Man Utd sponsors reveal plan to buy Old Trafford naming rights

Manchester United shirt sponsors Snapdragon are interested in acquiring the naming rights to Old Trafford or any new stadium the club may build.

United have set up a task force to evaluate potential redevelopments to their current stadium or whether it would be better to build a new home, potentially next to Old Trafford on land already owned by the club. Renovating Old Trafford in its current guise is complicated by a railway line running along the back of the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand, with the Bridgewater Canal close by on the other side.

The hope is for the Red Devils to play at a 100,000-seater stadium - Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants to build a 'Wembley of the north' - regardless of whether they leave or rebuild Old Trafford, and the club are open to selling naming rights for 'tens of millions' in order to raise funds for the project.

Snapdragon have taken over from TeamViewer as United's front-of-shirt sponsors this season, and the chief marketing officer of parent company Qualcomm, Don McGuire, was open with his intention to take on stadium naming rights.

"Old Trafford is Old Trafford, it should always be Old Trafford," McGuire said.

"But if there is a brand attached to that in some way, shape or form, powered by someone, an 'at' or whatever...this Snapdragon Stadium at Bashor Field.

"We are working very closely with the team on the re-imagination of Old Trafford from a technology and innovation standpoint and Carrington both. So if that leads to something bigger, where it would make sense for us to go even bigger - this [shirt sponsor] is pretty big by the way, not inexpensive - but if it makes sense we are always looking out for opportunities."

Though selling stadium naming rights is commonplace in modern football, only six Premier League teams have done ahead of the 2024/25 season - Arsenal, Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Leicester City and Manchester City.

Tottenham Hotspur, who moved into their £1bn ground in 2019, are still on the lookout for a long-term naming rights partner and are perhaps in the position most similar to United in this sense. Spurs have allowed the official name to stand as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to boost the club's own brand overseas, though supporters regularly refer to it as White Hart Lane after the old ground.

READ THE LATEST MAN UTD NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP