North Stand Construction Discussion

I can’t see City expanding the Etihad to 70,000 just to host a CL final.

Let’s see the long term take up of seats when the Etihad is expanded to 62,000 first.

I think 62,000 will remain the Etihad capacity for quite some time to come, if not for good?.

I think concerts will be back at the Etihad once the Etihad is expanded. So that and the hotel being full for concerts and other events will drive additional revenue from the new North stand for the foreseeable future.

Even adding an extra 5000 seats to the Colin Bell stand and to the East stand will cost £100’s millions. Is it really worth it for 5000 additional seats on each stand over a long period of design, construction, and upheaval?

The North stand is different as it offers 8000 extra seats, a hotel, a 3000 capacity fan zone, a restaurant and floating 3rd tier, a viewing platform, a museum, retail, offices, etc. And will generates huge revenues year on year.

I’d rather see City start on the Collar site next after the North stand is completed. The revenues form that could be huge, depending on what’s proposed.
 
Last edited:
jrb said:
I can’t see City expanding the Etihad to 70,000 just to host a CL final.

Let’s see the long term take up of seats when the Etihad is expanded to 62,000 first.

I think 62,000 will remain the Etihad capacity for quite some time to come, if not for good?.

I think concerts will be back at the Etihad once the Etihad is expanded. So that and the hotel being full for concerts and other events will drive revenue from the Etihad for the foreseeable future.

Even adding an extra 5000 seats to the Colin Bell stand and to the East stand will cost £100’s millions. Is it really worth it for 5000 additional seats on each stand over a long period of upheaval, design, and construction? The North stand is different as it’s 8000 extra seats, a hotel, 3000 capacity fan zone, a restaurant, a viewing platform, a museum, retail, offices, etc.
Click to expand...

I don’t see further expansion for a long time either - if ever. It’ll take us a while to grow into 62k for all league and especially cup games just as it did 54k when the south stand was first expanded. By the time expansion is desperately needed we might even be looking at a new stadium.
 
Gone for a Burton said:
Its both....i've seen draft plans & CGIs from several years ago.

Takes the capacity up to 85000.

Plans also exist for a new build stadium on the CFA site.
Click to expand...
I think you would struggle to build on the CFA site given the effort and money that’s gone into it recently. Could maybe build in that area on say ASDA or industrial sites.

Also what would happen the the stadium ? CO OP means it cannot become a venue and you cannot have two stadiums or demolish unless maybe it becomes a stadium for another club or another sport ?
 
Gone for a Burton said:
The CFA site area is bigger than the Etihad Campus area & with very few buildings.

I've seen the CGIs that were produced several years ago & even then they were fabulous.

City will buy/develop the Asda & Tesla sites, + other ad hoc sites, to make the campus,including the athletics stadium and tennis centre, more cohesive and efficient.

A 'start from scratch' approach will be used to ensure maximum utilisation and efficiency is achieved.

The CFA will be located at the western end of the bridge.

The Etihad 'stadium' will be multi purpose and absolutely state of the art. It includes subtereaneum levels.

The whole expanded campus will be without comparison as a global sports and entertainment venue, and if you look at the development of Sadiyyat Island (where i am today) with the Louvè, Gugenheim and Zayed Musums you'll gain an insight to the art of the possible.

Next to nothing existed on the island 25 years ago.

The vision of our combined ownership knows NO bounds or limitatations.

Enjoy the ride.
Click to expand...
I don’t see City ever buying the Asda site. Is that rumour still going? I wouldn’t know what they would do with the Asda site. As for the Tesla site, City could have bought that or at least leased it before Tesla leased it. I’d be more inclined to think City might buy the old gas holder land and surrounding land, so the car parks can be expanded. But that discussion is for the Etihad Campus thread.
 
Last edited:
Coatigan said:
60,000 is the threshold for a CL final, and this extension takes us to 62ish.

There is also a minimum hospitality requirement, which this ticks.

Indeed the club officals have said as much over the last year, I am sure at one point they noted that this extension is done with the view of hosting a CL final when complete.
Click to expand...
Feels like certain details around the hotel - such as a separate entrance for VIPs, improving the landscaping around the hotel entrance almost seem geared toward hosting a UEFA final someday. They're not thinking about day trippers to Co Op Live with those kind of details that's for sure.
 
Manchester_lalala said:
Not like I entirely believe what Gone for said, but in 15 years time the Etihad will be almost 40 years old. You have to keep up with the times and constantly improve. Old Trafford was a world class stadium 20 years ago after numerous of expansions, absolute shit hole now though. I’ve got into NFL over the past few years and the franchises don’t mess about with building new stadiums even if their current stadium is fairly decent.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a brand new stadium within two decades. It all depends how much we grow in that time.
Click to expand...

Even in its current layout and future layout, the Etihad will still be one of the best football stadiums on the PL in 15 years time, let alone longer into the future.

I really don’t see City vacating the Etihad, spending £2bill+ on a new stadium, only to demolish a perfectly good Etihad stadium.

Not to mention the 250 year Council House ;-) lease, and a rumoured option to buy the stadium, minus the investment City have put into the stadium.
 
Manchester_lalala said:
Not like I entirely believe what Gone for said, but in 15 years time the Etihad will be almost 40 years old. You have to keep up with the times and constantly improve. Old Trafford was a world class stadium 20 years ago after numerous of expansions, absolute shit hole now though. I’ve got into NFL over the past few years and the franchises don’t mess about with building new stadiums even if their current stadium is fairly decent.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a brand new stadium within two decades. It all depends how much we grow in that time.
Click to expand...
Three things that the US has that we don't

- An abundance of space to build new stuff in
- A generally more amenable planning regime without decades of consultations and objections from locals
- Owners who don't think twice about relocating the team if they don't get what they want from the city
 
The corners could be expanded on level 3 and all the underneath bits used for a myriad of things - storage, corporate suites, offices, gymnasium, hotel rooms etc. Don’t rule it out.
 
jrb said:
I can’t see City expanding the Etihad to 70,000 just to host a CL final.

Let’s see the long term take up of seats when the Etihad is expanded to 62,000 first.

I think 62,000 will remain the Etihad capacity for quite some time to come, if not for good?.

I think concerts will be back at the Etihad once the Etihad is expanded. So that and the hotel being full for concerts and other events will drive additional revenue from the new North stand for the foreseeable future.

Even adding an extra 5000 seats to the Colin Bell stand and to the East stand will cost £100’s millions. Is it really worth it for 5000 additional seats on each stand over a long period of design, construction, and upheaval?

The North stand is different as it offers 8000 extra seats, a hotel, a 3000 capacity fan zone, a restaurant and floating 3rd tier, a viewing platform, a museum, retail, offices, etc. And will generates huge revenues year on year.

I’d rather see City start on the Collar site next after the North stand is completed. The revenues form that could be huge, depending on what’s proposed.
Click to expand...
No me neither but I just don’t know the financial benefits about hosting a CL final. 62k before segregation is probably not going to be attractive enough to UEFA for a CL.

That said, perhaps the optics of being in the elite group of stadia capable of hosting the final might be the attraction for City over finances. Plus we don’t know if the roofs need any remedial work anyway, weren’t there rumours about timbers reaching end of life at one point? And changing those blue bulbs won’t be cheap!
 
jrb said:
I can’t see City expanding the Etihad to 70,000 just to host a CL final.

Let’s see the long term take up of seats when the Etihad is expanded to 62,000 first.

I think 62,000 will remain the Etihad capacity for quite some time to come, if not for good?.

I think concerts will be back at the Etihad once the Etihad is expanded. So that and the hotel being full for concerts and other events will drive additional revenue from the new North stand for the foreseeable future.

Even adding an extra 5000 seats to the Colin Bell stand and to the East stand will cost £100’s millions. Is it really worth it for 5000 additional seats on each stand over a long period of design, construction, and upheaval?

The North stand is different as it offers 8000 extra seats, a hotel, a 3000 capacity fan zone, a restaurant and floating 3rd tier, a viewing platform, a museum, retail, offices, etc. And will generates huge revenues year on year.

I’d rather see City start on the Collar site next after the North stand is completed. The revenues form that could be huge, depending on what’s proposed.
Click to expand...
The original application described the expansion as an addition of of 7,900 seats, increasing the stadium capacity to 61,958 and yet the site-hoardings and club communications confusingly describe the expansion in terms of 7,000 new seats.

Maine Road's capacity prior to the move was c.34 k, we are now operating at capacity (53.5 k). There is no potential constraint on the match-day potential of City's fanbase other than the stadium capacity subject to success on the pitch which for the first time since the Mancini regime is now in doubt.

There are some fantastic modern stadiums in England such as Tottenham's stadium, the Emirates and Wembley but they stand alone. City's ground is integrated into a cluster of sports venues (regional tennis centre, regional athletic arena, velodrome, national squash centre and BMX arena). Added to the sports venues is the Co-op LIVE indoor arena (23,500). The North Stand expansion will further add a 391 bed hotel, museum, restaurant, fan and retail complex. This venue is abridged to the men, women, and academy training grounds with their own stadia and facilities. This means that when football journalists consider the Etihad sponsorship with rival clubs sponsorship agreements their comparisons are not like with like.

I live in Manchester, and walk to the game. If I am at my Dad's in the High Peak, I catch a match-day bus that takes me to almost to the ground. It's incredibly well designed. 25 years ago, this area was derelict ex-industrial land criss-crossed by redundant canals that included the sites of a former colliery and steelworks. Now it has been redeveloped. Manchester is a wonderful modern city with skyscrapers that have no English comparison. Manchester City are very much part of that. Manchester has a unique industrial past and it is the only vibrant English city outside of London. Unfortunately, social commentators experience of football is through TV or the internet. They have no idea of what the area once was, or now is.

MCFC is seen as a political soft-power enterprise by some who think that Britain and the Western powers have the sole right to be the architects of globalisation and the likes of the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Arabs etc have no right to operate on the world stage. The world is global now and no one has an inherent right to it.
 
Citizen of Legoland said:
No me neither but I just don’t know the financial benefits about hosting a CL final. 62k before segregation is probably not going to be attractive enough to UEFA for a CL.

That said, perhaps the optics of being in the elite group of stadia capable of hosting the final might be the attraction for City over finances. Plus we don’t know if the roofs need any remedial work anyway, weren’t there rumours about timbers reaching end of life at one point? And changing those blue bulbs won’t be cheap!
Click to expand...

What City have in their favour is a 400 room hotel attached to the ground that can host UEFA officials, club officials, and media people, etc.

Metrolink and other transport links, even though we know they are poor. UEFA don't have to know that.

The Coop Live Arena that can host the media, media studios, etc.

UEFA can always up the price of tickets to recoup any revenue drop due to the Etihad only being 62,000 capacity.
 
So if stadiums need 70,000 seats to be considered for CL finals, The Etihad will need further development to reach that capacity. Based on the gap between South Stand and North Stand construction, any further work is unlikely to start before 2030.

By that time, United will probably be part way through constructing a stadium with at least 90,000 capacity and upon completion, you would expect it to be considered the best arena in its class much like Spurs stadium when that was finished.

So at that point, you would have Wembley and United's new stadium with much bigger capacity's, so the possibility of repeat finals at a 70,000 Etihad would be pretty slim. They might get one every 12 years, but I think that would be generous.
 
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