Manchester United are considering a naming rights deal for their proposed new stadium as part of a financially disciplined approach to the £2bn development.
Collette Roche, the club’s New Stadium Development chief executive, confirmed the naming rights possibility at the unveiling of a draft masterplan for the wider Old Trafford area.
The ambitious 370-acre development is estimated to create 48,000 jobs and 15,000 new homes alongside a 100,000-capacity stadium.
The new ground would sit just 350 yards from the club’s current home, on land United confirmed they acquired last month.
For the first time, the plans revealed the exact location of the proposed stadium, though the ‘circus tent’ design unveiled by minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe in March 2025 was notably absent from the presentation.
Roche insisted the designs were not finalised and that the club would be consulting with designers Foster and Partners as well as supporters over the coming months.
A naming rights arrangement, similar to deals struck by Arsenal with Emirates and Manchester City with Etihad, is considered probable given the club’s significant financial pressures.
Manchester United carry more than £1.3bn in debt, stemming from legacy costs tied to the Glazer takeover in 2005, a revolving credit facility, and outstanding transfer payments.
Supporters have raised concerns about the club’s ability to service that debt, with repayments reportedly set to rise to £50m per year following a refinancing move last month that added a further $125m to the total owed.
“We’ve been really clear from the onset, this needs to be a sanity project, not a vanity project,” said Roche, addressing the financial philosophy underpinning the entire development.
Roche added that naming rights represented a meaningful commercial opportunity that had already been discussed with the club’s fan advisory board.
“I don’t know what the stadium will be called but we’ve been really vocal that we are going to potentially look at naming rights to the stadium,” she said. “It’s an important revenue stream.”
On the question of overall costs, Roche was measured, noting that precise figures cannot be attached to the project until the design process is further advanced.
“There’s not a price,” she said. “I can’t go and get a quote on this right now. We have to go through the design process. It’s not helpful to suddenly throw a figure out there.”
She confirmed that multiple funding avenues remain available, stating: “We’ve still got all the funding options available to us. We can have debt, equity, shares, other investors. We’ve had a lot of approaches as you’d expect.”
Chief executive officer Omar Berrada also attended the event, and Roche moved to address suggestions he had made in the United States last month that the project might not go ahead.
Roche pushed back firmly on any notion the scheme could be shelved, saying “we’ve gone so far” when asked about its future prospects.
She also confirmed that no public money would be used to fund construction of the stadium itself.
Talks with Freightliner over land originally earmarked for the new stadium are ongoing, with that site remaining central to the broader regeneration vision for the Old Trafford area.
