The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham all have one thing in common: they have all moved into bigger, better stadiums. The better stadium argument is questionable.

Better is defined by most as bigger, able to cater to corporate clientele with the relevant facilities. To simplify what that means, for example, Tottenham Hotspur’s Stadium, which is self-named, is seen as one of the best, due to the fact that it can comfortably cater for boxing matches and NFL matches too.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which cost a reported £1 billion to build, is great for hosting events outside of football, as the NFL games outside of America seem to be widely recognised as being held there.

It can be argued that when the big decision makers decided to move the NFL out of the US, there’s no better place than the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

These bookings should have been at Old Trafford, The Theatre Of Dreams. This is, of course, the current home of 20-time Premier League champions Manchester United.

Once upon a time, corporate events, by default, would be held at Old Trafford, and even the Grand Final would be held there too. Soccer Aid is, of course, a football event, but it’s more of a commercial event first.

In England, grounds like Wembley and, of course, Old Trafford would cover these events by default, but not now. The Theatre of Dreams is a horror show. Yes, it’s cliché terminology, but the once iconic stadium of Manchester United is falling apart.

There have been images shared on social media showing a severely leaking roof and overflowing urinals. A simple bit of maintenance can fix this, some might say, but it’s been reported that the issues in the stadium run much deeper than that.

The Glazers, when they were in charge of footballing operations, murmured intent of changing stadiums, but due to their infamous mismanagement of everything, plans for a new stadium have been put on hold until now.

Last time I checked, Man United were in crippling debt; they still are. Nothing in that regard has changed, but Omar Berada and Sir Jim Radcliffe suggested that the club are exploring the possibility of moving away from their iconic site and opening up shop nearby.

Reportedly, the developers of that site got wind of Manchester United’s plans and have hiked up the price, but then again, this is Man United, never say never with this lot.

With the work reportedly needed at Old Trafford and the general need for modernisation, updating the existing facilities doesn’t seem realistic, but what do you think?

Should Man United stay or go?