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 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) east of the city centre on derelict land that was the site of Bradford Colliery,[18] 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.[19] For the February 1993 bid the city council submitted another 80,000-capacity stadium design[10] produced by design consultants Arup Associates, the firm that helped select the Eastlands site. On 23 September 1993, the games were awarded to Sydney, but the following year Manchester submitted the same scheme design to the Millennium Commission as a "Millennium Stadium", only to have this proposal rejected. Undeterred, Manchester City Council subsequently bid to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, once again proposing the same site along with downsized stadium plans derived from the 2000 Olympics bid, and this time were successful. In 1996, this same planned stadium competed with Wembley Stadium to gain funding to become the new national stadium,[20] 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[21] 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 CoMS 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.[22] However, Manchester City Council did not have the money to facilitate movable seating and Manchester City were lukewarm about the idea.[23] Stadium architects Arup Sport believed history demonstrated that maintaining a rarely used athletics track often does not work with football – and cited examples such as the Stadio delle Alpi and the Olympic Stadium with both Juventus and Bayern Munich moving to new stadiums less than 40 years after inheriting them.[24] 2002 Commonwealth Games[edit] See also: 2002 Commonwealth Games
The stadium's foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Tony Blair in December 1999,[25] and construction began in January 2000.[26] The stadium was designed by Arup Associates and constructed by Laing Construction at a cost of approximately £112 million,[12][14] £77 million of which was provided by Sport England, with the remainder funded by Manchester City Council.[27] 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.[28] 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'.[29] 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[30] records (six men's and ten women's) were set in the stadium,[31] eight of which (three men's and five women's records) are still extant after three subsequent series of Games in 2006, 2010 and 2014. 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),[32] and it was the world's first multi-sport tournament to include a limited number of full medal events for elite athletes with a disability (EAD).[33][34] 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.[32] Stadium conversion[edit]
Sections of the track were removed and relaid at other athletics venues,[35] 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[36] and added 23,000 permanent seats, increasing the capacity of the converted stadium by 7,000[37] to approximately 48,000.[11] Manchester City F.C. moved to the ground in time for the start of the 2003–04 season.[13] 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;[12][14] and the installation of bars, restaurants and corporate entertainment areas throughout the stadium being funded by the football club at a cost of £20 million.[12][14] The Games had made a small operating surplus, and Sport England agreed that this could be reinvested in converting the athletics warm-up track adjacent to the main stadium into the 6,000 seat Manchester Regional Arena at a cost of £3.5 million.
The stadium is owned by Manchester City Council and leased by the football club on a 'fully repairing' basis. All operating, maintenance and future capital costs are borne by the club; who consequently receive all revenues from stadium users. The 2008 takeover made the football club one of the wealthiest in the world,[38] prompting suggestions that it could consider buying the stadium outright.[39] Manchester City signed an agreement with Manchester City Council in March 2010 to allow a £1 billion redevelopment led by architect Rafael Viñoly.[40] 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.[41] 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.[42] This new agreement occurred as part of a standard five-year review of the original lease and it amounts to an approximate £1 million annual increase in council revenues from the stadium.[42] During 2011–14, the club sold all 36,000 of its allocated season tickets each season[43] and experienced an average match attendance that is very close to its maximum seating capacity (see table in previous 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.[44] Construction commenced on the South Stand in April 2014 and was completed for the start of the 2015–16 season.[45] A final phase of expansion, which received planning approval at the same time as the others but remains unscheduled, would have added 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 would then be reconfigured as premium seating associated with new hospitality bar areas. Depending on the preferred design option, this final phase could bring the stadium's total seating capacity up to approximately 63,000, making the Etihad Stadium the nation's third largest capacity club ground. Behind Old Trafford and (potentially) the London Stadium, but marginally greater than Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.[46]