(Credit: Getty Images/Imago)

James Murray

Tue 31 March 2026 12:15, UK

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Manchester United’s new stadium is going to cost “considerably more” than £2billion to build. 

That is according to former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider Man United could also pay three times more interest on the development than initially expected.

The Manchester giants announced plans to build a 100,000-seater stadium as part of the government’s regeneration of the Old Trafford area in March last year.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe insisted at the time he wants the new stadium to be the “world’s greatest” and potentially be completed within five years.

However, Man United’s stadium plans have faced delays, with the club hoping to submit a planning application within the next 12 to 18 months. 

Why Man United’s new stadium will cost more than £2bn

A major complication is how the 20-time English champions are planning to finance the development. 

Man United published their second-quarter results up until 31 December 2025 last month, showing the overall debt at Old Trafford has now increased to £1.29bn. 

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson discussed the potential costs of the new stadium.

“Of course, it’s going to be funded privately because it’s not going be funded publicly, so it’s going to be private money,” said Borson.

“It’s obviously going to cost more than £2bn as well. It’s kind of a 2022 number to build a stadium of this scale. This is a 100,000-person stadium in a high inflationary environment to be built from probably 2031 to 2035. It’s not going to be £2bn then. It’s going to be considerably more.

“On top of that, we thought we were going into a lower interest rate environment for the funding of this thing. We thought maybe we were going to be approaching the benign interest rate environment of the pre-Covid era, where you could raise debt as Spurs did on a long-term basis for kind of 3.5 per cent for 30 years.

“Well, those numbers now are nowhere near where we are currently, so it’s now going to cost two-and-a-half, three times that.” 

Why Man United are facing significant interest rates

Borson revealed how much interest Man United could have to pay on top of the stadium build costs.

“It could easily cost eight to 10 per cent to fund this stadium privately,” said Borson.

“Now, how is that going to work? Because even if it is £2bn, and even if it is 8 per cent, that’s £160m a year just to service the debt. Forget repayment, that’s just the interest. I don’t see how that’s viable. 

“Of course, you can just stick ticket prices through the roof and maybe they will come. Maybe Manchester United by that stage will be back at the pinnacle of the game.

“But there is a limit to what you can charge for tickets. There is a limit to how many hospitality seats you can put in a stadium.”