Plans for new Old Trafford stand on hold

LANCASHIRE have put on hold plans to further increase the capacity at Emirates Old Trafford as the financial slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic bites.

But the club say the project to increase the stadium to 29,500 will still happen, just not as originally schemed.

Lancashire had planning permission for a new double-tier stand to replace the old Red Rose Suite approved in January, along with blueprints to extend the current

Hilton Garden Inn hotel. Work was due to start at the end of next season. However, that has now been put back.

“It might mean some of the plans for development - the building of the new stand, the extension to the hotel might not happen immediately or in as grand a scale as we would have wished. But they will still happen,” said acting chairman Les Platts.

“We were carrying on with the planning up until March.

“But when the crisis hit, we put a stop to it.

“All we can say at the moment is, ‘There is a halt’.

“As and when we get through it and there’s more certainty over 2021 finances, we’ll start planning again.

“It’s a postponement of the development, not a cancellation of it.”

Meanwhile, Platts hasn’t ruled out playing some of Lancashire’s games at outground this summer, if domestic cricket returns, with Emirates Old Trafford earmarked to host international cricket in July and August. “We have a number of outgrounds which are fit for purpose,” he said. “Hopefully it will be a mixture of Emirates Old Trafford and outgrounds for Lancashire matches.”

Planned new stand at Old Trafford

Lancashire’s Jimmy Anderson