
Do you think big or a circus big top? The gateway to an exciting future or an insult to the past?
With a club the size of Manchester United, you never please everyone. Not with a global fan base like theirs.
While Sir Jim Ratcliffe talked for an audience in the offices of Foster + Partners on Tuesday, he told the story that he was one of the first Westerners to cross the Mongolian border of the Gobi Desert after Covid.
“They didn't want to see our passports, just talk about Manchester United,” he smiled.
Some fans would never be happy with the prospect of bulldoses on the ground and prefer to give it to the place again developed.
United is not the first club that is confronted with accusations of heresy for leaving their spiritual house, albeit at a few meters.
Some will embrace change, especially if it means a capacity increase of 25,000, the type of status and income that United places back between the high roles and a roof that can keep the rain out.
There will be others who would rather see the money invested in a team that currently wines in 14th place in the Premier League table.
But it has been clear for some time that a brand new stadium is the preference of Ratcliffe, and his vision was shown on Tuesday in all his glory in London.
Talking about a project of £ 2 billion seemed to come rather incongruent, only one day after he had stared the lens of a TV camera and predicted that United, one of the world's largest clubs, could have been bankrupt at Christmas.
It is difficult to imagine that he and the Glazer family who see their crown jewel see disappear along the Plughole without lifting a finger, but perhaps the prediction of the Doomsday is designed with the events of Tuesday in mind.
Here was the opposite of oblivion. A structure for the dreams and ambition of Ratcliffe for United.
It remains a conceptual design for the time being. Not the completed article. But Sir Jim is quite satisfied, we were told, so it would be a surprise if the stadium that opened around 2030 does not seem remarkable to the designs we saw in London.
What if the fans don't like it? There is still time for consultation, the answer came. Only there will not be. This happens and was always. Come with it. The circus comes to the city.
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