Old Trafford lost the opening match of its own life
Manchester United moved into their grand new stadium on 19 February 1910 and promptly lost 4-3 to Liverpool. A reporter still called it the handsomest and most remarkable ground he had seen. More than a century later it is Britain's biggest club football stadium.
Before 1902 the club was called Newton Heath and played on grim pitches at North Road and then Bank Street, where the surface veered between gravel and marsh and nearby factories blew fumes over the crowd. After a rescue from near-bankruptcy and a new name, chairman John Henry Davies decided in 1909 to leave Bank Street. The Scottish architect Archibald Leitch designed a ground meant to hold 100,000, with a covered seated south stand and open terraces on the other three sides. Rising costs meant the full capacity would have added £30,000 to an original £60,000 budget, and a hoped-for £10,000 subsidy from a neighbouring railway company never came.
Sandy Turnbull scored the first goal there. Until Wembley opened in 1923, FA Cup finals moved around England, and Old Trafford staged the 1911 replay in which Bradford City beat Newcastle 1-0 before 58,000 people. In 1936 the United Road stand received a roof as part of a £35,000 refurbishment. During the Second World War the military requisitioned the ground as a depot, and a German raid on Trafford Park on 22 December 1940 damaged it, sending United to share Maine Road with Manchester City from 1941 to 1949.
Rebuilding brought roofs over every stand by 1959 and £40,000 of floodlights for midweek European nights. Ahead of the 1966 World Cup, which brought three group games, the north stand was redesigned with cantilevered roofing so pillars no longer blocked views.
Bobby Charlton nicknamed it the Theatre of Dreams. Conversion to all seats had cut capacity to about 44,000 by 1993, but new tiers restored it to nearly the original 80,000 by 2006; today it holds 74,158. It has hosted a Champions League final, Olympic football and rugby league's Super League Grand Final.
Source: Old Trafford
