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New Manchester United part owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has claimed that the experience of attending a match at a Premier League stadium will be vastly different in the future.
The billionaire has already claimed that Old Trafford needs to be rebuilt and he dreams of constructing a Wembley of the North, with a taskforce already in place, charged with finding the best way to achieve this.
In addition, the club have already given their backing to plans from the Manchester council to regenerate land around the stadium.
Speaking on The Geraint Thomas Cycling Club podcast, the INEOS owner elaborated further on his visions for how football attendance will evolve in the future.
“The future of football is not going to be you go to the match, leave and go home. Or where we are today at Old Trafford, where quite a few people leave early. The transportation system can’t cope with the rush when you leave”.
Ratcliffe blasted the lack of activity around the famous old stadium and outlined what other clubs are doing to remedy similar problems.
“There’s nothing else to do in and around Old Trafford … [they need to] provide more entertainment. The future, which they do recognise at the Bernabeu and the Nou Camp is that you provide entertainment, it’s more of a campus, you go for a bite to eat, you can watch something on the screens, do a bit of shopping. There’s a museum, so you can keep the fans there for a longer time, you don’t have the same transportation issues”.
The INEOS owner explained that the biggest advantage for this change in the match-going experience was to overcome issues like Financial Fair Play (FFP).
Discussing the issue further he claimed, “one of the new issues in football is this thing called FFP. Where you have to live within your means, you know, the more means you’ve got, the better you can live”.
A recent report showed that United were not generating the same money in and around Old Trafford as their London rivals such as Tottenham and Arsenal.
On how to remedy the problem Ratcliffe asserted, “if you can get people, instead of spending two quid on a burger at half-time, they stay there for a couple of hours and they spend 15 quid”.
“Then that’s good for us, a win-win. The fans benefit as they have stuff to do and the club benefits so it can buy better players”.
“So that’s the future of football”.
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