Re: Man City billionaires to turn Eastlands in to Las Vegas?
You can see why Spurs were so keen to get the Olympic Stadium when they were told that their wish to rebuild the arena into a proper football venue wasn't incompatible with bidding to be a tenant. Both they and Liverpool face formidable issues if they're to build the new stadia they need to move forward.
On the other hand, I think things look pretty rosy for us on that front. I visited the stadium last Friday just before the end of my Christmas and New Year visit back home to have a look at the development site. I also had a drive round the whole East Manc development area all the way from Belle Vue to Newton Heath. Purely in terms of the area round the ground, you can't help but be struck by the vastness of the development sites there (to be fair, the estimable fbloke warned me to expect this).
I'm more convinced than ever that there's scope for something to take shape here on a really quite dramatic scale. I also took a look at the railway line that passes just to the west of the stadium and is currently in use for freight traffic only. I also remain confident that there'll be a compelling commercial case for opening that to passenger traffic with perhaps an Etihad Campus interchange station being created in the vicinity once the 24/7 visitor attraction of international significance is open, as referred to in the Council's Eastlands Regeneration Framework document published last year.
As it happens, I found a quid on Joe Mercer Way as I wandered round the site. What more proof do you need that the omens are auspicious? ;)
A couple of other things. Firstly, I've been saying that rugby will come to Eastlands in some guise since long before this was confirmed in the Council's Eastlands Community Plan document last summer. The Plan talks of a new rugby club, but I've speculated before that there could also be a possibility Sale moving to East Manc in the longer term, though of course such a step has always been contingent on there being a venue that can accommodate them.
That would have to be either a scaled down CoMS in the apparently unlikely event that City build a new venue next door or the new smaller stadium at the Beswick Hub that will replace Mini-CoMS when it's knocked down to make way for commercial development. As things stand, CoMS is far too big for them and City wouldn't share with a rugby club anyway, so there's no prospect of there being anywhere for them to play at Eastlands for a while yet, but maybe in a few years? The talk is currently of them going to play at Salford RL's new ground with an announcement possible by mid-February; should they go there, I wonder if the lease will offer them a get-out they could exercise should a better option become available (and make no mistake, what will go up here will eventually make it an option they would love to have).
Anyway, be that as it may – it’s purely speculative in any event. The second point is that there was a development I found interesting this week that seems largely to have gone unnoticed and that I only picked up from Deborah Linton of the MEN. She said that, “Iain Duncan Smith has been in Manchester talking Olympic legacy with GB Taekwondo in Newton Heath.” It doesn’t directly relate to MCFC save that the proceeds from certain developments that go to the MCFC/MCC joint venture company will fund the upkeep of the facilities referred to in the Eastlands Community Plan, but it shows government interest in the developments. I view that as significant.
Of course, it also goes to show that, despite the planned FCUM stadium at Ten Acres Lane being canned, thought is being given to other ways of delivering the community benefits that project would have brought. I don’t believe that, a few years down the line, the residents of Newton Heath will have any cause to regret the way things have turned out.
PS - People will probably think this is a minor gripe, and I suppose it is, but I find it irritating nonetheless (it's been mentioned before, too). With regard to the signs at the Metrolink stop - shouldn't the platform for trams away from the city centre refer to Droylsden rather than Ashton-under-Lyne given that the line will only open out to the latter a couple of years after it goes to the former. And more importantly, can we not substitute the sign on the other platform that trams go to "Manchester" with a reference to "City Centre". We're in Manchester already, even if Metrolink seem not to have noticed.
You can see why Spurs were so keen to get the Olympic Stadium when they were told that their wish to rebuild the arena into a proper football venue wasn't incompatible with bidding to be a tenant. Both they and Liverpool face formidable issues if they're to build the new stadia they need to move forward.
On the other hand, I think things look pretty rosy for us on that front. I visited the stadium last Friday just before the end of my Christmas and New Year visit back home to have a look at the development site. I also had a drive round the whole East Manc development area all the way from Belle Vue to Newton Heath. Purely in terms of the area round the ground, you can't help but be struck by the vastness of the development sites there (to be fair, the estimable fbloke warned me to expect this).
I'm more convinced than ever that there's scope for something to take shape here on a really quite dramatic scale. I also took a look at the railway line that passes just to the west of the stadium and is currently in use for freight traffic only. I also remain confident that there'll be a compelling commercial case for opening that to passenger traffic with perhaps an Etihad Campus interchange station being created in the vicinity once the 24/7 visitor attraction of international significance is open, as referred to in the Council's Eastlands Regeneration Framework document published last year.
As it happens, I found a quid on Joe Mercer Way as I wandered round the site. What more proof do you need that the omens are auspicious? ;)
A couple of other things. Firstly, I've been saying that rugby will come to Eastlands in some guise since long before this was confirmed in the Council's Eastlands Community Plan document last summer. The Plan talks of a new rugby club, but I've speculated before that there could also be a possibility Sale moving to East Manc in the longer term, though of course such a step has always been contingent on there being a venue that can accommodate them.
That would have to be either a scaled down CoMS in the apparently unlikely event that City build a new venue next door or the new smaller stadium at the Beswick Hub that will replace Mini-CoMS when it's knocked down to make way for commercial development. As things stand, CoMS is far too big for them and City wouldn't share with a rugby club anyway, so there's no prospect of there being anywhere for them to play at Eastlands for a while yet, but maybe in a few years? The talk is currently of them going to play at Salford RL's new ground with an announcement possible by mid-February; should they go there, I wonder if the lease will offer them a get-out they could exercise should a better option become available (and make no mistake, what will go up here will eventually make it an option they would love to have).
Anyway, be that as it may – it’s purely speculative in any event. The second point is that there was a development I found interesting this week that seems largely to have gone unnoticed and that I only picked up from Deborah Linton of the MEN. She said that, “Iain Duncan Smith has been in Manchester talking Olympic legacy with GB Taekwondo in Newton Heath.” It doesn’t directly relate to MCFC save that the proceeds from certain developments that go to the MCFC/MCC joint venture company will fund the upkeep of the facilities referred to in the Eastlands Community Plan, but it shows government interest in the developments. I view that as significant.
Of course, it also goes to show that, despite the planned FCUM stadium at Ten Acres Lane being canned, thought is being given to other ways of delivering the community benefits that project would have brought. I don’t believe that, a few years down the line, the residents of Newton Heath will have any cause to regret the way things have turned out.
PS - People will probably think this is a minor gripe, and I suppose it is, but I find it irritating nonetheless (it's been mentioned before, too). With regard to the signs at the Metrolink stop - shouldn't the platform for trams away from the city centre refer to Droylsden rather than Ashton-under-Lyne given that the line will only open out to the latter a couple of years after it goes to the former. And more importantly, can we not substitute the sign on the other platform that trams go to "Manchester" with a reference to "City Centre". We're in Manchester already, even if Metrolink seem not to have noticed.