Manchester United targets 2027 planning submission for new 100,000-seat stadium

Manchester United are aiming to submit a planning application for a proposed new 100,000-capacity stadium within the next 12 to 18 months, as the club and local stakeholders step up work on land assembly and a wider Old Trafford regeneration plan.The timetable, discussed publicly by the club’s stadium project leadership, indicates an acceleration towards formal approvals after recent delays linked to securing a key land parcel adjacent to Old Trafford.Collette Roche, chief executive of Manchester United’s stadium project, said: “So the plan would be that within the next couple of months we should be there or thereabouts on the land assembly, which will be an important milestone that hopefully we’ll be able to share.“Beyond that, we’ll then start what we’re calling ‘stage two’, which will take seven months to do the more detailed design. When we get through that we will come out with the planning strategy. But we are already starting to work as part of the wider master plan. We’re not starting then, we’ve already started now.”Roche added that the planning application would be submitted “probably in about 12 to 18 months”, pointing to a likely filing in 2027 if the schedule holds.United’s proposal, first outlined last year, centres on a new build next to the existing stadium and has been widely discussed as a multi-billion-pound project that would sit at the heart of a broader redevelopment of the Old Trafford district.Progress has been complicated by the requirement to acquire land currently used as a rail freight terminal, with negotiations reported to have been challenged by a wide valuation gap between the club and the land’s owners.Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has previously suggested compulsory purchase powers could be used if required, reflecting the political and economic significance attached to the regeneration scheme.Roche spoke on a panel at the MIPIM property event in Cannes alongside Burnham, Sebastian Coe, chair of the Old Trafford Regeneration Mayoral Development Corporation, and Trafford Council leader Tom Ross, underlining the extent to which the stadium plan is being positioned as an anchor project for housing, transport and public realm investment.United have promoted the redevelopment as a long-term economic driver for the region, with earlier commissioned analysis projecting material increases in jobs, housing delivery and visitor numbers if the full masterplan is delivered.The club has not set out definitive construction timings in this latest update, but previous public commentary around the project has suggested a multi-year build, with design development and land assembly now the key gating items before any planning submission and procurement sequence can be finalised.