Man Utd want 'Wembley of the North' – Port Vale almost beat them to it with 80,000 dream
There's no such thing as an original idea - and Sir Jim Ratcliffe's "Wembley of the North" vision for Manchester United was previously the ambition of a League One club
Manchester United aren't the first club to want a "Wembley of the North" - with Port Vale coining the term nearly 80 years ago.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is reportedly planning to either upgrade Old Trafford or build a new 90,000-seater stadium for the Red Devils to rival London's home of football. United are in need of new and improved facilities.
And so were the Valiants back in the 1940s when they were evicted from their previous venue, The Old Recreation Ground. Rather than seek out another existing site, the club's owners unveiled grand plans of their own.
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They announced their intention to build an 80k-capacity ground with room for 1,000 parked cars, and the development became known as 'The Wembley of the North' due to the size of the stadium.
There was one ever-so slight problem - they didn't have anywhere near enough money to realise that dream, with the club languishing in the third tier. The supporters club set to work trying to raise funds.
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Life-time seats were sold for £100, the cost of around 200 matches and worth approximately £2,800 today, but less than 100 fans bought one.
Not only was cash an issue, but so was the construction. Given World War II had not long ended, materials for non-essential work were difficult to attain. Vale were also lacking support from the Stoke-on-Trent Corporation and the Ministry of Works
By the time it was opened in 1950, £50k had been spent and it was able to hold 40k supporters. But it was entirely uncovered, had temporary changing rooms and just 1k seats.
A club-record crowd of just over 30k attended the first match, a 1–0 victory over Newport County, when the ground was christened Vale Park.
Draining issues caused regular postponements throughout the 50s, but when they could get on the pitch the team earned promotion and rejuvenated hopes of rivalling Wembley.
The capacity was increased to 50k for the turn of the 1960s, earning a new record attendance on February 20, 1960 for a FA Cup fifth round tie versus Aston Villa.
But as they fell back down the divisions, crowds dropped to as low as 3,000 and the 'Wembley of the North' dream was a thing of the past.
New safety regulations introduced in the 80s reduced the capacity to 16.5k, similar to the current day Vale Park, which was brought up to Championship standard in 2022 after investment from current owners Kevin and Carol Shanahan.