BOLD TRAFFORD?
The 1995-96 season was a significant moment for football in Manchester. United won the Double as their hapless neighbours, City, were relegated in fittingly farcical circumstances. Off the field (or adjacent to it, at least), United were gold-plating their dominance with the completion of a new North Stand that made Old Trafford the biggest club stadium in England. And in what must have felt like a footnote at the time, Manchester was awarded the 2002 Commonwealth Games, with a bid based around a new, purpose-built stadium on a brownfield site. Fast-forward three decades, and the Etihad is now home to English football’s dominant force, an all-conquering team who play in sky blue. It’s been a journey that would take some explaining to a tracksuited, gum-chewing Alex Ferguson if you were to time-travel back to the mid-90s in search of affordable Oasis tickets. Old Trafford’s North Stand is now the Sir Alex Ferguson stand, but not much else has changed at United’s once-palatial home since their glory days. The last major upgrade works were in 2006 and the stadium has entered a post-industrial decline that dovetails with the team’s waning fortunes. One architect looking into United’s proposed regeneration plans had this to say about the former Theatre of Dreams: “Wiring, electrical installation ... everything is approaching the end of its useful life.”
