Manchester United is selling pieces of the Old Trafford pitch for £125 each, with the turf cut to 7x7cm and placed in glass cubes. The club is also working through debt that remains above £1bn, while its new stadium project is expected to cost more than £2bn overall.
Old Trafford turf as a product
This summer was the first time in 14 years that the Old Trafford pitch was dug up and stripped back to its foundation. Sections of the turf were preserved and packaged as keepsakes, which is about as direct a sign as you will get of how far clubs will go with matchday nostalgia when the price is right.
The club website called the cubes a "priceless memento of iconic games played at home and keeps the memories of matchdays alive". That wording fits the product: a square of grass in a black case is not a football object in the normal sense, but it is being sold as one.
The finances around the sale
The pitch-piece launch lands while United's wider finances remain under pressure. The club reported record revenue of £677.6m and a £22.6m operating profit for the 2025-26 season, yet still posted a pre-tax loss of £43m.
The debt figure matters too. Overall debt remains more than £1bn, and £63.5m has already been spent buying land for the new stadium. That stadium is expected to cost more than £2bn overall, so the club is pushing on with a huge project while also selling off tiny chunks of the old ground as collector items.
United finished third in the 2025 Premier League season with 71 points, and the late run of WWDWW showed a team with decent momentum on the pitch. Off it, the club is leaning into commercial ideas that are hard to miss, and the pitch pieces are the latest one.
The cubes are already on sale, and the new stadium work keeps moving alongside them.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
