Stadium expansion

[binzy m.cf.c]

did i not read on here somewhere that City have bought the old clayton aniline site? and weren't there a rumour they were toying with the idea of vacating the stadium and building a new one on that site as CoMs cant be increased to the levels they want.... cant see it myself but sure i read something on those lines..??

 

[1_barry_conlon]

Here's a question. Those of you who KNOW they are going to be redevelopments can you enlighten us as to whether you worked on the stadium when it was being built or are a structural engineer? Not the 'i heard from a mate at the council' or similar...do you have the credentials to either confirm or deny it? I ask this because when it was being built i had to make several visits through work. I personally spoke to people building it who told me that it would be impossible to extend, so i'm intrigued to know how everyone knows. And if they do, why is it now possible and before it wasn't?

 

[weeman19_89]

We need to fill this one first, I for one think it should be near the bottom of the arabs list of things to do.

 

[simo2MCFC]

gd thread

 

[Petrovs left peg]

This may sound a little odd and completely wrong, but when we first took the stadium over after the commonwealth game the pitch was dug down and the bottom tier is now where the running track was, could we do the same again?

and play five-a-side????

 

[alera]

This was discussed on here not long ago, I'm sure we're too near the water table to allow further excavation.

Doesnt matter. The world trade centres were built below sea level with such deep foundations and due to the clever design - bone dry in the sub levels. The VW hheadquarters in Berlin is effectively built on swamp land, without clever engineering the lower floors would be below water !

Anything can be done pretty much its down to cost and its always more expensive to go down than up. Sticking a third tier at either end of the ground would be the easiest and add up to 15,000 seats.

Still be very expensive, the whole roof would have to be reworked. Then again with what they are spending its small beer. There have been discussions about the stadium being purchased from the council I believe.

As for the ground not being expandable - rubbish there is loads of room on every side its all down to cost - benefit. It would be relatively expensive to add the extra seating.

Given there is so much ex industrial land in Manchsester you can get for free (and even money to develope on it) if you wanted to build say an 80,000 seater stadium it would be an interesting question as to the difference of building one from scratch vs adding another 30,000 odd seats building upwards at the coms.

Its a moot point do we reallyu need an 80,000 seater stadium ? I dont think so.

The thing with our owners is they obviously like their showpieces and statements look at what they have built in the desert. On the plus side its a very good time to do big construction projects with the down turn in the economy and in particular the building sector.

 

[Big G]

Costings will be a factor, even with our chaps,
To put an extra tier of each end of the ground would be mega money, and I mean mega as its alot more involved than abit more concrete and a new bit of roof,
For what it would possibly cost, for near double the amount a new all singing and dancing Stadia could be built and have our name stamped all over it, these guys aint shy in construction, just look at whats gone o in their homeland the last 5 or so years.

 

[jitsubluedan]

As we don't actually own the stadium then why would we pay to expand its capacity? I seem to recall reading a post a few months back where someone raised the question as to why the club's owners hadn't bought the stadium and apparently, Gary Cooke had advised that they had looked into it but it wasn't an option - they were on a better deal renting it.

Maybe they have other plans in mind?!!!

 

[goat boy]

Here's a question. Those of you who KNOW they are going to be redevelopments can you enlighten us as to whether you worked on the stadium when it was being built or are a structural engineer? Not the 'i heard from a mate at the council' or similar...do you have the credentials to either confirm or deny it? I ask this because when it was being built i had to make several visits through work. I personally spoke to people building it who told me that it would be impossible to extend, so i'm intrigued to know how everyone knows. And if they do, why is it now possible and before it wasn't?

There is a thread on this subject every other week. In the last installment, or the one prior, there was a chap who 'claimed' (I don't know, but he talked a good game) that he works for Laing O'Rourke or whoever built the stadium, as a structural engineer- and he seemed to think-

- that expansion up over the north and south stands was entirely conceivable if tricky. The roof is kinda like a tent- the cables hold the weight, you could take the whole shooting match off the top of the stadium without even touching the tiers, then bugger about with the stadium underneath at your own leisure. When finished, rebuild the roof, and bobs your uncle, 60,000 seats.

- digging down is entirely conceivable if the proper measures are taken to avoid it getting piss wet through. (something about a 'concrete raft' iirc) In theory, and this is me speculating from here on in- if they dug out another 10 feet and decided to sacrifice 8 or 9 feet at each side of the pitch, then removed the lower tier entirely and re-raked the whole shooting match at something akin to how the 3rd tier is, they'd get probably another 5k to 8k seats in. The player tunnel, the service tunnel and anything else accessing pitch side as it stands will then need to be re-modelled to suit the new pitch height, which would be a significant ballache. Then you'd be at about 65 or 68k maybe. This last option would probably take about 20 years per seat to recoup that level of buggering about, so they'd have to be pretty desperate to implement it.

I further speculate that neither of these schemes could be completed in the 3 month window that is the the close season, which scuppers them immediately imo.

 

[squirtyflower]

maybe not for much longer ,it looks like the scum are struggling to sell season tickets

<a class="postlink" href="http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2009/08/recession-appears-to-be-biting-even-at-old-trafford-with-season-tickets-for-sale.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/ ... -sale.html</a>

ooooh 'the times they are a changin'
next time you ask one of them do they go they won;t be able to use the excuse 'I would but you can't get tickets' lol