Manchester United’s home ground, Old Trafford, dubbed the “Theatre of Dreams,” was built in 1909. The club played their first game against Liverpool FC on February 19, 1910. Old Trafford has a long and interesting history of nearly being destroyed during World War II as well as granting the Red Devils a nice home field win percentage.
We took a deeper look inside this historic stadium to highlight not only the benefits Manchester United reaps from playing this field but also to get a clear understanding of Trafford’s history and how it came to be.
Stackin’ Wins at Home
With an at-home win percentage of 61.77%, the football club looks forward to taking on anyone who opposes them on their home field. The Premier League has seen the largest blowout in history here with Manchester United defeating Ipswich Town 9-0 in March of 1995. Team captain Wayne Rooney keeps this percentage high by having the second-most-scored goals in the Premier League (193) – 67 behind the top scorer, Alan Shearer (260).
Aside from stacking wins on their home field, Manchester United has accomplished several great feats at Old Trafford that have made them one of the most universally known football clubs.
GOAL! Scoring 1,000 Goals at Old Trafford
The Red Devils take pride in playing at Old Trafford and have achieved great feats that no other football club has before.
During the 2016 season, Anthony Martial scored the club’s 1,000th goal with a deflected shot against Everton. Manchester United have become the first Premier League team to score 1,000 goals on their own turf. Make no mistake, this accomplishment has been in the works since 1992. At that time, the club was initiated into the Premier League and had their first goal scored by Irish defender, Denis Irwin.
Over the next two years, Manchester worked their legs off to score their 100th goal at home – scored by Eric Cantona against Nottingham Forest in 1994. The club made huge strides throughout the next two decades, scoring a total of 400 goals. Ryan Giggs marked scoring the 500th goal at Old Trafford against Nottingham in 2004.
Old Trafford also serves as home to some of the Premier League’s top scorers, Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes. After transferring from Everton in 2004, Rooney has settled quite nicely at the lofty stadium, scoring 99 goals on Trafford grounds. A long-time Red Devil, Scholes treads behind Rooney with 59 goals, making him the second highest Premier League scorer at the Theatre of Dreams.
All About Old Trafford
Old Trafford acquired its name due to its location in Trafford, a metropolitan district in Manchester. Archibald Leitch was the appointed architect who led the main design and construction of the stadium. Its projected capacity was approximately 80,000. Old Trafford was officially opened on February 19, 1910 with a match between Liverpool and Manchester.
One unique feature about Old Trafford was that it was built with large tribunes on each side of the playing field and connected by closing tiers to create one ring. This set the stadium apart from others in England because, at the time, all English stadiums had separated tiers (with all angles open).
Old Trafford saw its highest attendance record of 76,962 fans in 1939 during a semifinal match between Grimsby Town and Wolves.
Unfortunately, Old Trafford was nearly demolished during the German air raids of World War II due to its proximity to Trafford Park Industrial Estate – a prompt target of the airstrikes. Once the war was over, rebuilding began. Few changes were made to the original design. In 1965, a second level of tiers was added to the North Stand – this was the first time a stadium had several balconies on its premises.
Lights, Cameras, Trafford
There’s no other way you can look at it, Manchester truly enjoys the home field advantage that Old Trafford provides for them. The stadium also offers various ways for red fans to enhance and celebrate their game day experience: from upgraded food choices at the Red Cafe to different seating options (balcony included). There are no further renovations planned as of yet, but it has been rumored that stadium capacity will be increased to 95,000 in the near future.
Before you make your way over to Old Trafford, make sure you’re well-equipped. Look no further than Fanatics or Kitbag US (or Kitbag UK for outside of the US) for all of your Manchester United gear, and see why #WeAreUnited!
Methodology
Using PremierLeague.com and Mufcinfo.com, we pulled the win-loss history of Manchester United FC and removed any records of games played at another venue.
The home-win percentage is determined by dividing total wins at home by the sum of wins, losses, and draws at home.
Sources
- http://www.stadiumguide.com/oldtrafford/
- http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/clubs/profile.statistics.html/man-utd#clubsTabsGoals
- http://www.kidzworld.com/article/8387-sports-venues-old-trafford
- https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-mind-blowing-facts-about-Old-Trafford-football-stadium
- http://thebusbyway.com/2012/09/10/10-interesting-facts-about-man-united/
- http://www.manutd.com/en/History/The-Old-Trafford-Story.aspx
- http://www.footballgroundmap.com/ground/old-trafford/manchester-united
- http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_menu/architecture/stadium_design/manchester_old_trafford.shtml
- http://www.footballgroundguide.com/leagues/england/premier-league/old-trafford-manchester-united.html#afuture-stadium-developments
- http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/20150109-did-you-know-manchester-united-2187202.aspx
- http://www.mufcinfo.com/manupag/stadiums/stadiums_main.html?stadium=Old%20Trafford
- http://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/rooney-99-not-out-numbers-behind-man-utds-1000-league-goals-old-trafford#:U7yW8vYtB_Z89A
- https://www.statbunker.com/alltimestats/AllTimeLeadingScorers?comp_code=EPL
