Could Maine Road have been redeveloped better?

B B

Blue Streak

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 Jun 2008
Messages
2,483
The obvious answer is yes. Now I know we play in a fantastic Stadium but I often wonder just how many 'cock up's' were made over the years during the redevelopment of our former home? Plans were announced in the summer of 81 or 82 to Mirror the Main Stand over on the Kippax side of the ground with the same white curved roof and then build the Platt Lane to look the same as the North Stand. Relegation in 83 killed that I assume.

Then when the Platt Lane was finally done it looked even more old fashioned than the 1970's North Stand (in my opinion). I remember a poster in the match day programme when FHL arrived as Chairman showing proposals for a redeveloped Maine Road and getting very excited at the time regarding them.

Going back further there was potentially more exciting developments proposed for the Kippax side of the ground in the early 1970's with in stand carparks and allsorts proposed.

Just a different thread to the Tevez bollocks etc that I thought a few may have an opinion on.
 
Blue Lloyd said:
The obvious answer is yes. Now I know we play in a fantastic Stadium but I often wonder just how many 'cock up's' were made over the years during the redevelopment of our former home? Plans were announced in the summer of 81 or 82 to Mirror the Main Stand over on the Kippax side of the ground with the same white curved roof and then build the Platt Lane to look the same as the North Stand. Relegation in 83 killed that I assume.

Then when the Platt Lane was finally done it looked even more old fashioned than the 1970's North Stand (in my opinion). I remember a poster in the match day programme when FHL arrived as Chairman showing proposals for a redeveloped Maine Road and getting very excited at the time regarding them.

Going back further there was potentially more exciting developments proposed for the Kippax side of the ground in the early 1970's with in stand carparks and allsorts proposed.

Just a different thread to the Tevez bollocks etc that I thought a few may have an opinion on.
Click to expand...

I use to spend the whole summer desparate for the season to start and to see the new developmets that had taken place - only to be disapointed to see that this consisted of a bit of paint work or a new tannoy!!

Definately should and cud of been developed but loved the way it was... not sure whether i wud of wanted it any other way
 
I once saw plans for all four stands in uniform. It was the new kippax stand all the way round. These were real drawing/plans, it looked impressive.
like city at that time.. nothing materialised.
i agree with the other chap.. maine round was in a bad position
i love eastlands........ or the etihad arena : )
 
my best memories of maine road are when the kippax was all standing....Noisy and bouncing
 
Looking at it at the end, it's hard to believe that it used to regularly host semi-finals in the seventies. To be honest in its last few seasons Maine Road looked a mess. None of the stands matching one another and that temporary seating in the corner. But I guess it was all we could afford at the time. Still look back with fondness at it though; some great memories for me from the seventies when I was a regular.
 
Irlamblue said:
I once saw plans for all four stands in uniform. It was the new kippax stand all the way round. These were real drawing/plans, it looked impressive.
like city at that time.. nothing materialised.
i agree with the other chap.. maine round was in a bad position
i love eastlands........ or the etihad arena : )
Click to expand...

Yep, I saw those as well, (I am sure they were drawn up by James H Reeve for inclusion in a fanzine or similar) it would've given us a bigger capacity than Old Trafford at that time, but like you say nothing came of it.

This shows some of the plans.
<a class="postlink" href="http://mcivta.com/club/maine_road.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://mcivta.com/club/maine_road.html</a>
 
AJ71 said:
Irlamblue said:
I once saw plans for all four stands in uniform. It was the new kippax stand all the way round. These were real drawing/plans, it looked impressive.
like city at that time.. nothing materialised.
i agree with the other chap.. maine round was in a bad position
i love eastlands........ or the etihad arena : )
Click to expand...

Yep, I saw those as well, (I am sure they were drawn up by James H Reeve for inclusion in a fanzine or similar) it would've given us a bigger capacity than Old Trafford at that time, but like you say nothing came of it.

This shows some of the plans.
<a class="postlink" href="http://mcivta.com/club/maine_road.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://mcivta.com/club/maine_road.html</a>
Click to expand...

It came as a poster in the middle of a programme iirc after the new kippax opened. Basically the same all the way round, 3 tiers. If they carried that out it would have held at least 60k
 
Irlamblue said:
I once saw plans for all four stands in uniform. It was the new kippax stand all the way round. These were real drawing/plans, it looked impressive.
like city at that time.. nothing materialised.
i agree with the other chap.. maine round was in a bad position
i love eastlands........ or the etihad arena : )
Click to expand...

Iv'e got copies of plans drawn up for Francis Lee to developed the ground in the theme of the new Kippax
 
City could hardly have made a worse mess of it than they did. I blame Swales!

In retrospect, the site was always too small for the current needs of City but they could have made a better job of redevelopment.

I liked the North Stand and hoped to see the same design all round. Instead, Swales spent money on re-roofing the main stand and constructing new stands to replace the Kippax and the Platt Lane without any coherence in design.

Worse than that they were too small in terms of capacity despite the gargantuan size of the new Kippax. This was the tallest stand in the country yet had barely more than 10,000 seats. Too many executive boxes and not enough seats. The Platt Lane stand was much the same.

City ended up in the third tier and the ground was still barely big enough.

I seem to recall that Lee wanted to put a hold on constructing the new Kippax after taking over from Swales to build a larger stand but time pressure meant that they went on with the Swales plan.

From then on relocation was inevitable.
 
Well, for a start the seats could have been the same colour!

There were loads of plans to develop Maine Rd over the years, but the powers that be eventually gave up and we moved into our new stadium.

Maine Rd may well have been a great stadium in its day, but it was a bit tired in the end.

A bit of food for thought is that our current owner would not have given us more than a passing glance if we had still been there as there was not enough land around the ground for ADUG to realise their plans for development.
 
Fowlers Penalty Miss said:
Well, for a start the seats could have been the same colour!

There were loads of plans to develop Maine Rd over the years, but the powers that be eventually gave up and we moved into our new stadium.

Maine Rd may well have been a great stadium in its day, but it was a bit tired in the end.

A bit of food for thought is that our current owner would not have given us more than a passing glance if we had still been there as there was not enough land around the ground for ADUG to realise their plans for development.
Click to expand...

Excatley, whilst it would have been nice to sit in a nice maine road instead of the mess it was in in it's later years, would it have been nice to see us try and get into the europa league every year as our main aim?
 
Blue Lloyd said:
The obvious answer is yes. Now I know we play in a fantastic Stadium but I often wonder just how many 'cock up's' were made over the years during the redevelopment of our former home? Plans were announced in the summer of 81 or 82 to Mirror the Main Stand over on the Kippax side of the ground with the same white curved roof and then build the Platt Lane to look the same as the North Stand. Relegation in 83 killed that I assume.

Then when the Platt Lane was finally done it looked even more old fashioned than the 1970's North Stand (in my opinion). I remember a poster in the match day programme when FHL arrived as Chairman showing proposals for a redeveloped Maine Road and getting very excited at the time regarding them.

Going back further there was potentially more exciting developments proposed for the Kippax side of the ground in the early 1970's with in stand carparks and allsorts proposed.

Just a different thread to the Tevez bollocks etc that I thought a few may have an opinion on.
Click to expand...

we wouldnt have been taken over if we'd stayed there.
 
Would have been too difficult to redevelop it all into something modern. I look at Spurs and Villa's stadiums now, full of 60's designed concrete slabs - awful. Swales saw to it that we couldn't redevelop it anyway, because his attempts were fucking awful. Will never forget the opening of the Platt Lane stand, (Umbro). Oh my fucking god what a monstrosity. The Kippax too, could have been done 10 times better than that. No, it was time to move onto better things. I miss Maine Road though, that's for sure.
 
Pigeonho said:
Would have been too difficult to redevelop it all into something modern. I look at Spurs and Villa's stadiums now, full of 60's designed concrete slabs - awful. Swales saw to it that we couldn't redevelop it anyway, because his attempts were fucking awful. Will never forget the opening of the Platt Lane stand, (Umbro). Oh my fucking god what a monstrosity. The Kippax too, could have been done 10 times better than that. No, it was time to move onto better things. I miss Maine Road though, that's for sure.
Click to expand...

And me. More Pubs in the area, too. Had some great times round there.

The COMS is a bit easier from town but it still lacks a feeling of being home, IMHO.
 
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