Background 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 west of Manchester city centre. 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 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 but the money was used to redevelop Wembley. 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, at the time, the United Kingdom still lacked plans for a large athletics venue due to the capability of installing an athletics track having been dropped from the designs for a rebuilt Wembley Stadium. Had either of the two larger stadium proposals developed by Arup been agreed for funding, then Manchester would have had a venue capable of being adapted to hosting large-scale athletics events through the use of
movable seating. Sport England wished to avoid creating a
white elephant, so they insisted that the City Council agree to undertake and fund extensive work to convert the venue from a track-and-field arena to a football stadium, thereby ensuring its long-term financial viability. Sport England hoped either Manchester City Council or Manchester City F.C. would provide the extra £50 million required to convert the stadium to a 65,000-seater athletics and footballing venue with movable seating. However, Manchester City Council did not have the money to facilitate movable seating and Manchester City F.C. were lukewarm about the idea.
2002 Commonwealth Games of 80,000-seat stadium used in the
Bids for the 2000 Summer Olympics. The proposed stadium was a larger design, with more access ramps and masts. 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 and constructed by
Laing Construction at a cost of approximately £112 million, 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 the northern end; initially providing a seating capacity for the Games of 38,000, subsequently extended to 41,000 through the installation of additional temporary trackside seating along the east and south stands. 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, delivered to her in an
electronic baton, and 'declared the Commonwealth Games open'. During the following ten days of competition, the stadium hosted the
track and field events and all the
rugby sevens matches. Sixteen new Commonwealth Games track and field records (six men's and ten women's) were set in the stadium. Prior to the
2012 Summer Olympics held in London, the 2002 Games was the largest multi-sport event ever to be staged in the United Kingdom, eclipsing the earlier London
1948 Summer Olympics in numbers of teams and competing athletes (3,679), In terms of number of participating nations, it is still the largest Commonwealth Games in history, featuring 72 nations competing in 281 events across seventeen (fourteen individual and three team) sports.
Stadium conversion Sections of the track were removed and relaid at other athletics venues, and the internal ground level was lowered to make way for an additional tier of seating, on terracing already constructed then buried for the original configuration. The three temporary stands with a total capacity of 16,000 were 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 to approximately 48,000. 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; 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, obtaining the naming rights to the stadium in return for 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. During 2011–14, the club sold all 36,000 of its allocated season tickets each season and experienced an average match attendance that is very close to its maximum seating capacity (see table in subsequent section). Consequently, during the
2014–15 season, an expansion of the stadium was undertaken. The South Stand was extended with the addition of a third tier which, in conjunction with an additional three rows of pitch side seating, increased stadium capacity to approximately 55,000. Construction commenced on the South Stand in April 2014 and was completed by the start of the 2015–16 season.
Future plans A final phase of expansion, which received planning approval at the same time as the others, will add a matching third tier of seats to the North Stand. In November 2018, the club consulted with season ticket holders on possible alternative configurations for this expansion, including proposals for a still larger two-tier North Stand without executive boxes or corporate hospitality lounges, and possibly with areas convertible to
safe standing. The full length of the second tiers in the East and West stands will then be reconfigured as premium seating associated with new hospitality bar areas. This final phase will bring the stadium's total seating capacity up to approximately 62,000, making the Etihad Stadium the nation's fourth largest capacity club ground, after
Old Trafford, the
London Stadium and the
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Eventually, a £300 million redevelopment programme of the existing North Stand was approved in April 2023. It entails the construction of a new hotel, covered fan park for 6,000 people and increased net capacity to 61,474 (allowing for seats blocked off for fan separation), with construction expected to commence in 2023 and be completed by the summer of 2025. The second tier at the north end of the stadium will be extended with a further 7,900 seats; while a 'Skybar', linked to the hotel and with premium seating for 450, will surmount the whole. ==Architecture==