Manchester United fans urge Ineos to consult them over renaming Old Trafford

The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust (MUST) have urged Ineos to consult with fans over the “highly emotive” issue of a potential stadium naming rights deal.

United have been exploring an array of investment opportunities, including naming rights, around a potential new stadium or redeveloped Old Trafford for months.

With the stadium task force headed by Lord Coe not due to report back until later in the year, all options are being looked at as Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos team assess ways of increasing revenues to help fund such a huge infrastructure project.

Sources have said that “nothing is off the table”, hence the discussion around naming rights and potential ticket price rises, but insisted that no firm decisions had been made and are unlikely to be any time soon.

In the event United decide to renovate their existing ground, one option may be for the club to retain the name Old Trafford but look for an associated partner, similar to what Wembley have with EE. The national stadium is called Wembley Stadium, connected by EE. Similarly, Barcelona’s ground is now the Spotify Nou Camp on the back of a sponsorship deal with the digital music service.

However, a completely new stadium on surrounding land could involve a new name entirely, as Arsenal and Manchester City did with the moves to the Emirates Stadium and Etihad Stadium from Highbury and Maine Road respectively.

However, MUST have stressed the importance of fan consultation around such matters.

“As to whether the club should sell off stadium naming rights this has long been a highly emotive issues which affects fans directly,” they said in a statement.

“Fans need to be at the heart of these decisions and we expect the club to start consultation before decisions are made. MUST will be consulting supporters so that their views are heard.”

Telegraph Sport reported in February how United would be expected to service the debt on a new or redeveloped stadium, with sources saying any such project that ultimately contributed to the future growth of the club should be viewed through a very different lens to the Glazers’ much reviled leveraged buy-out.

Financing options available to United are currently being explored through talks with potential banking lenders but one suggestion at the time was the creation of a separate stadium development company that could see the club effectively paying rental to use the stadium over an agreed period until such time it became their own.

The current debt mountain on United is an emotionally charged issue for many fans given the manner of the Glazers’ hostile takeover in 2005.

MUST registered concern about the prospect of ticket price rises to help fund a new stadium and argued that it should be sourced from new share issues over debt.

They said: “Everyone agrees the stadium needs development and we understand that needs to be paid for. But we do not believe fans should bear the brunt for capital investment via ticket price rises. Funding for capital projects should ideally be sourced from new shares issues rather than debt.”