Short Case: The City of Manchester Stadium

The stadium used by Manchester City football club was originally designed to be the central arena
for the Manchester bid to host the 1996 Olympics. When the games were awarded to Atlanta, the
City of Manchester refocused their efforts on the Commonwealth Games bid for 2002, which they
won.

The stadium was originally planned as an 80,000 seat arena for the Olympics. This was revised down
to a 60,000 capacity stadium for the Commonwealth games. However, the Council’s main concern
was that the stadium should have a sustainable future so the plan was revised down again to
accommodate a future for the stadium as the new ground for Manchester City football club to
replace their Main Road Stadium in Moss Side. The revised plan meant that the capacity for the
Games in 2002 was 38,000 which then rose to 48,000 in 2003 when it was handed over to
Manchester City football club.

Construction of the stadium took 3,000 workers just over 2 years to complete and was handed over
to the organisers four months ahead of the games. The Commonwealth Games was a spectacular
success both for British athletes and the City of Manchester. However, there was no sentiment
shown when the bulldozers moved in just hours after the closing ceremony. The track was removed,
a third tier of seating was added and the central pitch was lowered. The conversion costs of £30
million were met by the football club.

This plan was not without criticism, as there were many calls by leading athletes for a large athletics
stadium to be kept. However, the stadium from both Sydney and Atlanta Olympics became rugby
and baseball grounds respectively. The Manchester Stadium has also been used as a concert venue
and has a capacity for 60,000 fans, one of Europe’s largest open air concert venues.

In 2010, an application was granted to expand the capacity to 60,000 for football fans. In 2002 the
Manchester Commonwealth stadium had two tiers of seating, but after the stadium’s conversion to
a football ground, it had three tiers of seating. There are 2,000 parking spaces at the stadium itself
with a further 8,000 spaces provided locally, there are 2 train stations within a half hour walk of the
ground and for concerts and special events a bus service is set up. The stadium is used twice weekly
during the football season, hosts conferences, major sporting events and even weddings.

Sources:

http://www.gameslegacy.co.uk/cgi-bin/index.cgi/30

http://www.football-rumours.com/manchester_stadium.htm

Questions:

1. How has long-term planning affected the final result of the City of Manchester stadium?

2. Why was the original capacity for the Commonwealth Games stadium reduced from 60,000 to
38,000?
3. What other large facilities have changed use form their original purpose and have they been as
successful as the City of Manchester Stadium?