
Collectively, they expressed excitement at the scheme’s transformational potential and a willingness to work collaboratively.
MDC chair Lord Sebastian Coe said the project had the potential to be bigger than the regeneration sparked by the London 2012 Olympics, which he spearheaded.
Lord Sebastian Coe will chair the MDC. Credit: via Trafford Council
He also told attendees at the event that the successful delivery of the sports-led regeneration of Old Trafford would require significant and often “painstaking” engagement with local people.
“Today is a defining moment, the beginning of a long-term commitment to transforming the Old Trafford area,” Coe said.
“We are now open for business – and there’s a lot to do. Over the next few months, we will share our outline masterplan and we will begin to make this vision a reality.”
Ross, who, as well as leading the council, lives at the heart of the masterplan area, said the launch of the MDC was a “very historic moment” for the borough and Greater Manchester.
“The hard work starts today,” he said.
Don’t hold your breath
By Steve1980
Why be so negative, are you a City fan?. New Old Trafford and surrounding redevelopment will happen.
By Degsy
They know Man United are finished right? 😉
By Clag
Great news. This is Manchester it will get delivered.
By Anonymous
As long as there is no public money for Man U including land assembly. Does the £7b include displacement, probably not?
By Anon
Hopefully more successful than Sportcity
By Anonymous
Am I the only person who fails to see how these unelected and unaccountable MDCs actually deliver anything of themselves?
By Anonymous
This offers a superb boost to Manchester airport and to the city’s hoteliers and should be welcomed. Manufacturers of half-and-half scarves should also be in clover. One must hope the club is planning a suitably large souvenir shop – plenty of jobs there. If recent history is a guide, the DVD ‘101 Great Man United throw-ins’ is a sure-fire best seller.
By Birket Boy
Yawn. Meanwhile homeless people are dying on the streets, food banks are still needed, child poverty isn’t going away, and so called ‘affordable’ housing is rapidly becoming a myth.
By Anonymous
You know when a politician says it will be bigger than something in London they are stretching the imagination!
By AP
What disappointing comments – nothing wrong with ambition & regeneration. You’ll never get anywhere without it. The combination of all relevant parties into one entity (MDC) has the best chance of being able to deliver. Ranting from the sidelines will not deliver anything, will it?
By William
@Anonymous (January 24, 2026 at 7:45 pm)
If only creating jobs and a £7bn boost to the economy could help address issues like homelessness, the need for foodbanks and child poverty. The issue isn’t projects like this; the issue is how every government for the past 50 years has chosen to use the economic fruits of such projects.
By Anonymous
15,000 homes – so who is buying out the Freightliner site (valued by Freightliner at £350m) – not MUFC as they don’t need all of the land and even they will have worked out that if they need any Freightliner land they can do a land swap.
So it will be left to the public sector to acquire in order to deliver the several thousand homes on the Old Trafford Masterplan launched at MIPIM 2025. Best of luck with that (unless we do take the 2040 /44 Olympic Bid idea seriously with Liverpool and Leeds as partner cities).
By Anonymous
Its Manchester of course it will happen one way or another…
By Steve
The public sector often subsidise regeneration projects, mainly for land assembly and site decontamination. This can be large scale schemes like Stockport town centre regeneration or small infill housing sites which can be partially funded by Homes England. Without public funding many of these projects would not get out of the ground.
I can think of a number of regeneration schemes that have involved the construction of new stadiums or arenas which have benefited from public funding. Manchester City and West Ham United have stadiums which were built 100% from the public purse, Everton’s stadium had some public funding for site clearance and I am sure there are more. On the Old Trafford scheme it’s clear that public funding will help achieve the wider regeneration aims for the area but United will fund the lions share of their new stadium construction.
By Anonymous
I wish them well, but getting anything done of scale in Trafford, even with the leaders support, has been a complete nightmare and money pit. Perhaps with the nations spotlight on the place a page will be turned and the scheme delivered.
By Tannoy
I like the general redevelopment idea but Foster’s Old Trafford scheme just seems high maintenance and a bit gimmicky. Someone like BIG might have provided a bit of originality. (I’m a Manchester born United fan in case you’re wondering…)
By Anonymous
@Anonymous (26 January 2026 at 9.58am) – I am with you – Salford Quays, Castlefield, Ancoats, New Islington, Eastlands (including coincidentally another football stadium, for the ‘noisy neighbours’), all needed multi million £ public sector investment into land assembly, decontamination and infrastructure to make them attractive for private sector investment.
By MPR
This may take several years to finally come to fruition, but what a fantastic vision to have, if you look at the success around Sport City Manchester, the city’s sporting success is supported by a unique concentration of elite facilities, including the Etihad Stadium, the National Cycling Centre, the Regional Athletics Arena and the Manchester Tennis & Football Centre.
Together with nearby venues like the Manchester Aquatics Centre, the proposed Trafford area will form one of the most comprehensive high performance sports hubs in Europe.
So come on Mr Bandwagon, get your shoulder to the wheel and deliver something for Manchester.
By Steve58839
The key point here is that this is NOT Manchester………it is Trafford. Many things do happen in Manchester but the same cannot be said of Trafford and its politicians and officers. The GM DC has no experience of delivering anything, let alone anything of this scale and the personalities involved ie Coe, Burnham etc have no commitment to the area. They both love this because it is a vanity project but it won’t be delivered without massive public investment. I’m a life long red and would love this but realism hurts
By Dessie
It will happen, too much momentum behind it, it’s just a case of when and how much. If it were London of course it would have happened by now.
By Anonymous
Would love to know what anon 11.39 means by momentum as I have seen none……..in fact the regions big backer just tried to exit which speaks volumes!!!
By Stevo1650
Absolutely disgusting if any public money is spent on a private football club’s stadium. Don’t forget that Ratcliffe lives in Monaco so he doesn’t have to pay taxes in this country!
By Riley N