General |
City of Manchester Stadium | ||
Eastlands | ||
![]() City of Manchester Stadium | ||
Full name | Etihad Stadium | |
Owners | City of Manchester | |
Location | Manchester, England | |
Broke ground | 12 December 1999 | |
Opened | 10 August 2003 | |
Renovated | 2002–2003 (converted to current use) | |
Expanded | 2014–2015 (47,400 to 55,097 seats) | |
Tenants | Manchester City F.C. (2003-present) | |
Capacity | 55,097 | |
Field dimensions | 105 m by 68 m | |
Surface | Grass | |
Highest attendance | 54,693 (Man City vs Leicester, 6 Feb 2016) |
The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, also known as the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home ground of Manchester City Football Club and, with a domestic football capacity of 55,097, is the fourth-largest stadium in the Premier League and eighth-largest in the United Kingdom.
Built to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the stadium has since staged the 2008 UEFA Cup Final, England football internationals, rugby league matches, a boxing world title fight, the England rugby union team's last match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup and music concerts.
The stadium, originally proposed as an athletics arena in Manchester's bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics, was converted after the 2002 Commonwealth Games from a 38,000 capacity arena to a 48,000 seat football stadium at a cost to the city council of £22 million and to Manchester City of £20 million. It was agreed in 1997 that Manchester City F.C. would lease the stadium from Manchester City Council and move from their aging Maine Road ground - a move which took place in the summer of 2003.
The stadium was built by Laing Construction at a cost of £112 million and was designed and engineered by ArupSport, whose design incorporated a cable-stayed roof structure, suspended by twelve exterior masts and attached cables. The stadium design has received much praise and many accolades, including an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2004 for its innovative inclusive building design, and a special award in 2003 from the Institution of Structural Engineers for its unique structural design.
In August 2015, a 7,000 seat third tier on the South Stand was completed, in time for the start of the 2015–16 football season. The expansion was designed to be in keeping with the existing roof design. A North Stand third tier has planning approval and work on it is expected to begin by 2017, increasing capacity to around 61,000.
External links[]
- City of Manchester Stadium official website
- Manchester City Football Club official website
- Images tagged City of Manchester Stadium at Flickr
- Arup Associates PDF format article about the original design of the stadium
- Arup Associates PDF format article about the transformation of the stadium after the 2002 Games
- Modern Steel Construction PDF format article about the innovative construction of the stadium's roof
- YouTube video depicting MCFC's vision for planned Etihad Campus / CFA development
- YouTube video depicting sequential construction steps required to expand stadium's South Stand
- YouTube video depicting hub circus location of Dad's Halo Effect public sculpture
![]() |
Current season • Club honours • Managers • Players • Squads • City of Manchester Stadium History: Seasons • Maine Road |
![]() |