The reporter reported coldly With Manchester United unveiling the design and construction of a new stadium with a capacity of 100,000 people, the competition between the Premier League and even the top five leagues in terms of matchday revenue has reached a new peak.

In recent years, Premier League and European giants have continued to significantly increase matchday revenues by expanding or building new stadiums, pushing club revenues and global influence to a whole new dimension. The new stadium can not only meet the needs of global fans, but even the stadium itself has produced a "circle-breaking" effect, becoming a comprehensive revenue facility across multiple commercial sectors.

As the size of the football industry in the five major leagues continues to expand, the threshold for the capacity of giant stadiums has also risen: 40,000 at the beginning of the 21st century, and now it has soared to 60,000. At the beginning of the 21st century, Manchester United, with Old Trafford with a capacity of 68,000, was able to reduce the dimension and suppress other giants of the Premier League in terms of matchday income. But now a new 100,000-capacity stadium is needed for the Red Devils to regain a decisive advantage in matchday revenue. For this, Manchester United has to pay a whopping 2 billion pounds.

A bigger stadium means more VIP seating, more boxes, and even more off-site business districts. The capacity of the stadium is not only a "cornucopia" for European giants to make money now and in the future, but also a higher threshold for whether they can enter the super giants.

"Super luxury threshold", a hard indicator of stadium capacity

After 20 years of stagnant matchday revenues, Manchester United has finally launched a new stadium with a capacity of 100,000 people, hoping to keep up with the general trend of football in the Premier League and Europe. Ironically, it was Manchester United in the 1990s that United began to increase matchday revenues through stadium expansion and maintain an income advantage over their rivals.

From the 1990s onwards, Manchester United expanded the stadium capacity from 44,000 to 76,000 through several expansions, and until the 2005/06 season, Manchester United surpassed most of the Premier League's other giants by at least 40 million euros in matchday revenue, and was the only club in the world to exceed 100 million euros in matchday revenue.

The turning point came in the 2006/07 season, when Arsenal moved into the 60,000-capacity Emirates Stadium and doubled matchday revenue to €134.6 million from €63.8 million. That season, only three clubs exceeded €100 million in matchday revenue: Manchester United (137.5 million), Arsenal (134.6 million) and Chelsea (110.7 million). At that time, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur only earned around 50 million euros on match days.

After that, the Premier League began a fierce competition for the expansion of the stadium.

The Abu Dhabi Chiefs increased the capacity from 48,000 to 53,000 in 2015 and 62,000 in the summer of 2026 after acquiring Manchester City. Matchday revenue has also surged from €24.4 million in 2008/09 to €88 million last season and is expected to reach €120 million in 2026/27.

Liverpool's Anfield, expanded from 45,000 to 61,000 in the summer of 2024, with a capacity of 54,000 last season, and 132 million on the match day, equivalent to 86.8% of Manchester United, there is no suspense about surpassing Manchester United this season. Tottenham moved into a new stadium with a capacity of 62,000 in 2019 and increased matchday revenue from 85 million to €123 million last season.

Only Chelsea in the Premier League's traditional top six have been unsuccessful in their long-standing attempts to expand Stamford Bridge or build a new stadium, with matchday revenues shrinking from $110 million at their peak to $75 million, compared to $93 million last season. Abu tried to buy land around London's Battersea Power Station, Waterloo Railway Station, Earls Court or Stamford Bridge for expansion, but unfortunately nothing progressed. In the summer of 2022, when American owner Boehly took over, he also saw the expansion of the stadium as a priority strategy for the club's development. At the end of 2024, the London government finally received permission to rebuild the stadium on the original site, increasing the capacity from 40,000 to 60,000. While the total cost will be as high as £1.6 billion, matchday revenue is expected to double to €160 million to €180 million.

With Real Madrid refurbishing the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium and boosting matchday revenue to an unprecedented €200 million, it is expected that the competition for stadium capacity between the Premier League and the continental giants will also be even more fierce.

"Mewtwo Theater", a new height of competition

Manchester United's 100,000-capacity "Mewtwo Theater" plan was released, in fact, raising the competition of super giants in the Premier League and even Europe's top five leagues to a new dimension. If the "Mewtwo Theatre" is launched in five years' time, Manchester United will not only return to the Premier League matchday earnings title, but may even challenge Real Madrid for the matchday earnings title of the World Football Club.

When the "Mewtwo Theater" plan was released, the first thing that accelerated was the battle for stadium capacity within the Premier League. Arsenal, Newcastle United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea all have new stadium expansions, and even more so in terms of income diversification.

Newcastle United have just unveiled plans to expand their home stadium to 70,000 players, but it has not yet been decided whether to expand or build a new stadium. Both Liverpool and Manchester City plan to continue to expand to more than 65,000 people, with the former moving into a new stadium with a capacity of 52,000 and the latter clearly not willing to be left behind by Manchester United in terms of stadium capacity by more than 40,000. And with Chelsea's plan to rebuild the new "Bridge" stadium on its original site, Arsenal are also interested in expanding the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal plan to upgrade the capacity of the Emirates Stadium from 60,000 to the maximum capacity of the London Club Stadium at 80,000 at a cost of £500 million. Interestingly, both Arsenal and Chelsea are vying for the opportunity to temporarily place their home stadium at Wembley Stadium during the expansion of the stadium. However, former Arsenal CEO Vincartsha has been appointed head of the FA's advisory board to oversee the future development of Wembley Stadium on behalf of the FA, which could affect the prospects of two of London's biggest clubs having their temporary home stadium at Wembley.

It is worth mentioning that, given the success of Tottenham's new stadium in terms of revenue diversification, other Premier League giants, notably Arsenal and Chelsea, both in London, will consider the possibility of generating from more areas when designing the stadium expansion. Arsenal's American owner, Kroenke, has built a home stadium for the Los Angeles Rams, a North American football league (NFL) team he controls, and the expansion of the Emirates Stadium will also tend to increase the on-field conditions for hosting a variety of events, and will build more hotels and restaurants outside the stadium, which will allow Arsenal's matchday revenue to hit 200 million euros in a single season.

Obviously, if you want to become a "super giant" with a revenue of more than 500 million euros in a single season, having a home stadium with a capacity of more than 60,000 in the Premier League is already a threshold that must be reached. Moreover, looking at the big European leagues, this is also the "standard" of most of the top giants.