North Stand Construction Discussion

[Marvin.]

60k is plenty big enough for many more years. It’s the perfect size for football and we would be better concentrating on quality not quantity (like our neighbours in the next parish are obsessed with). Crowds aren’t going to get bigger unless ticket prices reduce drastically and that won’t be happening.

The demand for some games is well over 60k.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Agree completely
The matchday buses were a start, but the stadium needs far more, particularly an improvement/extension of the trams

The German stadia seem to do well with buses. They seem to have hundreds of them outside. Even those places with already great tram and train networks. Two airport style taxi ranks at each end of the ground would help. There just seems no will from the authorities and we have been there 20 years now.

 

[Marvin.]

The German stadia seem to do well with buses. They seem to have hundreds of them outside. Even those places with already great tram and train networks. Two airport style taxi ranks at each end of the ground would help. There just seems no will from the authorities and we have been there 20 years now.

GMPTE added 15 local services from the suburbs to the stadium. Some stop right outside the stadium, others go to the college near the academy. That made a big difference for me.

 

[Gone for a Burton]

There have been plans mooted to extend the east & west stands 3rd tiers back a few rows and to extend the ends of them out, but that would involve replacing both roofs and removing the cable net entirely (as it would no longer be necessary). They could just do one side at a time but the cost/return formula for either option isn't great, unless there's something further to be considered. Possibly a full stadium wrap enveloping the spirals could be an option though?

I covered this in a past post

Plans do exist to expand E & W stands 'back & up' to enclose the spirals and create a bowl with a capacity of 85000.

Large 'concourse' areas will be created for corporate suites and lounges.

The expansion can be constructed without long term closure of the existing stands.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

The German stadia seem to do well with buses. They seem to have hundreds of them outside. Even those places with already great tram and train networks. Two airport style taxi ranks at each end of the ground would help. There just seems no will from the authorities and we have been there 20 years now.

I've just come back from Melbourne where we saw Djokovic's first round victory in the Australian Open (which finished around 11pm), and then Osaka (leading Japanese female) win after three sets
At 1am there were free trams every two minutes all the way from the Arena to the city centre and then to our hotel

Compare that to our penalty defeat to Real Madrid last season which climaxed around 10:50 and no chance whatsoever of making the last train to Disney/New Mills/Whaley Bridge/Buxton etc

 

[Chappie]

I've just come back from Melbourne where we saw Djokovic's first round victory in the Australian Open (which finished around 11pm), and then Osaka (leading Japanese female) win after three sets
At 1am there were free trams every two minutes all the way from the Arena to the city centre and then to our hotel

Compare that to our penalty defeat to Real Madrid last season which climaxed around 10:50 and no chance whatsoever of making the last train to Disney/New Mills/Whaley Bridge/Buxton etc

I didn't know Disney world was on the Buxton line.

 

[Leetwilliams]

If the corners can be joined and filled in, cost v returns permitting, I think a 65,000 capacity is doable and finite for the Etihad stadium and City.

There’s room on the sidelines and behind the goal to lower the pitch and add a few rows. Since they took out the rows for advertising, it almost looks as spacious as London Stadium. I understand the need for advert revenue, but it’s a bad look and is bad for atmosphere

 

[Centurions]

There’s room on the sidelines and behind the goal to lower the pitch and add a few rows. Since they took out the rows for advertising, it almost looks as spacious as London Stadium. I understand the need for advert revenue, but it’s a bad look and is bad for atmosphere

You can't just lower the pitch as it's already below the ground water level and there's huge water reclamation pipes under there (the same as under the CFA).

I can't see how it's a "bad look" and it certainly doesn't affect atmosphere.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

GMPTE added 15 local services from the suburbs to the stadium. Some stop right outside the stadium, others go to the college near the academy. That made a big difference for me.

The problem is getting back to town which is hard work for some. Needs to be a better link to Pic and Vic for trains. Roads should be freed up for buses, trams, and taxis. We have to get 60,000 away.

 

[cpoverview]

Had another look around today

 

[Marvin.]

I've just come back from Melbourne where we saw Djokovic's first round victory in the Australian Open (which finished around 11pm), and then Osaka (leading Japanese female) win after three sets
At 1am there were free trams every two minutes all the way from the Arena to the city centre and then to our hotel

Compare that to our penalty defeat to Real Madrid last season which climaxed around 10:50 and no chance whatsoever of making the last train to Disney/New Mills/Whaley Bridge/Buxton etc

Match Day Bus 7 now runs from Co-op college to Disley and New Mills. You have to wait 30 mins after KO to set off but it's back in New Mills after an hour. Better than the train because there's almost no walking.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

Match Day Bus 7 now runs from Co-op college to Disley and New Mills. You have to wait 30 mins after KO to set off but it's back in New Mills after an hour. Better than the train because there's almost no walking.

Yeah when it turns up it's brilliant

Unfortunately I had a bad experience before the Sparta Prague game so I've since viewed it with suspicion

 

[HelloCity]

Had another look around today

Worth noting that the end blocks don’t actually join up with the rest of the stand. The missing beams might link in with that design somewhat. The spaces will be used for disabled spots I think.

 

[gouldybob]

What are the yellow towers for?

 

[Stockton Heath Blue]

What are the yellow towers for?

Temporary supports for the frame that will support the SkyWalk

 

[Brewster's millions]

Had another look around today

Looks like one of the cranes is being dismantled - quite a landmark when that starts to happen.

 

[petrusha]

I covered this in a past post

Plans do exist to expand E & W stands 'back & up' to enclose the spirals and create a bowl with a capacity of 85000.

Large 'concourse' areas will be created for corporate suites and lounges.

The expansion can be constructed without long term closure of the existing stands.

You've talked previously about plans for a new stadium on the CFA site so I presume that this is kind of a backup plan. Where MCFC go in stadium terms after the current expansion is a topic that really interests me. You'd be very welcome to share anything you know, including as to which plan is preferred.

I'm happy to take the above and your other posts on trust as I lack the insider knowledge or contacts to verify it. I once had both and as a result know that, in the immediate post-takeover period, there were serious suggestions of a new stadium being built on either what's now the CFA site or on the North Car Parks.

In the interests of preserving a positive relationship with Manchester City Council, the new stadium idea was ditched in fairly short order after the takeover, or at least deferred for what, if it's revived, will be a generation at a minimum. In the meantime, a plan to expand the current stadium was devised in 2009 or so, with all stands having their capacity increased and with the overall figure being somewhere in the 80,000 ballpark.

Presumably all plans, whether for a new stadium or an additionally expanded version of the current one, have evolved in the last 15 years so an updated version of the first plan for CoMS (as it then was) is what you're referring to in the quoted post. As the Mail reported in 2010, the intention back then was to complete the project before the 2018 World Cup as long as England's bid for the right to host it was successful. The idea was that our stadium would be chosen ahead of the decaying Old Trafford to join Wembley as the venue for one of the competition's semi-finals.

When the tournament wasn't awarded to England and the opportunity was lost to showcase the transformative effect of our ownership in a fixture of such vast global interest, the expansion timetable changed and we'll still be only halfway through the plans come 2026. In my opinion, we'll finally be beginning work on the Collar Site at that point. I know nothing about the practicalities of construction, but if the East Stand is to be expanded at some stage, wouldn't it make sense for that to be done in parallel with work on the Collar Site?

Whether my Collar Site aspiration proves realistic is yet to be seen (I've been wrong about this before), but whatever happens with that potential development I think there are interesting questions as to how City respond to the planned expansion of the Swamp or the construction of a new United stadium on land adjacent to it.

Knowledgeable observers agree that both Sheikh Mansour and Silver Lake have both invested to receive a return and vanity basically plays no role in their thinking. Sportswashing, moreover, is a nonsense concept invented for marketing purposes by NGOs acting in their own self-interest. Nonetheless, City are to some degree used as an instrument of Abu Dhabi soft power. Is that interest really served by our out-of-town rivals stealing a march on us?

It may be that, after the North Stand is developed, there's no major stadium work on the Campus for a considerable time. On the other hand, history suggests that changes will be required at some point. I hope that a debate may result on the Campus thread about what those (and any knock-on effects for the Campus as a whole) might be and when they might occur.

EDIT - I've removed from my post the statements about me intending to post about the above to initiate a discussion on the 'Etihad Campus, Stadium and Collar Site Development Thread'. I won't be doing so, in fact, because I've just discovered that the thread has been locked. I don't think it worth starting a new thread for the discussion so this one will have to do even if it's not really the same topic, IMO.

 

[Gone for a Burton]

You've talked previously about plans for a new stadium on the CFA site so I presume that this is kind of a backup plan. I intend to take this discussion to the general Etihad Campus thread as it's a bit off topic on this one about the construction of the North Stand, and where MCFC go in stadium terms after the current expansion is a topic that really interests me. You'd be very welcome to share anything you know, including as to which plan is preferred.

I'm happy to take the above and your other posts on trust as I lack the insider knowledge or contacts to verify it. I once had both and as a result know that, in the immediate post-takeover period, there were serious suggestions of a new stadium being built on either what's now the CFA site or on the North Car Parks.

In the interests of preserving a positive relationship with Manchester City Council, the new stadium idea was ditched in fairly short order after the takeover, or at least deferred for what, if it's revived, will be a generation at a minimum. In the meantime, a plan to expand the current stadium was devised in 2009 or so, with all stands having their capacity increased and with the overall figure being somewhere in the 80,000 ballpark.

Presumably all plans, whether for a new stadium or an additionally expanded version of the current one, have evolved in the last 15 years so an updated version of the first plan for CoMS (as it then was) is what you're referring to in the quoted post. As the Mail reported in 2010, the intention back then was to complete the project before the 2018 World Cup as long as England's bid for the right to host it was successful. The idea was that our stadium would be chosen ahead of the decaying Old Trafford to join Wembley as the venue for one of the competition's semi-finals.

When the tournament wasn't awarded to England and the opportunity was lost to showcase the transformative effect of our ownership in a fixture of such vast global interest, the expansion timetable changed and we'll still be only halfway through the plans come 2026. In my opinion, we'll finally be beginning work on the Collar Site at that point. I know nothing about the practicalities of construction, but if the East Stand is to be expanded at some stage, wouldn't it make sense for that to be done in parallel with work on the Collar Site?

Whether my Collar Site aspiration proves realistic is yet to be seen (I've been wrong about this before), but whatever happens with that potential development I think there are interesting questions as to how City respond to the planned expansion of the Swamp or the construction of a new United stadium on land adjacent to it.

Knowledgeable observers agree that both Sheikh Mansour and Silver Lake have both invested to receive a return and vanity basically plays no role in their thinking. Sportswashing, moreover, is a nonsense concept invented for marketing purposes by NGOs acting in their own self-interest. Nonetheless, City are to some degree used as an instrument of Abu Dhabi soft power. Is that interest really served by our out-of-town rivals stealing a march on us?

As I said at the outset, this seems to me worth a discussion on the Etihad Campus thread. It may be that, after the North Stand is developed, there's no major stadium work on the Campus for a considerable time. On the other hand, history suggests that changes will be required at some point. I hope that a debate may result on the Campus thread about what those (and any knock-on effects for the Campus as a whole) might be and when they might occur.

Theeeze and only Theeeze.

Some of us will be dead, others may be dead and all the rest will be dying.

See ya.

 

[Spanishbob]

You've talked previously about plans for a new stadium on the CFA site so I presume that this is kind of a backup plan. I intend to take this discussion to the general Etihad Campus thread as it's a bit off topic on this one about the construction of the North Stand, and where MCFC go in stadium terms after the current expansion is a topic that really interests me. You'd be very welcome to share anything you know, including as to which plan is preferred.

I'm happy to take the above and your other posts on trust as I lack the insider knowledge or contacts to verify it. I once had both and as a result know that, in the immediate post-takeover period, there were serious suggestions of a new stadium being built on either what's now the CFA site or on the North Car Parks.

In the interests of preserving a positive relationship with Manchester City Council, the new stadium idea was ditched in fairly short order after the takeover, or at least deferred for what, if it's revived, will be a generation at a minimum. In the meantime, a plan to expand the current stadium was devised in 2009 or so, with all stands having their capacity increased and with the overall figure being somewhere in the 80,000 ballpark.

Presumably all plans, whether for a new stadium or an additionally expanded version of the current one, have evolved in the last 15 years so an updated version of the first plan for CoMS (as it then was) is what you're referring to in the quoted post. As the Mail reported in 2010, the intention back then was to complete the project before the 2018 World Cup as long as England's bid for the right to host it was successful. The idea was that our stadium would be chosen ahead of the decaying Old Trafford to join Wembley as the venue for one of the competition's semi-finals.

When the tournament wasn't awarded to England and the opportunity was lost to showcase the transformative effect of our ownership in a fixture of such vast global interest, the expansion timetable changed and we'll still be only halfway through the plans come 2026. In my opinion, we'll finally be beginning work on the Collar Site at that point. I know nothing about the practicalities of construction, but if the East Stand is to be expanded at some stage, wouldn't it make sense for that to be done in parallel with work on the Collar Site?

Whether my Collar Site aspiration proves realistic is yet to be seen (I've been wrong about this before), but whatever happens with that potential development I think there are interesting questions as to how City respond to the planned expansion of the Swamp or the construction of a new United stadium on land adjacent to it.

Knowledgeable observers agree that both Sheikh Mansour and Silver Lake have both invested to receive a return and vanity basically plays no role in their thinking. Sportswashing, moreover, is a nonsense concept invented for marketing purposes by NGOs acting in their own self-interest. Nonetheless, City are to some degree used as an instrument of Abu Dhabi soft power. Is that interest really served by our out-of-town rivals stealing a march on us?

As I said at the outset, this seems to me worth a discussion on the Etihad Campus thread. It may be that, after the North Stand is developed, there's no major stadium work on the Campus for a considerable time. On the other hand, history suggests that changes will be required at some point. I hope that a debate may result on the Campus thread about what those (and any knock-on effects for the Campus as a whole) might be and when they might occur.

Unfortunately I’m at an age now where i probably won’t see a 85000 stadium let alone a brand new one. But got to say I’m still thrilled to see the new stand rising and will make the Ethihad symmetrical and better looking. Pity i won’t be able to see it in the flesh( lottery win aside).

 

[Prophet of Doom]

You've talked previously about plans for a new stadium on the CFA site so I presume that this is kind of a backup plan. I intend to take this discussion to the general Etihad Campus thread as it's a bit off topic on this one about the construction of the North Stand, and where MCFC go in stadium terms after the current expansion is a topic that really interests me. You'd be very welcome to share anything you know, including as to which plan is preferred.

I'm happy to take the above and your other posts on trust as I lack the insider knowledge or contacts to verify it. I once had both and as a result know that, in the immediate post-takeover period, there were serious suggestions of a new stadium being built on either what's now the CFA site or on the North Car Parks.

In the interests of preserving a positive relationship with Manchester City Council, the new stadium idea was ditched in fairly short order after the takeover, or at least deferred for what, if it's revived, will be a generation at a minimum. In the meantime, a plan to expand the current stadium was devised in 2009 or so, with all stands having their capacity increased and with the overall figure being somewhere in the 80,000 ballpark.

Presumably all plans, whether for a new stadium or an additionally expanded version of the current one, have evolved in the last 15 years so an updated version of the first plan for CoMS (as it then was) is what you're referring to in the quoted post. As the Mail reported in 2010, the intention back then was to complete the project before the 2018 World Cup as long as England's bid for the right to host it was successful. The idea was that our stadium would be chosen ahead of the decaying Old Trafford to join Wembley as the venue for one of the competition's semi-finals.

When the tournament wasn't awarded to England and the opportunity was lost to showcase the transformative effect of our ownership in a fixture of such vast global interest, the expansion timetable changed and we'll still be only halfway through the plans come 2026. In my opinion, we'll finally be beginning work on the Collar Site at that point. I know nothing about the practicalities of construction, but if the East Stand is to be expanded at some stage, wouldn't it make sense for that to be done in parallel with work on the Collar Site?

Whether my Collar Site aspiration proves realistic is yet to be seen (I've been wrong about this before), but whatever happens with that potential development I think there are interesting questions as to how City respond to the planned expansion of the Swamp or the construction of a new United stadium on land adjacent to it.

Knowledgeable observers agree that both Sheikh Mansour and Silver Lake have both invested to receive a return and vanity basically plays no role in their thinking. Sportswashing, moreover, is a nonsense concept invented for marketing purposes by NGOs acting in their own self-interest. Nonetheless, City are to some degree used as an instrument of Abu Dhabi soft power. Is that interest really served by our out-of-town rivals stealing a march on us?

As I said at the outset, this seems to me worth a discussion on the Etihad Campus thread. It may be that, after the North Stand is developed, there's no major stadium work on the Campus for a considerable time. On the other hand, history suggests that changes will be required at some point. I hope that a debate may result on the Campus thread about what those (and any knock-on effects for the Campus as a whole) might be and when they might occur.

I understood that any further expansion after the NS was put on the back burner due to the belief that technical advances in areas such as Virtual Reality could allow match day experience from home - and this could replace the need to expand further.

However the proposed new stadium at Old Trafford is a gamechanger that everybody in the PL will have to respond to, and may radically alter plans.

You only have to look at the revenue boost that Madrid and Spurs have had with much smaller new stadiums than what Utd propose, to know this will give them a huge financial advantage over the rest of the PL operating from stadiums with 60% of their new proposed capacity. Whilst there will be a mountain of debt for Utd to deal with, a new stadium will give them unlimited corporate offering and they will mop up all the gigs and additional North West events with no doubt the same stadium conversion set up that Spurs and Madrid have.

Hopefully there will be many problems and many years before any new stadium gets built at the swamp, but it’s worrying the amount of support they are getting from Burnham and and Reeves at the early stages.