Etihad Campus, Stadium and Collar Site Development Thread

[worsleyweb]

I agree mate, they look shit from what I've seen, like a loft conversion bedroom.

Are the rumours true that the players entrance is moving to the corner of the Colin Bell and South Stand?

Hadn't heard that one mate. Will find out next week and post on here!

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

Reconfiguring the players lounges : dressing rooms and warm up areas. Quite significant work. Some of same team who did the south stand.

so it won't get finished or built properly then.

 

[Shaelumstash]

Hadn't heard that one mate. Will find out next week and post on here!

Nice one mate, might just be a rumour. But I guess if they did it they could possibly squeeze a few extra seats in to the middle of the Colin Bell where the existing tunnel is.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

I think the attitude from the people running the club is why be better than most other clubs when you can be better than them all?

in that case why does the roof on the South Stand have corners which resemble the crumpled up corners of a foil takeaway dish? they could have done it properly.

 

[worsleyweb]

so it won't get finished or built properly then.

Yes agreed the finish on the south stand is / was an utter disgrace. A flower which was about two foot high was actually growing out of the concrete base at our first home game which the contractors management must have walked past a hundred times. I cringe when I see the quality of finish on that stand. Rushed, rough and half completed.

 

[pride in battle]

I agree mate, they look shit from what I've seen, like a loft conversion bedroom.

Are the rumours true that the players entrance is moving to the corner of the Colin Bell and South Stand?

I sit there! :(

 

[FanchesterCity]

in that case why does the roof on the South Stand have corners which resemble the crumpled up corners of a foil takeaway dish? they could have done it properly.

The corners are the result of a the way the whole roof (all four sides) is suspended via the cables and a hoop encircling the whole stadium. It's well documented that the corners are a design / technical compromise to overcome the way the ring is held in place. you can see how the cables actually penetrate through the back of the South Stand too (another compromise).

In theory, once the North Stand is complete (and possibly some changes to the Colin Bell and East Stand, then a new roof structure encompassing the entire stadium could be put in place and the corners rectified to create the similar smoother curvature to the one we originally had.

The exterior of the stadium really could do with a revamp, and half of me thinks it's being put off in lieu of future work, and the other half of me thinks it's not concerned a concern by the club ergo it's going to be left as is.

 

[Shaelumstash]

I sit there! :(

The rumour I heard was that they would use the existing tunnel in that corner mate, so it would affect your seat.

Whole thing might be bollocks anyway.

 

[Fat Chance]

Yes agreed the finish on the south stand is / was an utter disgrace. A flower which was about two foot high was actually growing out of the concrete base at our first home game which the contractors management must have walked past a hundred times. I cringe when I see the quality of finish on that stand. Rushed, rough and half completed.

Surely those two-bob cowl affairs wrapped round the pierced metal stanchions in the south stand are not the finished outcome..you would'nt have needed to get a south american design architect in to come up with something a bit more pleasing than that...5 amp bob out of stretford trades and labour could have done better...what an eyesore.

 

[HelloCity]

in that case why does the roof on the South Stand have corners which resemble the crumpled up corners of a foil takeaway dish? they could have done it properly.

They're only temporary. They can't put up a proper roof there at the moment because the cable net comes in right through the corner.

The plan is that in 15 years or so, when the sides are done, that they'll be able to remove the old cable next and complete the corners as they do the sides.

 

[pride in battle]

The rumour I heard was that they would use the existing tunnel in that corner mate, so it would affect your seat.

Whole thing might be bollocks anyway.

That would be Colin Bell/Family Stand Corner then?

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

So we are never planning on building a stadium we own then?

 

[worsleyweb]

So we are never planning on building a stadium we own then?

We essentially do own it, that's a non issue. Really wish we had built a new one though.

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

We essentially do own it, that's a non issue. Really wish we had built a new one though.

I thought we rented it off the council and due to the funding for building, buying it was too complicated

 

[worsleyweb]

I thought we rented it off the council and due to the funding for building, buying it was too complicated

It is something like that but it costs us pennies in reality something like 3 million a year. Nothing - and we can do what we want to it. The reason is wasn't knocked down is that it would not have looked good knocking down a lottery funded 100 million pound stadium after 12 years. Nothing more than that.

 

[BoyBlue_1985]

It is something like that but it costs us pennies in reality something like 3 million a year. Nothing - and we can do what we want to it. The reason is wasn't knocked down is that it would not have looked good knocking down a lottery funded 100 million pound stadium after 12 years. Nothing more than that.

Yeah i guess it wouldn't but Spurs wanted to knock the Olympic Stadium down after this year and that was an £800 million tax payer funded stadium. I guess though nobody gives spurs bad press

 

[petrusha]

According David Bernstein at a forum at Portcullis House, Westminster in January 2003, MCFC have an option to purchase under the lease, with the rent we pay set off against the price calculated under the purchase formula (I believe that the amount shown as owing under the notional finance lease in the accounts broadly equates to the current amount it would take to exercise the option). At that time, Bernstein suggested that it would take at least three decades for this to be economically viable. Obviously, the advent of ADUG would make it feasible for us to acquire the freehold now if we wanted. Informed noises suggest that the reason we haven't done so is because, as things stand, the rent is paid to the Council but, if we bought the freehold, the purchase price would largely go to Sport England in repayment for lottery funding; MCFC are reluctant to, in effect, shaft MCC and benefit Sport England instead.

I'm told by a source you'd definitely consider reliable that, when they took us over, ADUG were keen to build a state-of-the-art new stadium. However, Sport England wouldn't countenance CoMS (as it then was) being demolished. I believe that City investigated the possibility of taking out the bottom tier, squeezing in a track again, and cponfiguring the stadium for rugby/athletics/concerts, before concluding that it wasn't a workable solution in terms of cost/benefit.

I think that was a shame, but I can see why they decided that. I'd have loved to see MCFC playing in a fabulous new 75K football stadium on the north car parks while Sale Sharks shared a community stadium next door with MCFC youth, reserves and women's teams, with maybe RL and top athletics events over the summer. Not to be, regrettably.

PS - As for Spurs knocking down the Olympic Stadium, that was never really a runner. Boris Johnson's office encouraged their bid to do that to make sure West Ham weren't the only credible applicant. Spurs realised later that they'd been used and were rather pissed off with it, but were placated by mayoral support for aspects of their current project that had previously proved controversial (e.g funding for transport improvements that the club was previously told it would have to pay for).

 

[Keeper!]

We essentially do own it, that's a non issue. Really wish we had built a new one though.

I Think the owners do now as well

 

[willipp]

It is something like that but it costs us pennies in reality something like 3 million a year. Nothing - and we can do what we want to it. The reason is wasn't knocked down is that it would not have looked good knocking down a lottery funded 100 million pound stadium after 12 years. Nothing more than that.

Do you think there is a chance we could build a new stadium? The way the collar site has gone so quiet, the poor finish on the south stand, the lack of news on any possible expansion on the NS, could that point towards them considering a totally new amazing stadium. The owners have never done things by halves, especially when you look around the world at things they do.

 

[Keeper!]

Last year I was very lucky to be invited to the Abu Dhabi grand prix. A magnificent venue, and in many people eyes the finest grand prix venue in the world.

During the visit I met with one of the leading architects that had worked on the circuit. When he found out I was a City fan, he said his company had just finished a design. A state of the art football stadium with a minimum capacity of 75,000 and in his words "simply beautiful" and like nothing seen before. I asked who had commissioned the stadium, to which he just smiled.

He would not reveal any more info....sorry.