Construction of 8,000 new seats set to start in autumn
Manchester city councillors have approved a Populous-designed expansion of the Etihad stadium, with construction slated to begin in November.
Treble winners Manchester City want to increase the number of seats in the north stand by 7,900, taking overall capacity to 61,958.
The Etihad currently seats 54,000 after the expansion of its South Stand by contractor Laing O’Rourke in 2014 with the new extension making it the UK’s eighth largest stadium.
As well as a new upper tier for the north stand, the redevelopment will see a nine-storey, 391-bed hotel, with an attached restaurant, and the construction of a roof-walk attraction.
An existing club shop will be demolished and replace with an eight-storey building which will house the new club shop, the ticket office, a museum, an interactive visitor experience and 4,000 sq m of workspace for small businesses and startups.
A covered City Square fan zone, with a capacity of 3,000 and food and drink outlets, is also planned.
According to a planning report, the £300m investment would “make the stadium and campus a year-round visitor destination”.
The report said the scheme would complement the facilities provided by the COOP Live arena, a 23,500-capacity venue next door which is currently under construction and which has also been designed by Populous.
The North Stand expansion is expected to complete for the beginning of the 2025/26 football season, while the hotel, workspace and public realm works would complete in mid-2026.
While the scheme’s backers include local MP Lucy Powell, there were five objections to approval, which focused on the light and noise impact on nearby residents and on the alleged poor design quality of the hotel building, which objectors described as looking like “a 1960s polytechnic” and “less inspiring than a Travelodge”.
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