Etihad Campus, Stadium and Collar Site Development Thread

Anyone is allowed to have rail seating as it stands. Wolves fitted an entire end with it last summer.

You’re just not officially allowed it in the name of an official standing area.

The application is made on the basis of ‘well people are persistently standing in these areas and it’s hard to stop. It will probably be safer if we put these rails in place to avoid any accidents’.

We might wait until there is an official law change and we re-develop the North Stand so we can advertise it as the big City end - The Kippax Wall.

If they add it to South Stand level 1 then it probably means the North Stand expansion is a long time away.
 
The club won't sanction a North Stand expansion until the government clears up what's happening with Standing. The law currently means that City have to offer 1 seat for each spectator. They could theoretically implement rail seating now, they'd just have to do so whilst keeping the capacity within those sections down. Hopefully the law changes, so we can start doing what they've been doing in Germany for years - offering a standing section where you can fit up to 1.8 supporters per 1 seat.

Going off this, the club could increase the capacity over 60k, without spending £50m+ on an extension. There isn't the demand for a 60k seater at the moment, so it all falls quite nicely for the club, who will sit back and wait.

We won't see any movement on a structural change until standing has been cleared up.
 
jonmcity said:
In the UK safe standing will be one seat per spectator in any case.
Click to expand...
That's how I understood it as well.....so any hopes for an increase in capacity are probably futile. It could though improve the atmosphere in the long term?

You can't engineer an atmosphere through architectural solutions. I think we've found that out over the years of transition from Maine Rd to the Etihad.

You need young people who feel free to shout their abuse/encouragement (which is probably why fans dance in the concourse but not in the stand under the glare of CCTV and the watching steward).
 
Stretford Born Blue said:
Speaking to a football coach this morning who's worked on several building projects at The Etihad, and he stated they are building the North Stand in the form of a large Kop stand. It will fan out into the corners.
Now of course, he could be pulling my plonker, but has anybody else heard of these plans?
Click to expand...
That would imply demolishing the existing North Stand and rebuilding the whole thing from scratch, taking at least a season to do so.

Who is going to tell the existing season tickets holders in the North Stand that they are going to be relocated for a season, assuming that there is sufficient space elsewhere to accommodate them. Then the loss of revenue by lopping 10k off the stadium capacity.

What would it serve other than to ape the dippers with their ideas of single tier stands. If it goes ahead I suspect that it will be a mirror image of the top tier on the South Stand with no disruption of supporters and no loss of revenue.

So your information came from a 'football coach'? In my experience stadium expansions employ construction professionals such as architects, civil engineers, and quantity surveyors not football coaches.
 
Marvin said:
That's how I understood it as well.....so any hopes for an increase in capacity are probably futile. It could though improve the atmosphere in the long term?

You can't engineer an atmosphere through architectural solutions. I think we've found that out over the years of transition from Maine Rd to the Etihad.

You need young people who feel free to shout their abuse/encouragement (which is probably why fans dance in the concourse but not in the stand under the glare of CCTV and the watching steward).
Click to expand...
I think it’s got more to do with alcohol and a quick visit to the men’s powder room tbh!
 
Went to Spurs away in the CL.

The away end has safe standing.

It didn’t improve the away support that night..

We stand now and have been for years at the Etihad.

Adding safe standing bars in-front of people won’t make them sing more. Certainly not if it’s implemented in SSL1.

Sadly, the hope that Safe Standing in general will some how improve the atmosphere at the Etihad is wrong. It won’t.

What will improve the atmosphere is a 1894 block full of fans who want to sing and are ‘all stood next to each other’, and not split up across SSL1 and throughout the stadium.

It’s whether the club are prepared to ‘name that block’, it doesn’t have to be the 1894 block, give singers an incentive to relocate to that block from other parts of the SSL1 and the stadium, and somehow keep people who don’t sing out of that block when Safe Standing is introduced at the Etihad. The club have to make this a priority when Safe Standing is introduced. Be strict with implementing that new Safe Standing singing block. Abd involve 1894 and other City fans as much as possible before any final decisions are taken.

If the club get it right, then we will finally get a proper singing section. If the club don’t get it right, we will have lost another opportunity to create a proper singing section.

It pains me to say it, but the Rags are already up and running with a proper singing section in the corner of the Stretford End. 3 blocks, with 1000-1500 singers located there. Why can United and their fans organise it (so quickly), yet we can’t?
 
Last edited:
jonmcity said:
In the UK safe standing will be one seat per spectator in any case.
Click to expand...

Yep but if we install them like the rags have there seats in there ground gap wise we be getting at least one and half people per seat! The rags seating are pack you in like sardines it’s a fcuking dump of stadium
 
JGL07 said:
That would imply demolishing the existing North Stand and rebuilding the whole thing from scratch, taking at least a season to do so.

Who is going to tell the existing season tickets holders in the North Stand that they are going to be relocated for a season, assuming that there is sufficient space elsewhere to accommodate them. Then the loss of revenue by lopping 10k off the stadium capacity.

What would it serve other than to ape the dippers with their ideas of single tier stands. If it goes ahead I suspect that it will be a mirror image of the top tier on the South Stand with no disruption of supporters and no loss of revenue.

So your information came from a 'football coach'? In my experience stadium expansions employ construction professionals such as architects, civil engineers, and quantity surveyors not football coaches.
Click to expand...

Take a chill pill, If you read my post again, he's worked on several projects at our stadium, he's a construction worker by trade, and a 'football coach' in his spare time, and coaches my lad. It wasn't an in depth conversation. It's nowt to do with Dippers or their ideology, he just said it will be in the style of a cop, maybe they'll have 2 tiers, I don't fuckin know, maybe then the snowflake season ticket holders who'll need to move will be kept to a minimum. Talk about shoot the messenger!
 
  • Like
Reactions: nmc
jrb said:
Went to Spurs away in the CL.

The away end has safe standing.

It didn’t improve the away support that night..

We stand now and have been for years at the Etihad.

Adding safe standing bars in-front of people won’t make them sing more. Certainly not if it’s implemented in SSL1.

Sadly, the hope that Safe Standing in general will some how improve the atmosphere at the Etihad is wrong. It won’t.

What will improve the atmosphere is a 1894 block full of fans who want to sing and are ‘all stood next to each other’, and not split up across SSL1 and throughout the stadium.

It’s whether the club are prepared to ‘name that block’, it doesn’t have to be the 1894 block, give singers an incentive to relocate to that block from other parts of the SSL1 and the stadium, and somehow keep people who don’t sing out of that block when Safe Standing is introduced at the Etihad. The club have to make this a priority when Safe Standing is introduced. Be strict with implementing that new Safe Standing singing block. Abd involve 1894 and other City fans as much as possible before any final decisions are taken.

If the club get it right, then we will finally get a proper singing section. If the club don’t get it right, we will have lost another opportunity to create a proper singing section.

It pains me to say it, but the Rags are already up and running with a proper singing section in the corner of the Stretford End. 3 blocks, with 1000-1500 singers located there. Why can United and their fans organise it (so quickly), yet we can’t?
Click to expand...

It’s a shame we can’t have an area of unreserved seating. That would allow like minded fans to congregate better than they do now. Even if we build a single tiered end I doubt we’ll have lots of people singing all the time. Judging by the clubs survey last year, the prices will still be over £500 per season too
 
gkmcfc said:
It’s a shame we can’t have an area of unreserved seating. That would allow like minded fans to congregate better than they do now. Even if we build a single tiered end I doubt we’ll have lots of people singing all the time. Judging by the clubs survey last year, the prices will still be over £500 per season too
Click to expand...

Have experienced unreserved seating a few times at away games over the years. It’s a disaster - you end up with odd seats everywhere. Everyone has the right to sit where they want... but in reality few get to sit where they want and stewarding is a nightmare.
 
nmc said:
Have experienced unreserved seating a few times at away games over the years. It’s a disaster - you end up with odd seats everywhere. Everyone has the right to sit where they want... but in reality few get to sit where they want and stewarding is a nightmare.
Click to expand...

yeah fair point. I guess there’s no real substitute for genuine terracing sadly
 
gkmcfc said:
yeah fair point. I guess there’s no real substitute for genuine terracing sadly
Click to expand...

Agree it’ll work with terracing. I just can’t see why they can’t have mini blocks of 25 to 30 people standing. The whole all seater nonsense was more about justifying the ridiculous hike in ticket costs and I honestly think lots of former blues are being financially priced out by the present pricing structure - particularly if they can’t commit to a season ticket. I’d like to see a new North Stand - with a standing section priced at £20. Sure a few would relocate there (which would free seats elsewhere) but it would attract a ton of former and new blues. The club must know it’s present pricing structure is misaligned with the ‘financial means’ of our present and potential fan base.
 
nmc said:
Agree it’ll work with terracing. I just can’t see why they can’t have mini blocks of 25 to 30 people standing. The whole all seater nonsense was more about justifying the ridiculous hike in ticket costs and I honestly think lots of former blues are being financially priced out by the present pricing structure - particularly if they can’t commit to a season ticket. I’d like to see a new North Stand - with a standing section priced at £20. Sure a few would relocate there (which would free seats elsewhere) but it would attract a ton of former and new blues. The club must know it’s present pricing structure is misaligned with the ‘financial means’ of our present and potential fan base.
Click to expand...

But as before, existing City fans would snap up those £20 safe standing seats first. The club will offer those £20 safe standing seats to existing season ticket holdersfirst. Just like they did with the £299 SSL3 season tickets.

And if City offered those safe standing seats out to new City fans, there's absolutely no guarantee they would be singers.

And a large % of current Season ticket holders would complain about missing out on those safestanding seats at the expense of new City fans.

TBH it's a f***ing nightmare for the club.

How does the club fill a 500 safe standing section with City fans who want to sing?

Here's 1 ideaof many.

I doubt very much the club will consider it.

Once a new safe standing is confirmed at the Etihad, the club via the OS starts taking names and season card details of fans who want to sing, support the team, and want to move into a 'new and dedicated singing section'. No block location or prices are revealed until 500 seats and places have been secured. Then details are released. Then those 500 fans have a 1st option to secure their place or to change their minds. Those on any waiting list can be offered any seats that become available.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top