Returning to Maine Road

The only street that sticks in my mind is Playfair street.
Used to go down it on the Maynes coach from Ashton.
 
First day of the new season... And the memories... Of Maine Road... Sunny August afternoons... Waiting for the turnstiles to open... Hoping to be first in... Racing up the Kippax steps... To the top... Through the opening at the back of the Kippax... To behold... To behold the pitch... In all its splendour... Pristine green... The biggest in the land... The best in the land... Stan Gibson's baby... And knowing... Just knowing... That as beautiful as it was... It would not look this good again...
Well, not for another year at least!
 
My first memories of City are associated with Maine Road. I remeber the little tykes "look after your car for a quid mister" to the novelty of peeing up against the wall in what was then the toilets behind the Kippax as a 15 year old.

The scaffolding stand for away fans, the clear plastic bin bags that were handed out, when it was pissing down during the Kippax re development.

The noise, the atmosphere. the groans of seeing Edgehill miss a tackle...

I remember them like it was yesterday. They are my first memories of City. They might not be as glittered as today's memories, but they are MINE and no one can take them away.

I drove past a few months ago and actually turned off Princess Park way to see the old Maine Road. I swear if you listened hard enough you could hear the roar of the Kippax.
 
I could never face going back to Maine Road. I prefer to keep my memories of what it was rather than confront those with reality.

On balance it was right for City to leave Maine Road largely because of the way that Swales completely buggered the stadium.

The whole place was a mess because of the abomination that was the new Kippax Road Stand. Absolutely massive but had next to no capacity. When City went down to Division Three, they had a stadium that would barely hold 30,000. OK they patched a few add-ons to stretch it to 33,000 but for City, that was an insult.

I don't think that Maine Road could ever have been developed to meet the needs of a club like City without bulldozing the whole place including the two recently built stands. Hence it had to go, but let's no dwell on it. The whole thing is too depressing.
 
I've never been and never will. In my head Maine Road is still there, I always want to picture the walk to the ground; with my dad when I was younger parking up at the toast rack then to Maine Road through Platt Fields. Or via the Sherwood and Claremont Rd Chippy when I was older. Once you see the changes in an area it pollutes your memory of how things used to look.

On the occasions I do drive down into town via Princess Road I always keep eyes dead ahead, don't want to look right and not see the Kippax there.
 
JGL07 said:
I could never face going back to Maine Road. I prefer to keep my memories of what it was rather than confront those with reality.

On balance it was right for City to leave Maine Road largely because of the way that Swales completely buggered the stadium.

The whole place was a mess because of the abomination that was the new Kippax Road Stand. Absolutely massive but had next to no capacity. When City went down to Division Three, they had a stadium that would barely hold 30,000. OK they patched a few add-ons to stretch it to 33,000 but for City, that was an insult.

I don't think that Maine Road could ever have been developed to meet the needs of a club like City without bulldozing the whole place including the two recently built stands. Hence it had to go, but let's no dwell on it. The whole thing is too depressing.
Click to expand...

It’s mad when you think about the forward planning at City at the time. Where the Etihad stands now was always being talked about as a major stadium potentially being built for a good decade with a failed Olympic bid and then getting the Commonwealth games at the time. The club spent money on redeveloping the Platt Lane and the Kippax which barely stood for a decade, if we had decided to make the move earlier we maybe could have spent the money on the playing squad instead rather than tumbling down to the third tier.
 
feedmpenzaandhewillscore said:
It’s mad when you think about the forward planning at City at the time. Where the Etihad stands now was always being talked about as a major stadium potentially being built for a good decade with a failed Olympic bid and then getting the Commonwealth games at the time. The club spent money on redeveloping the Platt Lane and the Kippax which barely stood for a decade, if we had decided to make the move earlier we maybe could have spent the money on the playing squad instead rather than tumbling down to the third tier.
Click to expand...

Mansour likes this post.
 
I lived on Banff Road, Rusholme in the early 00’s (next to the Texaco garage) and would walk to Maine Road for matches stopping just once at The Clarence. There’d be crowds outside of the pubs and people queuing for chips. You’d also have men selling merchandise. I had a season ticket in DD lower in the Kippax Stand. Happy times.
 
feedmpenzaandhewillscore said:
It’s mad when you think about the forward planning at City at the time. Where the Etihad stands now was always being talked about as a major stadium potentially being built for a good decade with a failed Olympic bid and then getting the Commonwealth games at the time. The club spent money on redeveloping the Platt Lane and the Kippax which barely stood for a decade, if we had decided to make the move earlier we maybe could have spent the money on the playing squad instead rather than tumbling down to the third tier.
Click to expand...
My understanding was the plan if we(as in Manchester)had won the Olympic bid is that the rags would have become the planned tenants, it was only after the whole project was downgraded(in the original plan 80k plus with a temporary seating system like the London Stadium adding further capacity)that the council started talking to City.

In terms of Maine Rd, although it pains me to say anything positive about Swales or Lee they really didn't have much choice Platt Lane had to be closed off the back of the Popplewell inquiry and the governments ban on standing following the Taylor report(that despite common belief didn't believe standing was unsafe), perhaps we could have just played with two sides open, like Wolves did for years, but that would have kept are capacity below 20k(I want to say 17?)so that wasn't a long term option, what screwed the club and any redevelopment was finding out that it was built on toxic landfill
 
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