In order to increase number of wheelchair spaces, some 2,600 season ticket holders have to be relocated from their current positions.

Manchester United announced today they would create 300 new positions for disabled supporters, including the installation of new wheelchair user platforms, the widening of vomitories, and new amenity seats for other disabled supporters. Capacity of Old Trafford may fall by over 2,000 seats within three seasons.

All structural work (at the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand and East Stand) will be completed ahead of the 2017/18 campaign, allowing all the new accessible facilities to be used immediately for friendlies and cup games not included in the automatic cup scheme.

© Our Vale

However, owing to the fact that the changes will displace some 2,600 season ticket holders, the club has developed a three-year phased programme of relocating fans from their current seats, in order to allow time to find suitable alternative seats, with around 800 fans being relocated for the 2017/18 season.

To enable this phased & flexible approach, the structural design will incorporate state-of-the-art reversible platforms and from next season, 100 of the 300 new positions created will be used for Premier League and some cup games.

What Manchester United didn’t reveal in their press release, not surprisingly, is that the club have continued to fail in meeting accessibility guidelines, staying at 43% of compliance for the last two years. They have previously pledged to create 280 wheelchair positions by this summer (minimum requirement per Old Trafford’s capacity).