Gary James said:
Although I predominantly only went to the Maine Road area because of City, I know what you mean about the way you remember it. I came from an area with a very bad reputation, but when I lived there I didn't view it like those from outside the area did. Similarly, with Maine Road, I always felt as if it was home. An extension of my own known universe, where you were safe, usually happy (not always depending on games!), and it was exciting.
I loved looking at Maine Road. To me classic Maine Road was how it looked around 1973-83. The Main Stand roof was replaced in 1982 and I think that was the first time I really thought about the experience of the ground rather than just the game. When the roof was being replaced, my dad used to take us down to Maine Road during the summer simply to see the work and how the ground was changing.
My dad had grown up in Moss Side. He used to live on Burdith Avenue, which was just behind the Parkside and between Lloyd Street South and the Princess Road bus depot. His grandparents had lived on Lowthorpe Street, which was one of that row of streets connecting Maine Road and Lloyd Street South. His auntie still lived on Yew Tree Road, and we'd sometimes drop in for a cup of tea on the way to or from a match. Even though my dad had long since moved away, I used to feel every time I went to Maine Road I felt like I was connecting with my family's roots.
In line with the comments above, I loved the ground as it was when I started going in 1975. It was recognised as a top stadium and hosted FA Cup semi finals ahead of Old Trafford back then. As a kid, even though I was very definitely a Blue, I was taken to Old Trafford sometimes, and though even then it was a more self-consciously grand arena, I preferred Maine Road, which was unpretentious and simply a wonderful example of a traditional football stadium.
The atmosphere was wonderful as well. The crowd at Old Trafford showed a lot of passion in those days, but there was a slight edge of nastiness. At Maine Road, it was less so - though I know it could be an intimidating place for away fans in the streets around the ground. I remember a piece in the Mirror by the journalist Derek Wallis, talking about the crowd at our place, saying that Maine Road housed "the most philosophical crowd of all". So while there was plenty of passion at City too, there was a touch of humour, and, though the opposition got a lot of stick, there was less bilious hatred of them than at United. A really good opposition goal could be quite widely applauded.
West Brom, under Ron Atkinson, were a really good and very attractive side then, and I remember them turning us over one day with the help of a cracking goal by Cyrille Regis, which was quite warmly applauded. I was also at Old Trafford for WBA's famous 5-3 win there, and the late Laurie Cunningham scored a wonderful goal, only to be met with a hail of vicious abuse, much of it racist. That for me seemed to sum up the difference between the two sets of fans: I was pleased then to have been born into following City rather than them, and have never regretted it since.
As I've said on another thread, Maine Road for me had become a shadow of what it previously was by the mid-nineties and it reflected the failings in the running of the club. I was pleased to leave in the end, because I thought the new Platt Lane and Kippax stands had pretty much removed most of the soul of the place. Before that, I thought the new Main Stand roof looked a bit incongruous set against the rest of the ground, but it was never something that I thought had too detrimental an effect on the atmosphere of the place.
Of course, that new roof for the stand was supposed to be the start of a complete overhaul of the stadium, which would - I think - have had a roof like that going all round the ground. The plans were in the match programme in the 1981/2 season, and from memory the intention was to go from a capacity of 52K with 26K seats to 48K with 32K seats, and I remember reading somewhere that it could subsequently be made all seater with a capacity of over 40K. It was also going to incorporate executive boxes and corporate facilities which were an innovation back then. Of course, we couldn't afford to do anything after phase one because of a lack of cash - despite Swales saying that it would be funded by the Development Association and not the club itself (at least, I'm fairly sure the Pink quoted him on this).
The other possible redevelopment of Maine Road was in the nineties, after redevelopment of the Kippax, as an alternative in case we didn't get the move to the Commonwealth Stadium. I know the club had to, and did, look at the possibility of a redevelopment in case Eastlands didn't become a reality and there was no way we could have afforded to build our own brand new stadium. I do recall a design being published in King of the Kippax which would have taken us to an all seater capacity of around 46K, I think, by basically adding an extra tier to the North, Main and Platt Lane Stands and filling in the corners.
How official that was in terms of representing a Plan B that the board had come up with, I don't know. I do know that there were a lot of complaints from residents because they claimed it affected their TV reception, and City were worried that they wouldn't get planning permission for rebuilding other stands to the height we'd need to get the capacity up above 40,000.<br /><br />-- Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:34 pm --<br /><br />
blue_paul said:
How many would of been at Maine road for the Liverpool game, looks absolutely packed to the rafters!
Official gate as given at MCFCStats was 49,207. (The Boro semi final was apparently 44,426).
There were many crowd figures in the pre-all seater days where I could well believe that the actual gate was larger than the one officially given by the club (most strikingly, the Charlton promotion game in 1985), and that Liverpool match may be one.
