What Happened to Manchester City's Maine Road

JGL07 said:
The Platt Lane and the Kippax new stands must be about the worst ever. Absolutely abysmal design. The whole concept seemed to be intended to downsize the stadium to match the plummeting support in the Swales era. I know that the Kippax was built after Swales stood down but the design was already complete and it proved too late to do anything else before they all-seater deadline was imposed.

I can recall 63,000 attendances at Maine Road but by the mid-1990s it was down to a maximum of little over 30,000.

Apart from anything else it was an architectural nightmare with four very different stands and absolutely no coherence or uniformity.

I was delighted when City agreed to leave Maine Road. Maybe a move was inevitable? Could a 50,000-60,000 stadium have been squeezed into the Maine Road footprint? Probably not? I suppose that city could have used LFC style methods to introduce rats to surrounding housing and force people out? Ultimately a move was probably for the best.
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This is incorrect Swale's plan was to carry the Platt Lane around into the Kippax I know because, he told me to which I reacted that the Platt Lane was abysmal a total surprise to him as he was very proud of it. The Kippax that was built was designed under Franny and was a big as possible within the constraints of the location
 
Gordyola said:
This is incorrect Swale's plan was to carry the Platt Lane around into the Kippax I know because, he told me to which I reacted that the Platt Lane was abysmal a total surprise to him as he was very proud of it. The Kippax that was built was designed under Franny and was a big as possible within the constraints of the location
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I recall that when Lee took over he tried to have the stand redesigned but had insufficient time. The old Kippax was demolished in 1994 at the end of the season, the same year that Lee became chairman. The new stand was opened in stages over the following 18 months.

I have worked in Construction for longer than I care to remember. I just don’t see how the new Kippax could have been conceived and designed under Lee given the timescale for design and planning permission. That is unless Lee had a time machine handy?
 
JGL07 said:
I recall that when Lee took over he tried to have the stand redesigned but had insufficient time. The old Kippax was demolished in 1994 at the end of the season, the same year that Lee became chairman. The new stand was opened in stages over the following 18 months.

I have worked in Construction for longer than I care to remember. I just don’t see how the new Kippax could have been conceived and designed under Lee given the timescale for design and planning permission. That is unless Lee had a time machine handy?
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The original planning application was validated June 1993 with executive boxes and a 600 seat restaurant.

The planning permission was granted in May 1994. Where there boxes at the back of level 1 and the millennium suit the restaurant? Probably I reckon.

Swales wanted to bolt seats in the original from what I heard, could be bollocks too.
 
Second Skin said:
Back of the net

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And here are the teams

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I had tickets from big joe C for that game instead of being in the kippax !
 
The arches that ended up over the main stand are now pig shelters in a field up by chelford car boot ,keep trying to pursude the lad to have one in our garden ,till you get up close and they are massive :+)
 
I have a few of the seats. They were sold way back when. And I got hold of a few from possibly gumtree. Granted they were not the seats I sat on but it’s good memories. Now I have them in a crate somewhere.
 
JGL07 said:
I recall that when Lee took over he tried to have the stand redesigned but had insufficient time. The old Kippax was demolished in 1994 at the end of the season, the same year that Lee became chairman. The new stand was opened in stages over the following 18 months.

I have worked in Construction for longer than I care to remember. I just don’t see how the new Kippax could have been conceived and designed under Lee given the timescale for design and planning permission. That is unless Lee had a time machine handy?
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They were aware that Swales wanted to carry the Platt Lane round to the Kippax and had alternative plans in place before the take over as they had to maximise income to have any chance of succeeding I have plans that show a outline plan for the development of the whole stadium which were draw up before the t/o
Like I said Swales told me his plans for the Kippax personally and it wasn’t anything like what Franny built
Franny didn’t try to get an extension to keep the old stand in a place to give him more time but it was refused as stadiums we had to become all seated
During the build they ran into problems with the groundwork which cost a additional substantial amount
 
Gordyola said:
They were aware that Swales wanted to carry the Platt Lane round to the Kippax and had alternative plans in place before the take over as they had to maximise income to have any chance of succeeding I have plans that show a outline plan for the development of the whole stadium which were draw up before the t/o
Like I said Swales told me his plans for the Kippax personally and it wasn’t anything like what Franny built
Franny didn’t try to get an extension to keep the old stand in a place to give him more time but it was refused as stadiums we had to become all seated
During the build they ran into problems with the groundwork which cost a additional substantial amount
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I call bullshit. Believe what you want but the timeline makes it clear that the whole thing was conceived and designed under Swales.

You cannot conjure up a major construction project in a few weeks. The Kippax as was built had to be thought out and designed months if not years in advance. You cannot design, get planning permission and construct a major stand in a few weeks (or months?).

I am sure that Swales might have had ideas of continuing the North Stand around the stadium at one stage but he didn’t do that. He built the Platt Lane stand and appeared to reduce the seated capacity in the process. The Kippax rebuild has his dirty fingerprints all over it.

The New Kippax was obviously aimed at ‘downsizing’ the stadium in terms of capacity while increasing corporate provision.

There was never any prospect of getting extensions for conversion to all-seater. This had been laid down years before for top-league teams.
 
Gordyola said:
They were aware that Swales wanted to carry the Platt Lane round to the Kippax and had alternative plans in place before the take over as they had to maximise income to have any chance of succeeding I have plans that show a outline plan for the development of the whole stadium which were draw up before the t/o
Like I said Swales told me his plans for the Kippax personally and it wasn’t anything like what Franny built
Franny didn’t try to get an extension to keep the old stand in a place to give him more time but it was refused as stadiums we had to become all seated
During the build they ran into problems with the groundwork which cost a additional substantial amount
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The planning permission for the new Kippax was validated in June 1993 so they would have submitted initially a couple of months before that, and the original concept would have been in 1992.

Franny Lee didn't have control until 1994 and full permission was granted in May 1994, so even if there was a possibility of amending things, it would be impossible due to consultation and committee timescales by May. Even if Lee had his own alternative plans and had people working on them extensively before takeover, it would be a massive change to a one tier stand and would need 12 weeks' consultation once everything had been submitted, and a few months on to to consider responses, then eventually go to committee for a decision. It would have been the end of 1994 at best.
 
NPBlue said:
The old dowager was well past her best when the wrecking balls moved in, but it had a unique character, like the faded seats of a different hue wherever you looked.

I remember when we were at the cutting edge of technology after the north stand opened, and an electronic scoreboard was installed. In a way, it was a reflection of our demise, as it worked well enough initially, but when the money started running out, the light bulbs started to blow, never to be replaced, and the messages became a confusing mish mash of unintelligible gibberish, rather like our chairman at the time.
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Don't remember it ever workin
 
JGL07 said:
I call bullshit. Believe what you want but the timeline makes it clear that the whole thing was conceived and designed under Swales.

You cannot conjure up a major construction project in a few weeks. The Kippax as was built had to be thought out and designed months if not years in advance. You cannot design, get planning permission and construct a major stand in a few weeks (or months?).

I am sure that Swales might have had ideas of continuing the North Stand around the stadium at one stage but he didn’t do that. He built the Platt Lane stand and appeared to reduce the seated capacity in the process. The Kippax rebuild has his dirty fingerprints all over it.

The New Kippax was obviously aimed at ‘downsizing’ the stadium in terms of capacity while increasing corporate provision.

There was never any prospect of getting extensions for conversion to all-seater. This had been laid down years before for top-league teams.
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Call what you want no skin off my nose I've told you what I know
Just one comment re you downsizing; Of course it was downsizing, doesnt take an expert in construction to know, seats means less than standing. Within the constraints of the site the new Kippax as as large as possible and when opened the highest stand in the country in fact residents on Kippax Street could get Tv and the club had to put in relays
 
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