If you go to Manchester and ask passing locals for directions to reach the Old Trafford stadium, you need to be specific!
For, Manchester is home to two major sporting grounds, Old Trafford Football Stadium and Old Trafford Cricket Ground, located at either end of Warwick Road. Moreover, cricket and football are intertwined with the fabric of their lives than any other sports.
Old Trafford Cricket Ground, the home of the Lancashire County Cricket Club, is England's second oldest Test venue while Manchester United, one of football’s most popular clubs, play their home games at Old Trafford Football Stadium.
Old Trafford, or rather, ‘The Theatre of Dreams’, as the great Sir Bobby Charlton had renamed it, holds a special place in the heart of every football-loving Brit. Fans of Manchester United are as passionate as they come and they stick by their team through thick and thin.
The football stadium is located about 0.5 miles (800m) away from the cricket ground. There are many physical symbols present at Old Trafford that depict the rich history of the most successful club in England.
The most iconic is a statue of the club's ‘holy trinity’ of George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton, entitled ‘The United Trinity’, located in front of the East Stand, the famous entrance window of the stadium. The largest stand of the stadium, the North Stand, was renamed in 2011 as the ‘Sir Alex Ferguson Stand’, with a statue outside the entrance, in honour of the most decorated manager in the club’s history.
On one side of the sprawling premises there is an artificial turf fenced with barbed wires, where youngsters are engaged in a five-a-side game. Giant posters of memorable moments and victory celebrations involving United legends such as Bobby Charlton, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo adore the brightly lit walls outside the entrance.
It’s rush hour at the ‘Munich Memorial’, a section outside the stadium dedicated to the Munich air disaster in 1958, in which 23 players and members of manager Matt Busby's staff lost their lives. Accompanying the memorial is ‘The Munich Tunnel’ which connects the East to the West side of the stadium. The main hall is filled with memorabilia and the plaques on its walls are engraved with glorious moments in the stadium’s history.
