Two bits of interest with an oblique reference to MCFC / Manchester:
1) High St survey:
https://www.pwc.co.uk/press-room/pr...penings-slump-to-lowest-levels-on-record.html
2) Government reverses moves targeting foreign students' residential status
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49655719. That will have a massive effect on Manchester Universities who
were booming on the back of income and fees from overseas students. Overseas companies and wealthy families can pay £30,000 pa to study here (three times what British students pay) which is why a huge proportion of Manchester's student population are foreign students. A significant element of Manchester's rebuilding is down to foreign students enabling the expansion of the University's engineering faculty (off Oxford Rd), and many of the City centre skyscrapers are student-focused. That may sound odd to you given the traditional view of students being skint, and living in bed-sits, and they still do, but if you're studying medicine for 7 years in Manchester and you're an overseas student, you're paying £23,000 a year in tuition fees (10,000 foreign students >>> generates £200m per annum in fees alone).
This is what I believe has fuelled Manchester's construction boom.
This news probably comes too late for Man Met's sport's campus, as I reckon funding would have been a factor. The tap has just been turned on again.