Manchester United officials are hoping to make a breakthrough in their negotiations with Freightliner over the land needed to build their proposed new stadium this summer.
Whilst the club have stressed work has been going on behind the scenes, there has been little evidence of movement on the project since minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe unveiled his grand vision for a 100,000-capacity ground close to the current stadium at Old Trafford last March.
A deal with Freightliner is understood to be the key to unlocking the project. Until United know what land they can use, they cannot settle on a final design, which is needed to establish how much it will cost and to work out the best way to fund it.
United want to continue playing at Old Trafford until the new stadium is built.
They could wait for the Mayor’s office to trigger a compulsory purchase order on the site, but BBC Sport has been told that is not the preference as it could take a couple of years to take effect.
Chief executive Omar Berrada was asked about the present situation when he spoke to the club’s ‘Inside Carrington’ podcast.
“Hopefully we’ll have some news to share in the next weeks or months,” he said.
“Once we’ve secured the land and we know the exact location of where the new stadium could be, then we will proceed to finalise the design at the stadium, which will then lead us to have a very good understanding of what the potential cost is.”
United do not believe the current uncertainty over the Mayoral position will have any effect on the plans.
If Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by-election on 18 June, he would have to stand down as Greater Manchester Mayor.
However, the belief is the because the wider Old Trafford regeneration project is a legal entity, it won’t be scrapped even if there was a change of Mayor.
Despite the apparent lack of progress, officials are confident the stadium could be built relatively quickly, potentially within two years of the first spades being put into the ground.
It is still envisaged significant parts of the stadium can be brought in from various parts of the world by ship, as INEOS are currently doing at their Project One construction site in Antwerp.
