Etihad Stadium: Remodeling and renovations on Manchester City’s home ground have been going on at intervals for quite some time now. The recent renovation plans include spending of £300 million which will see an increase in their seating capacity. Their seating capacity will reach around 61000 which will make the Manchester City home stadium the third largest stadium in Premier League after Old Trafford and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Follow Premier League News Updates on InsideSport.IN.
The plans include expanding the Etihad Stadium’s North Stand by 7,700 more seats. This will bring up the stadium’s total capacity to around 61000. The only two stadiums with a higher capacity in Premier League are Old Trafford with a capacity of 74310 and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with a capacity of 62850.
Along with adding more seats, the renovation will include building another megastore and a new hotel on the site. However, there has been no information on whether this hotel will be available for the general public to stay in or not. Some additional renovation plans include a museum and a covered fan park which will mainly be for the fans where they can gather on matchdays.
🚨 Manchester City will invest £300m in redeveloping Etihad Stadium, including increasing the capacity to about 61,000.
They want their stadium to be as good as their rivals’!
(Source: @MailSport) pic.twitter.com/SYDF0UAYhl
— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) March 30, 2023
The previous renovations on the stadium included an expansion of the South Stand, forming a new training ground, and a general further modernisation of the stadium premises. The Manchester City Football Academy was opened formally back in 2013 and the state-of-the-art modernized academy has a seating capacity of 7000. The new renovation cost will bring the total money spent on the Etihad Campus to more than £1 billion.
Manchester City club officials sat with local residents and the club fanbase. Their consultation ended on Sunday and the officials are expecting to secure planning permission as soon as possible. Once they get the permit, they have plans to start renovation work in November and plan to finish the work by the beginning of the 2025-26 season.
The designs of Etihad Stadium’s remodelling plans have been done by the famous architectural firm, Populous. past projects by the Populous architectural firm include Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium and India’s largest cricket stadium. As per their plans, the renovation will also include building more restaurants and bars which will introduce around 2600 more jobs at the stadium.
Manchester City currently occupies the second position in the Premier League with an 8-point gap from the first-placed Arsenal. In the Champions League, they still have a chance of winning the European trophy. As per their current form, they will remain to be a part of European football in near future. Hence, they plan on continuing the renovation work without disrupting regular matchday activities and finishing as soon as possible.
