Manchester United are considering all options with regard to updating Old Trafford, including knocking the stadium down and building a new one on the same site.
A plan to demolish the iconic Old Trafford Stadium and rebuild it from scratch has been reportedly proposed as Manchester United consider revamping the 112-year-old stadium to make it fit for modern purposes.
Bulldozing one of England football's most famous club stadium - the home of the Busby Babes and Sir Alex Ferguson's 1999 treble winners - and raising it back from the group up would perhaps upset a sizeable proportion of fans. Still, a report in the Daily Mail suggests the proposal is one of the three currently being considered by the Red Devils.
One significant obstacle identified so far is where the team would play their home games while the new stadium was under construction. However, the report added, "United are blessed with acres of land on their current site in Stretford on which to construct a stadium to rival any in the world of sport if they chose to do so."
Apart from demolishing the Old Trafford, other options reportedly include razing and rebuilding the stadium's ageing South Stand up and over the railway line that runs behind it or leaving the structure intact, but revamping spectator and corporate areas on all four sides.
The South Stand revamp reportedly appeals to the club's owners, the Glazer family and is likely to be Manchester United's option. It would also be the most acceptable to fans of the Red Devils, who have witnessed history being created innumerable times at a first built venue in 1910.
The technology available would also address the issue of navigating the railway line and increase the stadium's capacity from 74,000 to over 80,000. The Daily Mail report states the club have said they would prefer a phased rebuild of Old Trafford.
However, the option to bulldoze the iconic stadium is understood to be real and is part of the proposals that competing architects and engineers have been reportedly examining as they bid for the contract to carry out the work.
United's biggest obstacle would perhaps be finding somewhere else to play for two years if the club chooses to demolish and rebuild Old Trafford.
In 2019, United invested almost 20 million pounds in Old Trafford, of which 11 million pounds was spent on improvements to accessible facilities, 4 million pounds on security and 4 million pounds on refurbishing hospitality locales.
When Arsenal and Tottenham awaited work on their new stadia, they played home games at Wembley. However, this is an unlikely option for United as there is no club outside the Premier League in the north-west that has a big enough stadium to share. And sharing with arch-rivals and neighbours, Manchester City would never happen.
Last month Collette Roche, United's chief operating officer, discussed the future of Old Trafford with the club fans' forum. "We have been assessing the capabilities of globally leading consultants who want to help us develop a master plan for the modernisation of Old Trafford, with the ultimate aim of improving the matchday experience for fans," she said.
"We are hoping to appoint our preferred partners in the coming weeks; following this, we will be able to formally kick-off phase one of the project, which will be focused on establishing the vision and objectives for the master plan," she added.
Regardless of what the club chooses, the wider vision is likely to position Old Trafford as a cultural hub, similar to Tottenham Hotspur's stadium, which opened three years ago and cost around 1 billion pounds.
Old Trafford remains one of the most famous stadiums in world football and has played host to World Cup and European Championship games as well as a Champions League final.
But despite several attempts at modernisation over the years, it now falls some way below the standards required by a top English club. Facilities at places like Tottenham and Arsenal have been regarded as far superior.