Manchester United's official website issued a statement welcoming the "Greater Manchester Growth Plan" announced on Thursday, which includes support for the Old Trafford redevelopment project.
The project is included as part of a new ten-year strategy to drive economic development and social progress across the city-region. Mayor Andy Burnham hailed the Old Trafford regeneration project as the UK's biggest sports-led scheme since the London 2012 Olympics, which will create a new leisure and business destination around a new 100,000-person football stadium and provide 15,000 new homes.
He confirmed Lord Sebastian Coe, who led the delivery of the 2012 Olympics, as the designated chairman of the newly formed Mayoral Development Corporation, which is set up to promote the Old Trafford plan.
As part of the Trafford Quay development, the project has also received an initial funding commitment of £26 million to build 382 new homes, marking the first major investment in the regeneration area of Old Trafford.
Support for the project is accompanied by a vision set out by Mayor Burnham: for Greater Manchester to become a second city rivaling any city on earth by 2050, with every borough benefiting from regeneration at a pace and scale unprecedented in this century. Colette Roach, chief operating officer of Manchester United, said: "We are delighted to see the Old Trafford regeneration project form the centerpiece of Greater Manchester's wider growth plans over the next decade. "We want to build the best football stadium in the world as the new home of Manchester United and a venue suitable for hosting major international events including the 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup, and for it to be surrounded by a vibrant business, leisure and residential area. "We are determined to play our part, together with other stakeholders, to make this vision a reality and unlock the huge benefits it can bring to the surrounding community and the wider region." A previous report by Oxford Economics estimated that the Old Trafford regeneration project could add approximately £7.32 billion to the UK economy and create 91,600 new jobs.