Do Manchester City Own The Etihad Stadium?

At one point, when Manchester was vying to host the Eastlands property was being considered. The proposal failed, and a considerably smaller stadium was elected to serve as the site for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2002.

Capacity was reduced from 80,000 to 35,000, with a portion of the drop attributed to temporary seats. The cost came to 110 million pounds. The initial phase of the redesign began immediately after the catastrophe.

During construction, the athletic track and field were removed. The ground level was lowered to make room for an extra deck of seats, specifically for football.

The temporary stand in front of one goal has been demolished and replaced with a permanent structure that is similar to the one at the opposite end of the field. As a result, Manchester City was able to move from its old home, Maine Road. This cost an extra 30 million pounds and made the stadium a good place for the team to play.

In 2011, Etihad Airways paid 150 million pounds for the name rights to the stadium, setting a new record for a naming rights agreement in British football at the time.

With a capacity of 55,000, the City of Manchester Stadium (commonly called the Etihad Stadium for sponsorship deals) is the fifth-largest home stadium in the Premier League. It also hosts Manchester City FC.

For 80 years, Manchester City Football Club had been based at Maine Road, but in August 2003, they relocated to their stadium, then known as City of Manchester Stadium. The City of Manchester Stadium, as it was called then, was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

The stadium was extended for the first time since it became the home of Manchester City FC in the 2014-2015 season. As a result, approximately 6,000 more seats have been added to the south stand as a result of the addition of the massive third deck. In the future, a similar expansion will be made behind the northern goal. To go along with the one that is already there.

Just like Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena, Arup Sport designed this stadium while Laing Construction constructed it. At The Etihad, Zenit St. Petersburg won their UEFA Cup final match against Rangers FC in 2008.

For some reason, many do not know if Manchester City Football Club truly owns the stadium. That is why this article is dedicated to helping readers identify the true owner of the Etihad Stadium.

The Ownership Of The Etihad Stadium

Even though Manchester City Football Club has made the Etihad Stadium famous around the globe, Manchester City Council still owns the freehold of the Etihad facility, which means that the club does not have ownership of the stadium.

This implies that the council has complete ownership of the land and all of the structures on it. Man City FC, on the other hand, has only leased the stadium.

Manchester City Council happens to be the local government body for Manchester, which is both a city and a metropolitan borough in England. Manchester is the sixth most populous city in the United Kingdom.

A rise in ticket sales and the sale of all 36,000 season tickets for the 2010–11 season led the club to look into ways to expand the stadium's capacity so more fans could come.

In October 2010, Manchester City FC and Manchester City Council re-negotiated the terms of the stadium lease. The council now gets a flat fee of £3 million per year, rather than getting half of the money from ticket sales of more than 35,000.

There was a previous method that brought in about £2 million a year for the council. The new, higher-valued single payment deal of £3 million showed that the club was thinking about expanding its stadium.

After the re-negotiation, the stadium expansion was completed, and the seating capacity of the Etihad Stadium was increased to 55,000. This has since helped the team accommodate more fans for a flat fee of £3 million.

And this paid off, as Manchester City Football Club had its highest attendance of 54,693 people in 2016. This was recorded during a match against Leicester City on the 6th of February, 2016.

It was in 1894 that Ardwick A.F.C. was disbanded and reorganised as Manchester City Football Club Ltd., which is how the club got its start in the first place.

Recently, the finances and ownership of the club since then have been unstable, with a succession of owners experiencing widely disparate financial fortunes, which has been consistent with the club's uneven form on the field.

Current owners include City Football Group, a British-based holding company, with the primary part held by Abu Dhabi United Group, and a smaller group of owners from the United States and China, who together control 24 per cent of the club.

Because of Sheikh Mansour's ownership stake in the club, the club has been majority-owned by him since August 4, 2008. He is one of the richest owners of football clubs.

How to Locate The Etihad Stadium

The Etihad Stadium is on Rowsley Street in Manchester, and it's very close to the city's main roads. To travel to Etihad Stadium from Piccadilly Station, catch a train going in the direction of Droylsden and alight at the Etihad Campus stop, which is just across the street from the stadium. The trip will take between 8 and 10 minutes.

However, there are a great number of buses that run between the stadium and surrounding areas. Following each match, buses will leave from Ashton New Road, which is next to the South Stand.

If you are going to the Etihad Football Stadium by car, the M60 would be the best route to use to get to the stadium. You can take junction 22 or go through junction 24 and follow the signs towards the city centre east. Then follow the signs to Sportcity for the rest of the way.