The Ongoing Development of the Etihad Stadium

Back in June 2019 I detailed how Manchester City were involved in plans for the ongoing redevelopment of the site around the stadium. Since then, things have continued to gather pace.

Since moving to the Etihad Stadium back in 2003, Manchester City have sought to lead the redevelopment of the area around the site. For many years it has been something of an industrial wasteland, with large areas of old abandoned industrial heritage.

City under the clear leadership of owner Sheikh Mansour have acquired neighbouring patches of land and have contributed to the re-design of the area. The City Football Academy complex is one stark example but there have also been initiatives alongside the local council to develop and improve local housing provision and local transport infrastructure.

The next phase of the development has for some time been about attracting more businesses and defacto employment opportunities to the local area. Much of this has centred upon the idea of making the Etihad campus site busy on more days so as to allow businesses like hotels and restaurants to thrive alongside it. This idea is supplemented by additional residential development – an attempt to create a thriving local neighbourhood on the edge of the centre of the city.

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Back in June 2019 it was announced that the local council had published a revised area development plan which gave in effect the green light to the next phase of this intended development. Subsequently it was announced that a US firm called the Oak View Group had been commissioned to develop a new indoor arena on the site.

The intention is to build a large 20,000 seater indoor arena adjacent to the Etihad Stadium and this venue will hold pop concerts, theatre performances, basketball matches etc and will open for around 150 nights a year – when coupled with the existing Etihad Stadium, this will mean there is enough of a thriving centre upon which to develop the rest of the site.

The proposed location of the arena is on the left of Joe Mercer Way which links the existing Blue Car Parks to the Etihad Stadium. Apparently the arena will be called the “Etihad Arena” and will cost around £300 million to build. The name probably gives away where the investment is coming from because it would seem that Sheikh Mansour is funding much of the local redevelopment.

Currently there is some ongoing local consultation with residents and the initial architect designs are being displayed. There are likely to be some objections with regards to traffic congestion which may require some further investment to solve. In addition the owners of the existing Manchester Arena have objected but Oak View maintain that other Cities are able to maintain more than one such venue.

Consultation will continue in the run up to Christmas but a planning application to deliver the strategy could be in place by early next year and if everything goes to plan, given the investment is already in place, work could actually begin to transform the area very quickly indeed.

Visitors to the site at the moment will see some drilling rigs are present which are being used to test soil and underground structures as part of the planning process.

As this development continues, it is worth remembering that alongside the arena is the plan to create a retail and restaurant corridor linking the arena and stadium, supported by new service and leisure developments like hotels. There is also the plan to increase the existing capacity of the Etihad Stadium up to 63,000 from it’s current 55,000.

All in all this continues to be an exciting time for Manchester City who seem to be matching their domination on the pitch by the redevelopment of a whole City. What a time to be a fan!