Re: Etihad Campus & potential new stadium
I've said this before, but ADUG did seriously explore the option of building a new stadium on the north car park. The difficulty was that, if a new ground was built, City wanted to knock down the existing stadium to free up space for other developments, but Sport England wouldn't play ball. City looked into whether, by taking out the lower tier and maybe putting in a track, the existing stadium could have a viable future if the club moved out, but decided against it sometime in the first half of 2009.
Since then, the focus has been on expanding the existing stadium above the 60K-ish that you'd get by simply taking the third tier round at both ends as per the original feasibility study. This will involve rerouting Ashton New Road to create more space at the south end of the stadium, and is rumoured to involve them building in facilities (maybe shops, restaurants, museum etc) at the north end of the ground, too.
This was discussed back somewhere in the Vegas thread at quite some length. It was, of course, heightened when in February 2011 (i.e. over a year ago), the draft Eastlands Regeneration Framework was published suggesting that the athletics stadium, English Institute of Sport, tennis and squash facilities could be moved to the Beswick Hub. Again, this was all discussed on the Vegas thread a year ago: people suggesting that this is a new development are wrong. (Incidentally, I have heard a rumour that the athletics stadium could go not to Beswick but to Ten Acres Lane, where the first FC United stadium plan was mooted, but I've no idea whether this is likely to be true).
The latest document suggests that this plan for expansion, as opposed to a new build, is still on track. Indeed, there's very little in this Report that's new in terms of the principles of what will be done.
One thing that it does contain is detail of the planned delivery the non-MCFC sports and other facilities for East Manc (Belle Vue sports village; House of Sport for governing bodies at Beswick; new sixth form college; sports medicine and sports science institute; Beswick sports hub; and Ten Acres Lane development). When the training ground plans were announced, certain hacks derided the community benefits that it was claimed would follow. Maybe some people might now think that the plans already published aren't quite so pie in the sky.
And it contains an outline of the nuts and bolts of the ongoing relationship between MCFC and the Council in terms of the 'collar site' to the east of the stadium plus future development. This suggests to me that they're getting ready to go to market looking for partners to operate a major leisure attraction on that site, as per the plans previously released. It doesn't seem such a stretch to suggest that this will go hand in had with an announcement of at least the first phase stadium expansion, though this is obviously speculation.
tolmie's hairdoo said:
I've said this before, but ADUG did seriously explore the option of building a new stadium on the north car park. The difficulty was that, if a new ground was built, City wanted to knock down the existing stadium to free up space for other developments, but Sport England wouldn't play ball. City looked into whether, by taking out the lower tier and maybe putting in a track, the existing stadium could have a viable future if the club moved out, but decided against it sometime in the first half of 2009.
Since then, the focus has been on expanding the existing stadium above the 60K-ish that you'd get by simply taking the third tier round at both ends as per the original feasibility study. This will involve rerouting Ashton New Road to create more space at the south end of the stadium, and is rumoured to involve them building in facilities (maybe shops, restaurants, museum etc) at the north end of the ground, too.
This was discussed back somewhere in the Vegas thread at quite some length. It was, of course, heightened when in February 2011 (i.e. over a year ago), the draft Eastlands Regeneration Framework was published suggesting that the athletics stadium, English Institute of Sport, tennis and squash facilities could be moved to the Beswick Hub. Again, this was all discussed on the Vegas thread a year ago: people suggesting that this is a new development are wrong. (Incidentally, I have heard a rumour that the athletics stadium could go not to Beswick but to Ten Acres Lane, where the first FC United stadium plan was mooted, but I've no idea whether this is likely to be true).
The latest document suggests that this plan for expansion, as opposed to a new build, is still on track. Indeed, there's very little in this Report that's new in terms of the principles of what will be done.
One thing that it does contain is detail of the planned delivery the non-MCFC sports and other facilities for East Manc (Belle Vue sports village; House of Sport for governing bodies at Beswick; new sixth form college; sports medicine and sports science institute; Beswick sports hub; and Ten Acres Lane development). When the training ground plans were announced, certain hacks derided the community benefits that it was claimed would follow. Maybe some people might now think that the plans already published aren't quite so pie in the sky.
And it contains an outline of the nuts and bolts of the ongoing relationship between MCFC and the Council in terms of the 'collar site' to the east of the stadium plus future development. This suggests to me that they're getting ready to go to market looking for partners to operate a major leisure attraction on that site, as per the plans previously released. It doesn't seem such a stretch to suggest that this will go hand in had with an announcement of at least the first phase stadium expansion, though this is obviously speculation.
