In its initial years Manchester United (Newton Heath) played on various pitches before they moved to North Road Monsall in 1880. This ground was reported to be the worst one in their league; it was enshrouded with the smoke from the nearby industry and the pitch was or hard as stone (summer) or one big puddle of mud (winter).

Visiting teams had complained so much about the conditions at North Road that the club decided to move to another ground at Bank Street, Clayton. This turned out to be not much of an improvement as the mud and stones were replaced with the toxic fumes of nearby chemical works.
Gates dropped and a bad financial situation made Newton Heath to file bankruptcy in 1902. After a restart the name of the club was changed into Manchester United.
In the following years the club became succesful, but still had a disgrace of a ground for a club that had won the FA cup and the Championship title. A new site at Trafford Park was purchased for £60,000 and on the 22nd of January 1910 United played their last match at Bank Street (Man Utd-Spurs 5-0).

The new stadium was planned to be the finest in the country with a capacity of 100,000, but after the investments soared an additional £30,000, the plans got changed and a 60,000 ground was the result.

The new stadium was terraced on three sides with a seated main stand undercover on the other side. The first match was against Liverpool who spoiled the inauguration with a 4-3 win over United. In 1939 Old Trafford had its largest attendance ever with the FA Cup semi-final between Portsmouth and Grimsby (76,962).
On the 11th of March 1941, Old Trafford was heavily damaged after a bombing of the Trafford Park Industrial Area by the Germans. This caused United to take up residence at rival Manchester City's home, Maine Road, untill 1949.

After the reconstruction of the main stand after the war, 41,748 fans saw United play their first game in ten years at Old Trafford on the 24th of August 1949. In the next years the other three sides were covered and after United had success in Europe floodlights had to be installed for the night matches.

In 1964 further improvements had to be made for the upcoming World Cup of 1966 in England.

During this tournament three matches in poule B (Portugal, Hungary, Bulgaria & Brazil) were played at Old Trafford.

From the 60's untill the 80's 58,000 fans could pack into Old Trafford. In these years gradual improvements were made to the stadium. In the 80's the stadium was totally covered. It had terracing at the front and a large seated section behind.

In the early 90's, after the Hillsborough disaster and the following Tayler Report, all top clubs in England were required to have an all-seater stadium. This reduced the capacity of Old Trafford to 44,000 seats. Around that same time the developments to the ground had finished and United had a beautiful arena.

But with the growing popularity of United in the 90's the stadium was just too small. This led to further expansion in 1995 with the construction of the three-tiered North Stand, bringing the capacity to 58,000 seats. Further expansions of the East & the West Stand in the year 2000 would bring the stadium in its present state with a capacity of 68,000 seats.

In 1996 Old Trafford hosted some matches during the European Championships in England, including, among others, the semi-final match between France and the Czech Republic.
In 2003 Old Trafford hosted for the first time an European Cup final (AC Milan-Juventus 0-0).

Recently, works have started to extend the capacity to 75,000 by filling in the corners of the North Stand.

The long-term plan is to rebuild the South Stand and fill in the corners to a capacity of 90,000, but due to the lack of space outside the stadium there are no immediate plans for this redevelopment. Still, Old Trafford is one of the most impressive stadiums in Europe and totally does justice to its nickname 'Theatre of dreams'.