Manchester United minority owner Jim Ratcliffe believes that the club has the “'opportunity' to build a 'state of the art' stadium that could house up to 100,000 supporters,” according to George Smith of the MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS. Ratcliffe “envisions” building a stadium that is “capable of hosting the FA Cup final and England fixtures.” He is “adamant” that the club needs a stadium “that reflects their brand and stature.” On the Geraint Thomas Cycling Club podcast, Ratcliffe said ManU “can refurbish the ground and we'll do a really nice job of that, it will be a fantastic stadium. And that would cost about a billion [pounds] to do that and the club can shoulder that burden.” Ratcliffe: “But you have got this opportunity if you choose to, to build a completely new ground because we have got enough space to build a completely new ground. If you built a completely new ground it would absolutely be state of the art, world-class, 90,000 or maybe even 100,000 (capacity).” Ratcliffe said, “That then provides a platform for some of the big competitions in the north of England.” He also wondered why the country has all its biggest venues -- Wembley Stadium, Twickenham, Wimbledon, Olympic Village and the O2 Arena -- “in the south” while there's nothing of that scale in the north. Smith noted results from a MEN poll were “somewhat divided,” as 54% held the belief that the north of England “should have a stadium of the size” and, as Ratcliffe put it, the “‘scale of Wembley” (MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS, 3/19).
