The series of reports under the “Elite Club” rubric covering the most advanced stadia in the world is continued by the story about one of the top arenas in Great Britain.

The Donbass Arena and the City of Manchester Stadium are the counterparts in a way. Both arenas were designed by the global engineering firm Arup. However, the English stadium was initially meant as the track-and-field one since Manchester city counted on its future selection as the host city for the Olympics 2000. But the Millenium Games have gone to Sydney causing postponed construction and late commissioning in the summer of 2002, when the stadium hosted the Commonwealth Games. 

In the summer of 2003, the City of Manchester Stadium turned into the home ground of Manchester City FC. Though the club had to spend GBP 20m in order to rebuild the track-and-field stadium into a football one. The transformation design was also tailored by Arup. By performing various engineering tricks the stadium capacity was increased to nearly 48,000, while the seats were brought as close to the pitch as possible. Now the new arena is the fourth in terms of capacity amongst the FA Premier League stadiums and the twelfth in the UK.

The roof design makes it possible to completely cover the stands on the match days, and on non-match ones – it is partially retracted for better light penetration and sufficient pitch ventilation.

The stadium’s stands arrangement is quite uncommon. The interior of the City of Manchester Stadium is a continuous oval bowl, with three tiers of seating at the sides, and two tiers at each end. Initially, all sides of the stadium were named by compass direction (North Stand and South Stand for the ends, East Stand and West Stand for the sides). In February 2004, following a vote by fans, the West Stand was renamed the Colin Bell Stand in honour of the former City’s player. The South Stand was officially named the Key 103 Stand for sponsorship reasons from 2003 to 2006. A portion of the North Stand is designated the Family Stand as it is primarily reserved for supporters with children. The East Stand is unofficially known to fans as the Kippax after the corresponding stand at Maine Road.

By the way, the ownership rights for Manchester City’s home arena belong to the city council which has leased the stadium to the football club for the period of… 250 years.

During the seven years, the City of Manchester Stadium hosted a number of important international matches. it hosted the 2008 UEFA Cup Final between Scottish Rangers and Russian Zenit St Petersburg.

Outside the football season the stadium hosts occasional concerts, and is one of the UK's largest music venues, having a maximum capacity of 60,000 for performances, the most iconic of which has been the following: Oasis, U2, Elton John, Bon Jovi.

 

Donbass Arena Media Centre

Photos: stadionwelt.de, worldstadiums.com, wikipedia.org, www.mcfc.co.uk

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