Could Maine Road have been redeveloped better?

[ManCitizens.]

To be fair i only started going in 93/94 due to my age but i feel Maine Road taught me how to support this club properly. It may sound stupid but when i hear that our current family stand has numerous PS3s i find it embaressing and awful.

I used to sit in the redveloped Kippax (which i thought was great) right at the end near the away fans. My Dad, Grandad etc told me it wasnt the same but for me, its as good as it will be. Our new stadium is getting better by the year but for some reason, i feel sorry for the new fans missing out on some part of Maine Road despite watching more successful times.

 

[Hatemanyoo]

As I remember The council would not allow any further development around Maine rd due in part to a group of vociferous residents objections.Someone willnno doubt correct me if I'm wrong,but I'm sure there was an issue after the redevelopment of platt lane where a group of residents kicked off because the new stand was "interfering with the tv picture..."

That was the kippax pal, i used to work with a bloke who lived on Thornton Rd, and he was initially part of the residents group petitioning against the development of Maine Rd, he told me about the interference of the sky signal due to the height of the kippax, as City had had planning permission for the stand to go ahead, the plans stated the stand would be 22 metres tall, when in fact the finished stand stood at 27 metres tall, 5 metres taller than the planning permission had allowed, it was this extra height that interfered with the sky dishes from receiving their signal, from there on in, Maine Rd was doomed.<br /><br />-- Sat Jul 09, 2011 2:29 am --<br /><br />

I think it was Franny Lee who got the deal for eastlands when we were talking about redeveloping Maine Rd.
Apparanley MBC insisted that we needed a new stadium, but Franny being Franny told them we allready had one,no thanks, so when they were building coms if i remember rightly they still wernt sure what would happen to it after the CW Games, i think they offerd it to the rags aswell,
so we ended up getting eastlands on a top deal.
Ime sure it was Franny, am i right.

Spot on mate.

 

[Roger Ringpiece]

It was redeveloped better-it was knocked down, probably just in time in case it fell down.

Old decrepit stadium with a mis match of all four sides, some call it character, some call it unique, I call it best left behind now we have something bigger and better.

 

[brandyzee]

I have an old Paul Smith t-shirt with Maine road etched in CAD style.

Why Britains most respected designer chose Maine road over countless other stadiums of the time only he knows, but it possibly confirms the magic and cult status the club commanded before moving over to the faceless monster at eastlands.

The t- shirts came in a variety of colours, black, red and possibly white or skyblue. I bought mine from the Paul Smith shop on King street Mcr in ~2002. couldnt belive my luck when i worked out it was Maine road.

Ive never seen anyone else with one on and it always gets commented on at eastlands when i wear it in the warm months.

Wish i could have got my hands on more, but at £30 a pop at the time, I proudly purchased just the one.

Does anyone else own one?

 

[nijinsky]

The end of the Kippax, the redeveloped Platt Lane End ruined Maine Road for me and the failure to join the new Kippax to the North and Platt Lane.
Eastlands is everything Maine Road wasn't in terms of a modern stadium tho and I personally would never want to go back.

Got to agree with that. The Umbro Stand was just the beginning of the end. I hated it with a passion. It just screamed half-arsed.
Then again at least it was finished. Swales' main stand was supposed to be cantilevered and to the day they pulled it down still had the enormous empty cross structure underneath which was supposed to hold erm, "something". Don't think it was ever said what was supposed to go up there.

Actually Swales' plans, which I think I had confused with Franny's I posted on here, were much more daring. I think it was cantilevered North Stand all the way around to the main stand. That would have seriously limited capacity though I think. There must be a pic in a programme. I'd love to see it.

I remember it was around the time of a derby, as usual with Swales, so it must have been between 80 - end of 82 season. Probably on the back of the 81, final s/f. He must have been feeling bold.
Give him his due, for all the small time telly salesman jibes, he really did want to push us on, didn't he? Relegation put paid to all that though. How things changed that fateful day. Just for the next 30 years too! It's been a long way back.

 

[BigTony]

Sometimes at east lands it can get a bit flat and there's a lot more out of towers, so I do miss Maine road a lot, I was never too keen on east Manchester either, but go to admit the stadiums a lot better

 

[mcfcliam]

Sometimes at east lands it can get a bit flat and there's a lot more out of towers, so I do miss Maine road a lot, I was never too keen on east Manchester either, but go to admit the stadiums a lot better

Jog on, rag.

How you haven't been banned is beyond me.

 

[AJ71]

The end of the Kippax, the redeveloped Platt Lane End ruined Maine Road for me and the failure to join the new Kippax to the North and Platt Lane.
Eastlands is everything Maine Road wasn't in terms of a modern stadium tho and I personally would never want to go back.

Got to agree with that. The Umbro Stand was just the beginning of the end. I hated it with a passion. It just screamed half-arsed.
Then again at least it was finished. Swales' main stand was supposed to be cantilevered and to the day they pulled it down still had the enormous empty cross structure underneath which was supposed to hold erm, "something". Don't think it was ever said what was supposed to go up there. Actually Swales' plans, which I think I had confused with Franny's I posted on here, were much more daring. I think it was cantilevered North Stand all the way around to the main stand. That would have seriously limited capacity though I think. There must be a pic in a programme. I'd love to see it.

I remember it was around the time of a derby, as usual with Swales, so it must have been between 80 - end of 82 season. Probably on the back of the 81, final s/f. He must have been feeling bold.
Give him his due, for all the small time telly salesman jibes, he really did want to push us on, didn't he? Relegation put paid to all that though. How things changed that fateful day. Just for the next 30 years too! It's been a long way back.

Re the bit in bold, wasn't that where Exec Boxes were ultimately supposed to go. I did see Swale's early 80's plans somewhere, and I am sure the boxes were part of this, along with the same roof as the mainstand on the Kippax and Platt Lane replaced with a North Stand replica. It actually would have looked good (for the time) and I think I read capacity would have been about 47,000 (down from about 52,000 at the time).