Old Trafford Capacity Statistics

[GCHQ]

Beware, this is one for the anoraks..

Thanks to the new stadium graphic on the club's online ticketing website we now know the exact capacity for every individual block and section of seating in the stadium. I've seen some rough statistics for the capacity of each stand in a matchday programme 5/6 years ago but never the exact figures.

So here they are:

The Stretford End's capacity is 14,263 seats.

The Tier 1 Lower section holds 2,678 and the Tier 1 Upper section holds 5,133 giving a total of 7,811 seats for the whole of Tier 1. There are 862 executive seats in Tier 1 Upper block WU205.

Tier 2 holds 6,452 seats.


The South Stand's capacity is 9,433 seats (excluding 300 seats in the directors box & press block)

The South Lower section holds 1,995 and the Upper section 7,438. There are 1,585 executive seats in the South Stand Upper section.


The East Stand's capacity is 13,307 seats (excluding 300 tickets for the disabled)

The East Tier 1 Lower section holds 1,738 and the Tier 1 Upper section holds 5,119.

East Tier 2 holds 6,450 seats.


The North Stands's capacity is 21,401 seats.

The North Tier 1 Lower section holds 3,816 seats and the Tier 1 Upper section 6,513 giving a total for Tier 1 of 10,329. There are 1,514 executive seats in the Tier 1 Upper section.

North Tier 2 holds 6,988 seats including 988 executive seats.

North Tier 3 holds 4,084 seats.


So that leaves the Tier 1 and Tier 2 quadrants (total capacity - 15,442).

The South West Quadrant's capacity is 2,288. The vast majority of this section is part of the Family Stand seating area. The Family Stand seating extends over into the Stretford End Tier 1 Upper section giving it an overall capacity of 3,931.

The South East Quadrant's capacity is 2,050. This is where the away fans are usually housed. When the away club takes up their full allocation for a league game, the away section extends into one block in the South Upper and one block in East Tier 1 Upper section leading to a capacity of c. 3,100 once segregation seating is excluded.

The North East Quadrant's Tier 1 capacity is 1,852.

The North West Quadrant's Tier 1 capacity is 1,683 (less than the East quadrant due to the large balconies built for the eight Centennial Club Suites)

The North East Quadrant's Tier 2 capacity is 3,751 including 1,513 executive seats.

The North West Quadrant's Tier 2 capacity is 3,818 including 1,560 executive seats.


That all comes to 73,846 seats including 8,022 executive seats. The bond issue prospectus states that there 300 directors box and press seats as well as 300 disabled tickets. So adding those seats makes the total 74,446. The licensed capacity of Old Trafford is 75,797 (source: BI prospectus) and there are approximately 200 individual multi seat facilities (boxes and hospitality suites), the vast majority of which are pitch facing. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that the remaining 1,351 seats (75,797-74,446) are included within those muti-seat facilities.

One interesting point to make is that if the South Stand was ever extended to mirror the size of the North Stand then the overall capacity would increase to 95,034. If the South Stand was more realistically only extended to mirror the size of the North Stand up to the second tier then the overall capacity would be just under 91,000. Bigger than Wembley!

 

[prateik]

isnt there a problem extending/expanding the south stand because of the tracks behind it

 

[I'm always right]

isnt there a problem extending/expanding the south stand because of the tracks behind it

apparently but that's no excuse, Ajax built this after all...

Doubt they will ever put a third tier in South Stand but a second tier to make the stadium a bowel again would be a great idea.

 

[GCHQ]

isnt there a problem extending/expanding the south stand because of the tracks behind it

Yes. Can't see anything happening in the short to medium term but in the long term there must be a possibility of expansion.

 

[Cling Bak]

isnt there a problem extending/expanding the south stand because of the tracks behind it

I am not 100%, but I don't think that is the reason because the track can be moved. I've been told it's the cost of buying out the houses nearby - the owners either do not want to sell or want a ridiculous sum for each.

 

[WeasteDevil]

Building a stadium over a road is a totally different prospect to building one over a railway. The reason it has never been done is the cost and safety aspects of it. You get a pile up of cars under there, it's not going to bring the stadium down. A 20,000 ton freight train derailing and smashing into one of the stadium supports is a completely different matter.

 

[42 euros]

Never thought I'd thank GCHQ for anything on here but fair play for spending a lot of time pulling together all these figures. Indeed very interesting for anoraks.

I've always wondered how many seats we lose to the disabled section. I make it 700 and you have to admire the club and ultimately the Glazers for being so generous to those less fortunate United supporters. We must have the best disabled section at any major football ground in the world.

Regarding the ground expansion - I doubt it'll ever happen (with our current owners at least) According to some knowledgeable posters in the last big thread on OT expansion it would cost upwards of £100 million. To add 15K seats would prove a no brainer. It would also need the co-operation of the local residents, council, railway and police.

 

[MarylandMUFan]

Not to mention that I think United are having trouble selling tickets to the bottom table teams, especially mid-week games. Is there really a need for it?

 

[Sir A1ex]

Extending the South tier comes up on here every few months.

I think the consensus is roughly "possible, but relatively expensive" which means that, while it is always in the club's possible long-term plans, it's not likely to happen at the moment, when we are struggling to sell out half our matches, and have hundreds of millions of pounds of debt to take into account.

TBF, City regularly have entire stands full of empty seats, and they seem to think it's worth expanding to 60,000. But then we're not City... far from it.

 

[Sir A1ex]

This does look pretty cool, mind:

 

[fadas]

We must have the best disabled section at any major football ground in the world.

Nope, that accolade goes to City of Manchester Stadium. They have room for 48,000 but there's very rarely that many there.

 

[Sir A1ex]

Rumour has it, OT wil eventually look like this:

 

[fadas]

Building a stadium over a road is a totally different prospect to building one over a railway. The reason it has never been done is the cost and safety aspects of it. You get a pile up of cars under there, it's not going to bring the stadium down. A 20,000 ton freight train derailing and smashing into one of the stadium supports is a completely different matter.

The new Landsdowne Road (Aviva) is built over railway tracks as was the old stadium. Trains continue to run during matches although they don't stop there.

 

[GCHQ]

Rumour has it, OT wil eventually look like this:

Total Capacity - 213,000

 

[Red_Jamie]

Rumour has it, OT wil eventually look like this:

I won't be happy with anything less than 8 tiers.

 

[Ingham]

Rumour has it, OT wil eventually look like this:

OT will be rocking then!

 

[fadas]

Are the goals like that to cater for Nani's freekicks?

 

[Sir A1ex]

Are the goals like that to cater for Nani's freekicks?

Nah... Bebe's crosses.

 

[Sir A1ex]

Total Capacity - 213,000

But, as you can well see in the picture, there aren't more than about 70,000 seats taken.

 

[x42bn6]

Nah... Bebe's crosses.

Gibson's shots. And maybe his short passing.

 

[I'm always right]

Building a stadium over a road is a totally different prospect to building one over a railway. The reason it has never been done is the cost and safety aspects of it. You get a pile up of cars under there, it's not going to bring the stadium down. A 20,000 ton freight train derailing and smashing into one of the stadium supports is a completely different matter.

We built a 37km long rail line at the bottom of the sea, I'm sure building one through a stadium shouldn't be too difficult a job for talented engineers.

 

[finneh]

Total Capacity - 213,000

"Your tiers will blot out the sun",
"then we shall play in the shade".

 

[mjs020294]

Building a stadium over a road is a totally different prospect to building one over a railway. The reason it has never been done is the cost and safety aspects of it. You get a pile up of cars under there, it's not going to bring the stadium down. A 20,000 ton freight train derailing and smashing into one of the stadium supports is a completely different matter.

Yes and no. Basically the cost involved in building over a road, tracks or any other obstacle is exactly the same. It is only the safety that needs more attention. Firstly the structural supports can be built a significant distance from the railway lines, plus the tunnel can be reinforced. There are not too many high speed freight trains on that line and I am sure they could reduce the speed of any trains for half a mile anyway.

 

[Irwinwastheking]

Yes and no. Basically the cost involved in building over a road, tracks or any other obstacle is exactly the same. It is only the safety that needs more attention. Firstly the structural supports can be built a significant distance from the railway lines, plus the tunnel can be reinforced. There are not too many high speed freight trains on that line and I am sure they could reduce the speed of any trains for half a mile anyway.

Wouldnt it be fantastic to have a stop inside the stadium!

 

[Sir A1ex]

There are not too many high speed freight trains on that line and I am sure they could reduce the speed of any trains for half a mile anyway.

Nothing goes at any speed along that shitty line, as far as I know.

Wouldnt it be fantastic to have a stop inside the stadium!

I'm sure it would be part of the plans, given that the curent station is pretty much attached to the stadium, and they're hardly going to close it at the same time as increasing capacity.

I've said before that the sensible thing would be to make a better station and increase the use of the rail line (from 3 trains per match to and from the town centre) - some kind of Park and Ride our Carrington way would make sense.

 

[Crumpsall Red]

Rumour has it, OT wil eventually look like this:

The Glazers are turning us into an NFL team??????

 

[711]

Building a stadium over a road is a totally different prospect to building one over a railway. The reason it has never been done is the cost and safety aspects of it. You get a pile up of cars under there, it's not going to bring the stadium down. A 20,000 ton freight train derailing and smashing into one of the stadium supports is a completely different matter.

Nah, at New St in Birmingham there's a massive shopping centre built over the railway.

Closing the railway down whilst it is dug out and tunnelled down and over would add a lot to the cost though. Railtrack's charges for incurring delays can be as high as £600 a train minute (I know how ludicrous that is, but it's what they do). No doubt something could be negotiated round that, but if there were any plans to build then one would have expected the club to have been buying houses as they come on sale, and it's been said on here that they haven't been.

Shame, though.

 

[Irwinwastheking]

Just to play devils advocate on this, do we even have the demand for extra seating at OT??

 

[Sir A1ex]

As said above, not for a lot of matches at the moment, no.

Reckon we could sell out 90,000 about 8 or 10 times a season though.

Most clubs seem happy to have a capacity they only fill for big matches, but it would be a big change for us, and hard to justify the outlay.

 

[Eriku]

Doubt they will ever put a third tier in South Stand but a second tier to make the stadium a bowel again would be a great idea.

Surely we'd get horrible taunts for that?

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Building a stadium over a road is a totally different prospect to building one over a railway. The reason it has never been done is the cost and safety aspects of it. You get a pile up of cars under there, it's not going to bring the stadium down. A 20,000 ton freight train derailing and smashing into one of the stadium supports is a completely different matter.

Surely all they have to do is slow down while passing under the stadium.

 

[T2000]

Rumour has it, OT wil eventually look like this:

your knackered if you have vertigo and your first season ticket is the top tier. Plus you would have to leave home an hour ealier before kick off to make it on time.

Off season charity abseils will be replaced by static line parachute jumping

 

[fredthered]

Rumour has it, OT wil eventually look like this:

That looks fecking horrendous

 

[I'm always right]

Surely we'd get horrible taunts for that?

Indeed, we should probably stick with making it into a bowl.

 

[stubie]

I think Old Trafford will be upgraded to 96,000 should England get the 2018 WC. The south stand looks out of place and needs to be upgraded. I know there are safety issues but they managed to redevelop Lansdowne Road with a rail line close by. I'm sure there are ways they can get round that problem.

 

[I'm always right]

I think Old Trafford will be upgraded to 96,000 should England get the 2018 WC. The south stand looks out of place and needs to be upgraded. I know there are safety issues but they managed to redevelop Lansdowne Road with a rail line close by. I'm sure there are ways they can get round that problem.

As I posted earlier, I seriously doubt we'll ever put a 3rd Tier on South. It does look out of place and will probably be upgraded to match East and West at some point, as you say, possibly if England host the 2018 WC.

 

[Sir A1ex]

The World Cup is a good point - that could well be the deciding factor in moving ahead with the South Stand.

Mind you, the FA seem to be doing an incredible job of screwing the bid up and once again snatching defeat form the jaws of victory, so we'll probably never know!

 

[WeasteDevil]

To everyone quoting me, I never said that it couldn't be done, I said that it would be very expensive, prohibitively so. The most sensible solution would be some sort of overhanging cantilever rather than building over the track, but that in itself would be very expensive.

Also, whoever came up with the tunnel idea, a tunnel is quite different, and in any case, it would require a tunnel at least a mile long. Take a look at Google Maps and see where the heavy freight rail terminal is. Good luck getting a 10,000 ton train up and down in a space the length of the North Stand.

 

[esmufc07]

To everyone quoting me, I never said that it couldn't be done, I said that it would be very expensive, prohibitively so. The most sensible solution would be some sort of overhanging cantilever rather than building over the track, but that in itself would be very expensive.

Also, whoever came up with the tunnel idea, a tunnel is quite different, and in any case, it would require a tunnel at least a mile long. Take a look at Google Maps and see where the heavy freight rail terminal is. Good luck getting a 10,000 ton train up and down in a space the length of the North Stand.

Erm..

It can't be done. And you can quote me on that.

cnuts!

 

[Sir A1ex]

Also, whoever came up with the tunnel idea, a tunnel is quite different, and in any case, it would require a tunnel at least a mile long. Take a look at Google Maps and see where the heavy freight rail terminal is. Good luck getting a 10,000 ton train up and down in a space the length of the North Stand.

I presume they mean tunnel in the sense of emclosed building around the track. Actually dropping the track into an underground tunnel would be, as you say, bonkers.