The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England – also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship purposes – is the home ground of Manchester City Football Club, the fifth-largest stadium in the Premier League and the twelfth-largest in the United Kingdom, with a seating capacity of 47,805.
The SportCity location but with a larger stadium, was proposed for the main athletics arena in Manchester's failed bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics. In the successful bid for the 2002 Commonwealth Games the capacity of the post-games converted stadium was reduced from 80,000 to about 50,000. This stadium was built by Laing Construction at a cost of £112 million from a design by architectural consultants Arup Associates.
To ensure the long-term financial viability of the project after the Commonwealth Games, Manchester City F.C. leased the stadium from Manchester City Council as a replacement for Maine Road, but only after the northern segment of the stadium bowl was completed and the athletics track excavated to make way for an additional lower circumferential tier of seats. The conversion from a field and track arena to a football stadium cost the city council £22 million. Manchester City F.C. spent an additional £20 million installing bars, restaurants and corporate entertainment areas. The club moved into its new home during the summer of 2003.
In addition to athletics, the stadium has hosted the 2008 UEFA Cup Final, England football internationals, rugby league internationals, boxing world title fights and music concerts.
History
Model of the 80,000-seater stadium for the 2000 Olympic Bid. The stadium would have been a larger design of CoMS, with more access ramps and masts.
Plans to build a new stadium in Manchester were formulated before 1989 as part of the city's bid to host the 1996 Summer Olympics. Manchester City Council submitted a bid that included a design for an 80,000-capacity stadium on a greenfield site in west Manchester. The bid failed and Atlanta hosted the Games. Four years later the city council bid to host the 2000 Summer Olympics, but this time focusing on a brownfield site 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) east of the city centre on derelict land that was the site of Bradford Colliery, known colloquially as Eastlands. The council's shift in focus was driven by emerging government legislation on urban renewal, promising vital support funding for such projects; the government became involved in funding the purchase and clearance of the Eastlands site in 1992.
For the February 1993 bid the city council submitted another 80,000-capacity stadium design produced by design consultants Arup Associates, the firm that helped select the Eastlands site. In October 1993 the games were awarded to Sydney, but the fnllowing year Manchester submitted the same scheme design to the Millennium Commission as a "Millennium Stadium", only to have this proposal rejected. Undeterred, Manchester City Council subsequently bid to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, once again proposing the same site along with stadium plans derived from the 2000 Olympics bid, and this time were successful. In 1996, this same planned stadium competed with Wembley Stadium to gain funding to become the new national stadium, but the money was used to redevelop Wembley.
2002 Commonwealth Games
The stadium's foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Tony Blair in December 1999, and construction began in January 2000. The stadium was designed by Arup Associates and constructed by Laing Construction at a cost of approximately £112 million, £77 million of which was provided by Sport England, with the remainder funded by Manchester City Council. For the Commonwealth Games, the stadium featured a single lower tier of seating running around three sides of the athletics track, and second tiers to the two sides, with an open-air temporary stand at one end, providing a total seating capacity for the Games of approximately 38,000.
The first public event at the stadium was the opening ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games on 25 July 2002. Among the dignitaries present was Queen Elizabeth II who made a speech and 'declared the Commonwealth Games open'. During the ten days of competition, the stadium hosted athletics events and the rugby sevens. Four Commonwealth records were set at the stadium, including the women's triple jump and the women's 5000 m.
The Commonwealth Games configuration had two tiers of seats
After conversion CoMS had three tiers
Stadium conversion
After successful athletics events at the Commonwealth Games, conversion into a football venue was criticised by athletics figures such as Jonathan Edwards and Sebastian Coe, as the United Kingdom lacked a large athletics venue. The council was keen to keep the athletics track and proposed that movable seating be installed after the games. Had the proposal been accepted the seating capacity would have been about 60,000 but it would have cost around £50 million, compared with £22 million to remove the track and achieve a capacity of around 48,000. Architects Arup believed history demonstrated that maintaining a rarely used athletics track often does not work with football – and cited examples such as the Stadio delle Alpi and the Munich Olympic Stadium, with both Juventus and Bayern Munich moving to new stadiums less than 40 years after inheriting them. Manchester City Council wished to avoid creating a white elephant, so to give the stadium long-term financial viability, extensive work was carried out to convert it from a field and track arena to a football stadium.
Sections of the track were removed and relaid at other athletics venues, and the ground level was lowered to make way for an additional tier of seating. The temporary stand was dismantled, and replaced with a permanent structure of similar design to the existing one at the southern end. This work took nearly a year to complete and added 10,000 seats. Manchester City F.C. moved to the ground in time for the start of the 2003–04 season. The total cost of this conversion was in excess of £40 million, with the track, pitch and seating conversion being funded by the city council at a cost of £22 million; and the installation of bars, restaurants and corporate entertainment areas throughout the stadium being funded by the football club at a cost of £20 million.
Stadium firsts
The first public football match at the stadium was a friendly between Manchester City and Barcelona on 10 August 2003. Manchester City won the game 2–1, with Nicolas Anelka scoring the first ever goal in the stadium.[28][29]
The first competitive match followed four days later, a UEFA Cup match between Manchester City and Welsh Premier League side The New Saints, which City won 5–0 with Trevor Sinclair scoring the first competitive goal in the stadium. Having started the Premier League season with an away match, Manchester City's first home league fixture in the new stadium was on 23 August, a game drawn 1–1 with Portsmouth, with Pompey's Yakubu scoring the first league goal in the stadium.
To date, the record football attendance is 47,408, set at a Premier League match between the home club and Newcastle United on 19 November 2011. This match also set a number of new club and Premier League footballing records, such as the Manchester club becoming the first ever team to win 11 of its opening 12 games in a Premier League season.
Architecture
The stadium – steel cables strung from masts hold the roof in place
When planning the development, Manchester City Council required a sustainable landmark structure that would be an icon for the regeneration of the once heavily industrialised site surrounding Bradford Colliery, as well as providing spectators with good sightlines in an atmospheric arena. Arup Associates designed the stadium to be "an intimate, even intimidating, gladiatorial arena embodying the atmosphere of a football club" with the pitch six metres below ground level, a feature of Roman gladiatorial arenas and amphitheatres.
The football stadium's exterior is dominated by twelve masts which hold the toroidal-shaped stadium roof using a cable net system unlike the roofs of other stadia, which are held aloft by classic beamed cantilevered supports. Cables are attached to the twelve masts circling the stadium with rafters and purlins for additional roof support. The masts double as visual features, with the highest at 75 metres (246 ft). Access to the upper tiers of seats is provided by eight circular ramps with conical roofs resembling turrets above which eight of the twelve masts rise up providing the support structure for the roof.[37]
The roof of the South, East and West Stands built for the athletics stadium configuration was supported by the cable net system. The temporary open stand at the north end was built around the masts and tie down cables that would ultimately support the roof of the current North Stand. After the games the track and field were excavated. The temporary bleachers at the north end were removed and the North Stand and lower tier of seats constructed on the prepared excavation. The North Stand roof was completed by adding rafters, purlins and cladding. The conversion took about a year and increased the seating capacity by around 10,000 seats.
The stadium has facilities for players and match officials in a basement area below the West Stand, which also contains a kitchen providing meals for up to 6,000 people on match days, press rooms, ground staff storage, and a prison cell. Fitting out of the hospitality suites, kitchens, offices, and concourse concessions was accomplished by KSS Architects, and included the installation of the communications cabling and automatic access control system. The stadium also has conference facilities and is licensed for marriage ceremonies.
To create the optimum grass playing surface in the stadium bowl, the roof was designed to maximize sunlight by using a ten-metre band of translucent polycarbonate at its periphery and the corners of the stadium have perforated walls with louvres that can be adjusted to provide airflow across the pitch. Drainage and under-pitch heating were installed to provide optimum growing conditions for the grass.
Names
The stadium was named the City of Manchester Stadium by Manchester City Council before construction began in December 1999, but has a number of commonly used alternatives. City of Manchester Stadium is abbreviated to CoMS when written and spoken. Eastlands refers to the site and the stadium before they were named SportCity and CoMS respectively, and remains in common usage for both the stadium and the whole complex, as does SportCity but with less frequency. Manchester United supporters enjoy ridiculing their rival City fans for the fact that their club has a stadium owned by the city council by referring to it as the Council House. The Blue Camp, a pun on Barcelona's Nou Camp, found little favour. After the club was taken over by the Emirati Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008 some supporters jokingly referred to the stadium as Middle Eastlands.
The football club, under this new ownership, renegotiated its 250-year lease with the city council in October 2010, gaining the naming rights in return for a substantial increase in rent.f The stadium was renamed the Etihad Stadium by the club in July 2011 as part of a ten year agreement with the team kit sponsors Etihad Airways. The agreement encompasses sponsorship of the stadium's name, extends the team kit sponsorship for ten years, ] and includes plans to relocate the club's youth academy and training facilities to the Etihad Campus, a new development adjacent to the stadium.
Stadium
Access
Joe Mercer Way
Entry is gained by contactless smart card rather than traditional manned turnstiles. The system can admit up to 1,200 people per minute through all entrances. A service tunnel under the stadium provides access for emergency vehicles and the visiting team's coach to enter the stadium directly. Once inside the stadium patrons have access to six themed restaurants, two of which have views of the pitch, and there are 70 executive boxes above the second tier of seating in the North, West and East Stands.
Stands
The main entrance
The stadium's interior is a continuous oval bowl, with three tiers of seating at the sides, and two tiers at each end. While the seating is continuous, each side of the stadium is named in the manner of a traditional football ground. Initially, all sides were named by compass direction (North Stand and South Stand for the ends, East Stand and West Stand for the sides). In February 2004, after a vote by fans, the West Stand was renamed the Colin Bell Stand in honour of the former player. The South Stand was named the Key 103 Stand for sponsorship reasons from 2003 to 2006, though this was largely ignored by supporters. A portion of the North Stand was designated the Family Stand for supporters with children, but from season 2010–11 the entire North Stand was allocated to families. The East Stand is unofficially known by fans as the Kippax after the corresponding stand at Maine Road. Supporters of visiting teams are allocated portions of the South Stand.
Pitch
The stadium has a UEFA standard dimension pitch of 105 by 68 metres (115 × 74 yd) covered with natural grass reinforced by artificial fibres made by Desso. The pitch is lit by 218 2000-watt floodlights, consuming a total of 436,000 watts. The areas without seating in each corner of the ground have moveable louvres to allow for ventilation of the pitch. The pitch is recognised as being one of the best in English football, and has been nominated five times in the last nine seasons for best Premier League pitch, an accolade it won in 2010–11among other awards.
SportCity
SportCity with CoMS (left) and Manchester Velodrome (right)
The stadium is the centrepiece of SportCity, which has several other sporting venues. Adjacent to the stadium is the Manchester Regional Arena, which served as a warm-up track during the Commonwealth Games and is now a 6,178-capacity venue that hosts national athletics trials and formerly hosted Manchester City reserve team games. The Manchester Velodrome and the National Squash Centre are a short distance from the stadium. In September 2006, Manchester City was granted planning permission to build an 85-metre (279 ft) wind turbine. Designed by Norman Foster, the turbine was intended to provide power for the stadium and nearby homes, but safety concerns about ice on the blades led to the proposal being abandoned. From 2005 to 2009 a Thomas Heatherwick sculpture, B of the Bang, was situated in front of the stadium. Built to celebrate the 2002 Commonwealth Games, it was the tallest sculpture in the UK. Structural problems led to it being dismantled in 2009. In January 2007 it was announced that the UK's first Super Casino would be built at SportCitybut plans were abandoned after it failed to receive authorisation from the Secretary of State for Culture$2C Media and Sport.
Reception
| Average Premier League attendances | ||||
| Season | Stadium capacity | Average attendance | % of capacity | Ranking within PL |
| 47,805 | 47,028* | 98.3%* | ||
| 47,726 | 45,880 | 96.1% | ||
| 47,726 | 45,512 | 95.4% | ||
| 47,726 | 42,900 | 89.9% | ||
| 47,726 | 42,126 | 88.3% | ||
| 47,726 | 39,997 | 83.8% | ||
| 47,726 | 42,856 | 89.8% | ||
| 47,726 | 45,192 | 94.7% | ||
| 47,726 | 46,834 | 98.1% | ||
| * after 13 games (approximately 33%) of current season completed. | ||||
The 2002 Commonwealth Games were deemed a huge success and the stadium gained critical acclaim for its atmosphere and architectural design. It has won a number of design awards, including the 2004 Royal Institute of British Architects Inclusive Design Award for inclusive building design, and the 2003 Institution of Structural Engineers Structural Special Award.
Reception by Manchester City supporters was polarised, with some lukewarm about moving from Maine Road which had a reputation for being one of English football's most atmospheric grounds whilst others were enthusiastic about the bigger stadium and move back to east Manchester where the club was formed. Today, the club boasts more than 33,000 season ticket holders each season, which is more than the maximum capacity of Maine Road just before the club moved homes.
A 2007 Premier League survey found that fans thought sight lines at the stadium were the second best in the Premier League after the Emirates Stadium. Opposition fans have generally given positive feedback, with CoMS coming second to Old Trafford in a 2005 poll to find the United Kingdom's favourite football ground. In 2010, the City of Manchester Stadium was the third most visited stadium after Old Trafford and Anfield by overseas visitors.
In the early years of Manchester City's tenure the stadium suffered from a poor atmosphere, a common problem with modern stadia when compared with traditional football grounds such as Maine Road. In the 2007 Premier League survey Manchester City supporters rated the atmosphere as second worst in the league, but the atmosphere has since improved.
Recent developments
The stadium is owned by Manchester City Council and leased by the football club. The 2008 takeover made the football club the wealthiest in the world, prompting suggestions that it could consider buying the stadium outright. Manchester City signed an agreement with Manchester City Council in March 2010 to allow a £1 billion redevelopment led by architect Rafael Viñoly.
During the 2010 closed season the football pitch and hospitality areas were renovated, with a £1 million investment being made in the playing surface so that it is better able to tolerate concerts and other events without damage. In October 2010, Manchester City renegotiated the stadium lease, agreeing to now pay the city council an annual fixed sum of £3 million where previously it had only paid half of the ticket sales revenue from match attendances exceeding 35,000. This new agreement occurred as part of a standard 5-year review of the original lease and it amounts to an approximate £1 million annual increase in council revenues from the stadium.
For the current and previous seasons, the club has sold all 36,000 of its allocated season tickets and is now looking at increasing the stadium's capacity. The club's agreement with Manchester City Council in March 2010 allows redevelopment around the stadium and possible stadium expansion to 60,000. This increase in capacity could be achieved by adding a third tier of seats to the north and south stands so that they match the east and west stands. The stadium expansion is linked to the club's stated commitment to "potential development as part of a contribution to the regeneration of east Manchester".
In July 2011, the stadium was renamed the Etihad Stadium sponsored by Etihad Airways. Development plans for the Etihad Campus adjoining the stadium were revealed in mid-September 2011. The club released images of a cutting-edge youth academy and training facility, including a 7,000-capacity mini stadium on derelict land adjacent to the stadium's SportCity location. It is believed Etihad Airways fought off competition from Ferrostaal and Aabar to gain stadium naming rights.
Transport
The stadium is located to the east of Manchester city centre. The nearest railway station is Ashburys, a 20-minute walk from the stadium, though services are limited. Manchester Piccadilly, which serves mainline trains from London, Birmingham and Edinburgh, is a 30-minute walk away along a well-lit signposted route that is supervised by stewards close to the ground. The Etihad Campus Metrolink station on the Manchester Metrolink close to Joe Mercer Way will be operational in time for the 2012–13 season.
There are many bus routes from the city centre and all other directions which stop at, or close to, SportCity. On match and event days special bus services from the city centre serve the stadium. The site has 2,000 parking spaces, with another 8,000 spaces in the surrounding area provided by local businesses and schools working in partnership with the football club.
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