Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire co-owner of the soccer club, framed plans for the 100,000-seat venue as crucial to the British government’s plan to revive the northern English city.
In Jim Ratcliffe’s telling, he’s the one doing the favor. A favor to the people of Manchester, to the British government and to the country more broadly.
The billionaire co-owner of Manchester United on Tuesday pitched a new soccer stadium as crucial to the success of plans by Britain’s Labour Party to regenerate a large swath of the city the team calls home.
Mr. Ratcliffe, Britain’s richest man, said a project to build a 100,000-seat venue next to Old Trafford, the club’s storied current home, would lure visitors to Manchester the way the Eiffel Tower brings throngs of tourists to Paris. He has pledged that the stadium itself would be solely funded by the club; in contrast to the United States, public money is rarely used for private stadiums in Britain.
But there was a significant catch: It would happen only as part of a broader project that would require billions of pounds in funding from the British government, which is straining to bring down debt and avoid further spending cuts or higher taxes.
Glossy renderings showed an arena with three towering spires, reminiscent of the modern stadiums being built in the Persian Gulf. But several questions about the project to reimagine the home of one of the best-known franchises in all of sports, and regenerate a worn-down part of northern England, remained after the presentation at an architecture firm’s riverside office in London.