Man United released further details on their plans for a new stadium yesterday including confirmation of where the ground would be located
In another step towards leaving Old Trafford, Manchester United confirmed on Thursday the location of their new stadium, 350 metres away from the current ground. The 100,000-seater stadium will be built on the land recently purchased from Indurent. At the Wharfside Strategic Masterplan, a vision for the new home of the Reds was laid out.
The ground will be at the centre of a new Stadium District that is promising to be purpose-built for sport, entertainment and year-round activity. United hope to host matches at the Women's World Cup in 2035, but they hope the stadium will be open and active before then.
But hosting such huge events is not necessarily where United will benefit most. Dipping into the entertainment market has proven to be lucrative for Premier League clubs for years now. Tottenham Hotspur have become the masters of this since they opened their new stadium in 2019.
This week, the north London venue has hosted K-Pop superstars BTS for their first UK concerts in seven years. Spurs broke their attendance record for a gig at the stadium on Monday when 65,000 crammed in to watch the band.
BTS are just the latest in a series of worldwide superstars to choose Tottenham's ground as the venue for their concerts, while the NFL and major boxing events such as Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn have also been hosted at the venue.
Spurs have shown they are not limited to the summer months for these money-spinning events either. On September 4, Jay-Z will be heading to the stadium for a gig to celebrate his 30-year career, the same weekend Spurs travel to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
Such events are proving to be quite the secondary income stream. Estimates suggest that each year, Tottenham receive between £60m-80m from non-football events.
This perhaps goes some way to explaining how Spurs have managed to spend so big this summer without qualifying for the Champions League. £100m was splashed on Sandro Tonali, £85m was spent on Mateus Fernandes while a further £52m was offered to Brighton for Jan Paul van Hecke.
Whether you agree with those figures for those players or not, that kind of spending is what United fans would love their club to be doing this summer. CEO of the new stadium development Collette Roche opened the door to that possibility on Thursday, stating: "What you've got to remember is through building a stadium of 100,000 seats, where it's football first, and we deliver all our matches, but then in and around the matches, we do other stuff.
"People come, they stay for longer, we'll have other facilities, other experiences. That's going to generate a lot more revenue. The revenue that's going to be generated, where does that go? That'll go back into the club, that goes back into the team, that goes back into growing our football."
In comparison to Spurs, United have attempted to improve their team without breaking the bank this summer, despite the Champions League riches rolling in next season. A £50m deal for Chelsea's Andrey Santos and a £35m move for Atalanta's Ederson have been the start and end of United's spending so far.
The neglect of Old Trafford has hamstrung United for too long and left them flagging when compared to nearly all major clubs in Europe. Now, the Reds seem to be making progress to bridge the gap.