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Old Trafford (given the nickname The Theatre of Dreams by Bobby Charlton) is a football stadium that serves as the home of Manchester United.

Located in the borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, it has been United's permanent home since 1910 apart from an eight year forced exile when the stadium was bombed in 1941. The club had to temporarily share Manchester City's home ground, Maine Road, until the rebuilding of Old Trafford was completed in 1949.

Until the new Wembley Stadium is completed Old Trafford will have the largest ground capacity of any English football stadium, currently holding just over 73,000 spectators. Ongoing work on two corner stands will result in a capacity of 76,000 by the 2006-07 season. Currently, the only larger football ground in the United Kingdom is the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (which will be smaller than Old Trafford upon it's development).

Old Trafford is by far the largest club ground in Britain and is all-seater, which is a legal requirement of all higher league British club grounds and new stadium developments since the Taylor Report in the early 1990s.

Part of the new seating was used for the first time on 26 March 2006, when the attendance was 69,070, a record for the Premiership, a record that was broken just 3 days later when 69,522 people watched United play West Ham on 29 March.

The stadium's record attendance was 76,962, set on 25 March 1939 for a FA Cup semi-final between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Grimsby Town, although this is expected to be beaten once all the new seating has been opened. The Premiership's current attendance record was set when 73,006 spectators saw United win 4-0 against Charlton Athletic on 7 May 2006.

It frequently hosted FA Cup semi-final matches (as long as Manchester United were not involved), and occasionally hosted England international fixtures whilst Wembley was under reconstruction. It also hosted 1966 FIFA World Cup matches, Euro '96 matches and the Champions League final in 2003. With London winning its bid for the 2012 Olympics, the stadium will be used for some preliminary men's and women's football matches during the Summer Games.

Since 1998, when rugby league adopted play-offs and a Grand Final to determine the Super League champions, Old Trafford has staged the Grand Final.

The football stadium is close to the Old Trafford cricket ground.

The Stretford End is the west stand of the stadium and is where the diehard fans have historically been situated. Previously, the K Stand in the old East Stand was the home of the vocal supporters although following expansion to the West Stand (Stretford End) many relocated. In the past, the noise has been compared to that of a jumbo jet. However, nowadays, Old Trafford is criticised for not creating a big enough atmosphere on a regular basis. This is perhaps because of the seating arrangments; the family section, the least vocally heard, is situated on the first tier of the Stretford End, together with the now infamous corporate 'Prawn Sandwich Brigade' in the South Stand. The rivalry between nearby neighbours Liverpool and Manchester City is particularly fierce.

In 2005, FA Premier League fans from all over the world voted online that Old Trafford would be the stadium they would prefer to watch any game.

The ground featured in the 1967 Albert Finney film Charlie Bubbles where a child is disappointed at missing out on fully being involved in the match due to watching from behind the glass window of one of the private boxes.

Banners

Once work on the second level was complete, the club allowed supporters to mount banners on the wall in front of the second tier, and groups of supporters got together to produce and pay for them. The slogans on the banners included:

• 029 Years — a reference to the length of time since United's local rivals Manchester City had won a major trophy. The supporters purchased a set of matching numbers with velcro so that the number could be updated each year.
• MUFC The Religion — symbolizing fanaticism and loyalism for the club. MUFC stands for Manchester United Football Club.
• Republik Of Mancunia – Red Army — written in faux Cyrillic showcasing the Mancunian pride of the supporters and, for some, their apathy towards the England national football team.
• 2O LEGEND — a reference to the United player Ole Gunnar Solskjær who had been injured for over a year when the banner was made. Solskjaer (Ole) wears number 20 on his shirt. There is no space between the "0" and the "L" creating the striker's name, this is also in a different colour font.
• One Love – Stretford End – MUFC — One Love is the title of a song by Manchester band the Stone Roses that was played at the 1999 European Cup final, which Manchester United won.
• February 6 1958 – The Flowers of Manchester — A tribute to the Munich air disaster, in which eight United players died. The Flowers of Manchester is the title of a tribute song by The Spinners.

The banners were removed in August 2005. Initially this was caused by building work on the corners of the stadium, but the majority of their owners decided not to put them back up as a protest against Malcolm Glazer's takeover of Manchester United. The '026 Years' banner, which by then was showing '029 Years', appeared at FC United's match against Eccleshall on 24 August that year.

More banners have returned to the Stretford End designed by the fans, the most recent of which was one devoted to the late George Best although since the opening of the new North West Quadrant and the repositioning of one of the four electronic variable message boards, this banner has been removed; the message board position clashed with that of the George Best banner.

New Banners

• The Phoenix Banner - "MUFC -EST 1878 WE'LL NEVER DIE" (first in place at The Blackburn Match)
• Blue Nose Day Banner - "Blue Nose day comic relief for 29 yrs" (in place at The Manchester City Match)
• In Memory of Noel Cantwell Banner - "Noel Cantwell 1932-2005 RIP" (In place at The Manchester City Match)
• Eusebio I Say Kiddo Banner - "Eusebio and I say Kiddo...Kiddo,Kiddo - Wembley '68" (In place at The Benfica game

External links

• Satellite Photo of Old Trafford
• Image Gallery and Additional Information

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• 2012 Summer Olympic venues
• Rugby league stadiums in the United Kingdom
• Sports venues in Greater Manchester
• FIFA World Cup stadiums
• Football venues in England
• Manchester United F.C.
• UEFA 5 star stadiums
• UEFA European championship stadiums
• Premier League Stadia