Stretford End

The Stretford End, taken from the South-East corner of the ground

The Stretford End, officially the West Stand, is a stand at Old Trafford, the stadium of Manchester United Football Club, It takes its name from nearby Stretford. The stand is divided into two tiers and, in common with the rest of the stadium, has a cantilever roof.

History

The Stretford End terraces before 1993.

In the days before all-seater stadia, the Stretford End was the main standing area of the ground, accommodating around 20,000 fans. The last game played in front of the terrace was the final game of the 1991–92 season, a 3–1 win over Tottenham Hotspur on 2 May 1992.

The terrace was demolished during the 1992 close-season and replaced with a £10 million all-seater cantilever stand by the end of the 1992–93 season, giving Old Trafford an all-seater stadium to comply with the Taylor Report (which required all Premier League and Division One clubs to have all-seater stadia by the start of the 1994–95 season), and its name was officially changed to "West Stand", although it is still often referred to as the Stretford End and even has white seats spelling the name out.

The redevelopment of the Stretford End was first proposed in the summer of 1989 when chairman Martin Edwards was proposing to sell the club and was willing to sell his shares for £10 million and pledge £10 million to any new owner for the redevelopment of the Stretford End; however, the proposed sale of the club to Michael Knighton fell through and Edwards remained the club's owner for well over a decade afterwards.

For the 2000–01 season, a second tier of seating was added. As well as hosting a number of executive boxes, the first tier of the West Stand is now partly taken up by the family seating area. At the corner with the South Stand is the players' tunnel.

Only Denis Law (in the 1960s) and Eric Cantona (in the 1990s) have reached the status of "King of the Stretford End" among the United faithful, the former for his formidable goal record and the latter for his charisma and aura.

Following Manchester United's ending of its sponsorship deal with Vodafone, the name of the next sponsor, AIG, was not displayed in the seats. The 'Nike Swoosh' was relocated to the East Stand and the words "Stretford End" were spelled out with white seats in the West Stand.

Statue

The Stretford End has a statue of Denis Law on the upper concourse, which was unveiled on 23 September 2002. Law was known as the "King of the Stretford End" as he was idolised by the End's faithful.