Old Trafford Stats | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Address | Sir Matt Busby Way, Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England | ||
Built | 1909 | ||
Original Cost | £90,000 | ||
Estimated Value | £225m | ||
Architect | Archibald Leitch | ||
Capacity | 76,212 | ||
First Match | Man Utd v Liverpool, 19/02/1910 | ||
Record Attendance | 76,962, Wolves v Grimsby Town (F.A. Cup semi-final 25/03/1939) | ||
Lowest Attendance | 11,968 v Fulham (29/04/1950) | ||
Old Trafford stadium or "The Theatre of Dreams" as it is also known has been the home of Manchester United since 1910, the building of which was commissioned by United Chairman and saviour John Henry Davies for an original sum of £60,000, rising to £90,000 on completion.
The first ever game at the newly built stadium saw Manchester United take on the old enemy Liverpool on 19 February 1910, unfortunately goals from Homer, Turnbull and Wall couldn't stop United crashing to a 4-3 defeat.
These days the 5-star UEFA rated stadium is regarded as one of the finest on the face of the earth and is presently the 36th largest stadium in the world and 2nd largest football stadium in Britain, behind the 90,000 seater Wembley.
Although Old Trafford has been the home of Manchester United since 1910, for an eight year period between 1941-1949 The Reds were forced to stay away, while rebuilding took place - at a cost of £22,274 - after most of the ground was decemated by a German Bombing raid on 11 March 1941. The first game back at their spiritual home saw United run out 3-0 winners over Lancashire rivals Bolton Wanderers on 24 August 1949 through goals by Jack Rowley, Charlie Mitten and Stan Pearson.
Old Trafford has hosted it's fair share of non Manchester United football games too and was often used as an F.A. Cup semi-final venue over the years and even held the F.A Cup finals of 1911, 1915 and 1970 (1911 & 1970 were replays).
In addition Old Trafford stadium was used as a venue in the 1966 World Cup, Euro 1996, 2003 UEFA Champions League Final and various England internationals over the years.
After the Hillsborough disaster of 1989 Lord Taylor of Gosforf was commissioned to carry out an independent report on what happened on that fateful summer's day.
The fall-out from his findings spurred th F.A.'s in England and Scotland to rule that all arenas in the highest divisions be converted to all-seater stadia on the grounds of spectator safety.
When the changes at Old Trafford had been completed the capacity was at an all-time low of 45,000. However, Manchester United's success on the pitch in early 90's meant that there was greater demand for match day tickets, so the club responded by declaring they would redevelop the North Stand by adding an extra tier to it. The alterations would therefore increase the overall capacity of Old Trafford to around 55,000.
After Manchester United brought home the treble in 1999 Old Trafford saw more develpment take place. Firstly, the East Stand became two tiers, increasing the capacity to approximately 61,000, followed by the West Stand which brought the number of seats to an impressive 68,218.
The redevelopment of Old Trafford didn' stop there. In 2005 Manchester United declared they would add even more seats to the ever expanding ground by filling in the quadrants, thus bringing the capacity up to 76,212.
There has been some talk about redeveloping the South Stand - which only has one tier - but Manchester United have yet to make a move on this as they don't see the £100m outlay as being cost effective. In addition they would have to buy some 50 houses and build over the adjacent railway too in order for this plan to come to fruition. If the club ever did go down this route then the overall capacity of Old Trafford would stand at a staggering 98,000 which would make it 8th largest football stadium in the world
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