The Manchester United Museum is located within Old Trafford. It chronicles Manchester United’s 147-year history and houses the club’s most precious artifacts and trophies.
We aim to maximize ticket revenue by enhancing the mix of experiences available at each game and by providing a range of options from general admission tickets to multi-seat facilities and hospitality suites. In particular, we have recently increased overall Matchday revenue by restructuring the composition of our stadium, with an emphasis on developing hospitality facilities which sell at a higher price and improve our margins. As part of this effort, we have invested in new and refurbished multi-seat hospitality suites as well as improvements to our single-seat facilities. We expect our enhancements to our hospitality facilities to continue to be a key driver of our profit from Matchday revenues in future periods.
Our Footballing History
Our men’s team was founded in 1878 as Newton Heath L&YR Football Club and has operated for over 147 years. The team first entered the English First Division, then the highest league in English football, for the start of the 1892/93 season. Our club name changed to Manchester United Football Club in 1902, and we won the first of our 20 English League titles in 1908. In 1910, we moved to Old Trafford, our current stadium.
In the late 1940s, we returned to on-field success, winning the FA Cup in 1948 and finishing within the top four league positions during each of the first five seasons immediately following the Second World War. During the 1950s, we continued our on-field success under the leadership of manager Sir Matt Busby, who built a popular and famous team based on youth players known as the “Busby Babes.”
In February 1958, an airplane crash resulted in the death of eight of our men’s first team players. Global support and tributes followed this disaster as Busby galvanized the team around such popular players as George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law. Rebuilding of the club culminated with a victory in the 1968 European Cup final, becoming the first English club to win this title.
This storied history preceded the highly successful modern era of Manchester United which began in earnest in 1986 when the club appointed Sir Alex Ferguson as manager, and in 1990 we won the FA Cup and began a long period of sustained success winning the Premier League title a record 13 times. In total, we have won a joint-record 20 English League titles, 13 FA Cups, 6 EFL Cups, 3 European/Champions League Cups, 1 Europa League Cup, and 1 FIFA Club World Cup, making us one of the most successful clubs in England.
Since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, our club has enjoyed consistent success and growth with popular players such as Bryan Robson, Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes. The popularity of these players, our distinguished tradition and history, and the on-field success of our men’s first team have allowed us to expand the club into a global brand with an international follower base.
In 2018, the current iteration of our Women’s team formed, as the Club’s first ever professional Women’s side, and joined the FA Women’s Championship for the 2018-19 season, clinching the title in their first season and securing promotion to the Women’s Super League for the 2019/20 season. The team has contributed key players in the success of the England Lionesses, with three players in the England Women’s squads for both their Euro 2022 and Euro 2025 successes.
In 2024, our Women’s team won their first major trophy, the Women’s FA Cup, defeating Tottenham 4-0 in front of over 75,000 fans at England’s national stadium, Wembley.
Our Old Trafford stadium was originally opened on 19 February 1910 with a capacity of approximately 80,000. During the Second World War, Old Trafford was used by the military as a depot, and on 11 March 1941 was heavily damaged by a German bombing raid. The stadium was rebuilt following the war and re-opened on 24 August 1949. The addition of floodlighting, permitting evening matches, was completed in 1957 and a project to cover the stands with roofs was completed in 1959. After a series of additions during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, capacity at Old Trafford reached 56,385 in 1985. The conversion of the stadium to an all-seater reduced capacity to approximately 44,000 by 1992, the lowest in its history. Thereafter, we began to expand capacity throughout the stadium, bringing capacity to approximately 58,000 by 1996, approximately 68,000 by 2000, and over 74,000 in 2006. Currently, Old Trafford seats 74,233 supporters.