Maine Road,

[Bill]

Wouldn't go back for any reason. Love our ground.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Don’t get me wrong, we are in a GREAT location and have a large-ish stadium. But things still aren’t right at the Etihad. And I don’t love the place despite magical moments like “Agüerooooo!”.

It’s all been designed and aimed at families and corporates with a “match day experience” and proper football fans who should be the core support that everything should be aimed at, are an afterthought and have been falling away from our support for years (including our away support which is a far cry from what it used to be).

It’s sad that what used to be one main stand at Maine Road is now four main stands with two little shitty efforts set aside for people to stand up (supposedly to create an atmosphere but really they all just stand with their arms folded and sing the odd song).
We had an opportunity when the stadium looked like this:

to build a proper end and missed that opportunity. We had half an opportunity when we redeveloped the South Stand to build a proper end but I can see why it wasn’t taken. Now with the North Stand we have an opportunity to build a proper end again; will we miss the opportunity again though?

Nothing ever seems to be geared at making the Etihad a place where proper football fan culture of creating noise and hostility accompanied with the colour of flags and banners is top priority. Look at the second tier ban on banners and flags to be replaced with a digital advertising board - shite! And all the cheesy club made flags and banners (flags and banners should be SOLELY fan made!)

They provide us with the lowest percentage of space for singers compared to overall capacity in the whole country, in fact, find me anywhere in Europe with a lower %... 55000 seats and we have a space for singers of about 3000ish? That is absolutely pitiful! Pathetic! And even then we get completely surrounded and outnumbered hugely in the cups so what’s the point of them at all? It’s the equivalent of the Anfield Kop (holds 12000) being surrounded by 26000 away fans in cup games.

This lack of proper fan culture at the Etihad has had a knock-on effect on our away support too. Look around on an away trip these days [and no offence to any of these groups of people] but it’s all older blokes, women, kids, geeks and corporates. With the odd small groups of “lads”. Who used to be the “lads” years ago are the older blokes now and because of the way the loyalty points has come to a head these days they’re still the core element of the support, with their wives and kids these days, and the days of the huge groups of 20-40 years old blokes has long gone from our support - but it hasn’t with other sets of fans. And you really hear it in our away support noise these days too. We’ve fallen off a cliff in the last five years with our away atmospheres. If football fan culture had been a priority from the off at the Etihad, or from the takeover, or from the time Soriano came in, would our away support be the way it is these days?

I don’t like how three of the stands don’t have stand names and I don’t like how fans are split up low down by small tiers - that REALLY hinders the noise in the stadium IMO

For anyone sat in the East Stand, we have to walk either all the way round the ground or all the way down to the bridge and back up the road if we want to get back to the South Stand end of the ground to parking or a pub like the Corner Shop or The Townley while everyone else in the ground including away fans just walk straight out.

There are nowhere near enough pubs around the ground and it’s a bloody scandal how there are so few pubs between Town and the ground.

Still now, nearly 22 years after the plans for the ground were made, nearly 18 years since the Commonwealth Games, nearly 15 years since we moved there and nearly 10 years since we’ve had the Sheikh... still the best and quickest way to get back to Town is to WALK! The transport and parking situation at the Etihad for 55000 people is extremely poor!

It’s not that I miss Maine Road. I actually don’t anymore. But I feel pretty down about what we’ve got in the Etihad in, almost, 2018 when you think of how almost everything else has come on in these years (especially the last ten).

Great pst .I agree the Etihad just still doesn't feel like home. Having no home end a tiny singing section has killed any chance of that. The worse part is that it's getting more corporate and more broken up.

 

[mscenterh750]

Loved Maine Road to the bottom of my heart. Paying 50p to have my dad's car and later my car minded, just round the corner from the Parkside, trudging past dog shit and rubbish through the alleys before being greeted by the beautiful sight of Maine Road, sitting on the wooden seating outside johnstones bar in the main stand before leaving my dad to finish his pint, whilst I went and watched the players warm up and who could forget the famous "city manchester city" song before they came out at 3pm.

Heavenly memories and I've thousands more to cherish.

 

[Trevor95]

Spurs seem to have gone about it significantly better. Huge, single tiered home end, primed for the introduction of safe standing if it were to ever be allowed. The stadium is still in the same place, so all those pre/post match traditions outside the stadium are retained. It is a shame City didn't have the convenience of Wembley Stadium to borrow for a couple of years / the money at the time to use the CoMs temporarily whilst Maine Road was started again.

 

[Tony tornado]

Spurs seem to have gone about it significantly better. Huge, single tiered home end, primed for the introduction of safe standing if it were to ever be allowed. The stadium is still in the same place, so all those pre/post match traditions outside the stadium are retained. It is a shame City didn't have the convenience of Wembley Stadium to borrow for a couple of years / the money at the time to use the CoMs temporarily whilst Maine Road was started again.

 

[Tony tornado]

Everyone's losing the plot here,Maine Road was great,but the Etihad Stadium is a much better location,I give you the situation re bars ,cafes etc is not as good as Maine Road,but this stadium and the potential around the Stadium is still waiting to be developed

 

[Charlie Chuck]

I loved Maine road but it was a tired old ramshackle stadium made worse with the cheap and nasty development of the Kippax and Platt lane stands. I was sad to leave though. I like the Etihad, but like many have said, the atmosphere is pretty poor for the capacity. But at the end of the day, it's up to all of us to create an atmosphere, and many would just rather be on their phone than watch the game.

 

[city68]

I loved Maine road but did anyone do the tour of the ground ? It was so dated. Given more time Etihad will feel more like home .....Still got bricks from Maine Road from when the pulled it down. CITD ........

 

[David White]

Don’t get me wrong, we are in a GREAT location and have a large-ish stadium. But things still aren’t right at the Etihad. And I don’t love the place despite magical moments like “Agüerooooo!”.

It’s all been designed and aimed at families and corporates with a “match day experience” and proper football fans who should be the core support that everything should be aimed at, are an afterthought and have been falling away from our support for years (including our away support which is a far cry from what it used to be).

It’s sad that what used to be one main stand at Maine Road is now four main stands with two little shitty efforts set aside for people to stand up (supposedly to create an atmosphere but really they all just stand with their arms folded and sing the odd song).
We had an opportunity when the stadium looked like this:

to build a proper end and missed that opportunity. We had half an opportunity when we redeveloped the South Stand to build a proper end but I can see why it wasn’t taken. Now with the North Stand we have an opportunity to build a proper end again; will we miss the opportunity again though?

Nothing ever seems to be geared at making the Etihad a place where proper football fan culture of creating noise and hostility accompanied with the colour of flags and banners is top priority. Look at the second tier ban on banners and flags to be replaced with a digital advertising board - shite! And all the cheesy club made flags and banners (flags and banners should be SOLELY fan made!)

They provide us with the lowest percentage of space for singers compared to overall capacity in the whole country, in fact, find me anywhere in Europe with a lower %... 55000 seats and we have a space for singers of about 3000ish? That is absolutely pitiful! Pathetic! And even then we get completely surrounded and outnumbered hugely in the cups so what’s the point of them at all? It’s the equivalent of the Anfield Kop (holds 12000) being surrounded by 26000 away fans in cup games.

This lack of proper fan culture at the Etihad has had a knock-on effect on our away support too. Look around on an away trip these days [and no offence to any of these groups of people] but it’s all older blokes, women, kids, geeks and corporates. With the odd small groups of “lads”. Who used to be the “lads” years ago are the older blokes now and because of the way the loyalty points has come to a head these days they’re still the core element of the support, with their wives and kids these days, and the days of the huge groups of 20-40 years old blokes has long gone from our support - but it hasn’t with other sets of fans. And you really hear it in our away support noise these days too. We’ve fallen off a cliff in the last five years with our away atmospheres. If football fan culture had been a priority from the off at the Etihad, or from the takeover, or from the time Soriano came in, would our away support be the way it is these days?

I don’t like how three of the stands don’t have stand names and I don’t like how fans are split up low down by small tiers - that REALLY hinders the noise in the stadium IMO!

For anyone sat in the East Stand, we have to walk either all the way round the ground or all the way down to the bridge and back up the road if we want to get back to the South Stand end of the ground to parking or a pub like the Corner Shop or The Townley while everyone else in the ground including away fans just walk straight out.

There are nowhere near enough pubs around the ground and it’s a bloody scandal how there are so few pubs between Town and the ground.

Still now, nearly 22 years after the plans for the ground were made, nearly 18 years since the Commonwealth Games, nearly 15 years since we moved there and nearly 10 years since we’ve had the Sheikh... still the best and quickest way to get back to Town is to WALK! The transport and parking situation at the Etihad for 55000 people is extremely poor!

It’s not that I miss Maine Road. I actually don’t anymore. But I feel pretty down about what we’ve got in the Etihad in, almost, 2018 when you think of how almost everything else has come on in these years (especially the last ten).

Brilliant post mate, resonates with me and probably many others here.

The Etihad is a fantastic stadium though and the facilities are great for the players. I’d love a proper ‘end’ if the development of the north stand ever does go ahead. I can’t see it though, mainly due to the circus they have in there for the kids. I’d love them to reduce the family stand down to 3 or 4 blocks, maybe even just reduce the price of tickets anywhere in the ground to accommodate families. It’s a waste of time and is often not full, especially for night games (which is understandable).

Sadly, football isn’t the way it was, maybe it will return to a fashion if (when) the TV bubble bursts.

The club don’t want young lads in groups, they wouldn’t spend a weeks wages in the souvenir shop before the game, the families do... on the pitch they’ve nailed it. Off the pitch they ruin everything. Mendy tweets about us being a shark team, as soon as the club see people getting in to it, they play the jaws music, it’s all about making it commercial. Cult atmosphere won’t happen, not just because of the stadium layout, but because of ‘the match day experience’. It’s enforced ‘fun’. Deafening music right up to kick off means people have another one in the pub or on the concourse, it just doesn’t work.

Back to Maine road, many, many fond memories of the ground, the area and the mostly awful football I watched there. Even if we had the money to redevelop it at the time I don’t they they would have. The move was too good to turn down. It was a proper ground though, tatty, dated and full of history!

 

[i8rags]

Don’t get me wrong, we are in a GREAT location and have a large-ish stadium. But things still aren’t right at the Etihad. And I don’t love the place despite magical moments like “Agüerooooo!”.

It’s all been designed and aimed at families and corporates with a “match day experience” and proper football fans who should be the core support that everything should be aimed at, are an afterthought and have been falling away from our support for years (including our away support which is a far cry from what it used to be).

It’s sad that what used to be one main stand at Maine Road is now four main stands with two little shitty efforts set aside for people to stand up (supposedly to create an atmosphere but really they all just stand with their arms folded and sing the odd song).
We had an opportunity when the stadium looked like this:

to build a proper end and missed that opportunity. We had half an opportunity when we redeveloped the South Stand to build a proper end but I can see why it wasn’t taken. Now with the North Stand we have an opportunity to build a proper end again; will we miss the opportunity again though?

Nothing ever seems to be geared at making the Etihad a place where proper football fan culture of creating noise and hostility accompanied with the colour of flags and banners is top priority. Look at the second tier ban on banners and flags to be replaced with a digital advertising board - shite! And all the cheesy club made flags and banners (flags and banners should be SOLELY fan made!)

They provide us with the lowest percentage of space for singers compared to overall capacity in the whole country, in fact, find me anywhere in Europe with a lower %... 55000 seats and we have a space for singers of about 3000ish? That is absolutely pitiful! Pathetic! And even then we get completely surrounded and outnumbered hugely in the cups so what’s the point of them at all? It’s the equivalent of the Anfield Kop (holds 12000) being surrounded by 26000 away fans in cup games.

This lack of proper fan culture at the Etihad has had a knock-on effect on our away support too. Look around on an away trip these days [and no offence to any of these groups of people] but it’s all older blokes, women, kids, geeks and corporates. With the odd small groups of “lads”. Who used to be the “lads” years ago are the older blokes now and because of the way the loyalty points has come to a head these days they’re still the core element of the support, with their wives and kids these days, and the days of the huge groups of 20-40 years old blokes has long gone from our support - but it hasn’t with other sets of fans. And you really hear it in our away support noise these days too. We’ve fallen off a cliff in the last five years with our away atmospheres. If football fan culture had been a priority from the off at the Etihad, or from the takeover, or from the time Soriano came in, would our away support be the way it is these days?

I don’t like how three of the stands don’t have stand names and I don’t like how fans are split up low down by small tiers - that REALLY hinders the noise in the stadium IMO!

For anyone sat in the East Stand, we have to walk either all the way round the ground or all the way down to the bridge and back up the road if we want to get back to the South Stand end of the ground to parking or a pub like the Corner Shop or The Townley while everyone else in the ground including away fans just walk straight out.

There are nowhere near enough pubs around the ground and it’s a bloody scandal how there are so few pubs between Town and the ground.

Still now, nearly 22 years after the plans for the ground were made, nearly 18 years since the Commonwealth Games, nearly 15 years since we moved there and nearly 10 years since we’ve had the Sheikh... still the best and quickest way to get back to Town is to WALK! The transport and parking situation at the Etihad for 55000 people is extremely poor!

It’s not that I miss Maine Road. I actually don’t anymore. But I feel pretty down about what we’ve got in the Etihad in, almost, 2018 when you think of how almost everything else has come on in these years (especially the last ten).

Fantastic post mate, I've had a season ticket 35yrs and gave it up this year coz following city and the mad desire that lead me to 84 grounds and not missing an away game for 7 years has lost its flavour so to speak, we're too commercial for me and even though I've persevered in recent years the desire to get home after a game means I've got to leave early or spend 90 mins trapped on a car park, the atmosphere and the will to join in has left our club, although the 1894 lads do a good job it's still dreadful.
I just can't see it coming back and my attendance will be limited and it saddens me to say so.