By 1990, some areas of the ground looked antiquated, and the Platt Lane stand was demolished in 1992. Its place was taken by the all-seater "Umbro Stand" that also incorporated executive boxes, and was opened in March 1993. The stand was renamed back to the "Platt Lane Stand" in the late 1990s.
The era of standing accommodation at Maine Road came to an end in May 1994 as the stadium became all-seater to comply with the requirements of the Taylor Report with the demolition of the "Kippax Street Terrace". The final match where standing was permitted took place on 30 April 1994, Chelsea the visitors for a 2–2 draw. Immediately prior to demolition the capacity of the Kippax terrace was 18,300. A three-tier stand was built in its place, holding nearly 14,000 spectators, and on its completion in October 1995 it was the tallest stand in the country.
The new stand was an impressive modern facility, but it also emphasised the haphazard nature in which the ground had been redeveloped, as all four sides were of differing heights and construction styles. There were further plans for expansion which would have taken the stadium's capacity to 45,000, but these were put on hold following City's relegation from the Premier League in 1996.
There were plans for further expansion at Maine Road to take the capacity to 45,000 all-seated, but these were abandoned in favour of a move to the City of Manchester Stadium that was being constructed for the Commonwealth Games in 2002.
The final competitive match before the closure of the stadium took place on 11 May 2003. Manchester City ended the Maine Road era with a 1-0 defeat to Southampton, with Michael Svensson scoring the stadium's last goal. The final match was followed by short performances by musical acts Badly Drawn Boy and Doves.
City's final goal at the stadium was scored on 26 April 2003 by Marc-Vivien Foe, who died on 26 June that year from an undetected heart condition while representing the Cameroon national football team.
Toward the end of Maine Road's lifespan there were proposals for other sports teams to make use of the stadium following City's relocation; Stockport County once expressed interest in moving there from Edgeley Park, and in December 2000 Sale Sharks rugby union club was offered a lease for the stadium. However, none of the proposals came to fruition.
An auction of the ground's fixtures and fittings took place in July 2003, raising £100,000, which was donated to community projects in the Moss Side area, which was undergoing a lengthy regeneration process. Demolition began in late 2003, taking seven months. Two years later the go-ahead was given for a new housing development to take part on the site, consisting of 474 homes.
For long periods of its history Maine Road had the widest pitch in England. However, the width was changed several times by managers wishing to alter the pitch size to suit their style of play. In the final season before the ground was closed, the pitch size was 107 x 71 metres (116.5 x 78 yards).
Maine Road hosted two England internationals, the first was a 3-0 defeat of Wales on November 13, 1946 and the second a 9-2 win over Northern Ireland on November 16, 1949, England's first ever World Cup qualifier. In addition, A number of wartime internationals were held at the ground. Maine Road was also the venue for a number of rugby league matches, hosting the rugby league championship final eleven times between 1938 and 1956.
The stadium was used for several scenes in the 1948 motion picture "Cup-tie Honeymoon". More recently, it was featured in the 2000 film "There's Only One Jimmy Grimble" and the 2003 ITV drama "The Second Coming", which starred Christopher Eccleston.
Maine Road has also played host to a number of rock concerts, including The Rolling Stones, Simple Minds, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Bryan Adams, Jean Michel Jarre, Dire Straits, David Bowie & Guns N' Roses.
In 1974, teen idol David Cassidy played the stadium.
The most high profile concert held at Maine Road was that of Mancunian band Oasis (themselves avowed Manchester City fans) in April 1996, a performance which was later released as a video, "Oasis:...There and Then".
Prince also played the stadium twice in the early 1990s.
Maine Road also gives its name to a non-league football club, Maine Road F.C.. The club, who currently play in the North West Counties Football League Division One, was founded by a group of Manchester City supporters in 1955. The club previously based its headquarters at the social club adjoining Maine Road.
Rockefeller
Rockefeller might mean:
It may also refer to:
List of English football stadiums by capacity
This is a list of English football stadiums. It is ranked in descending order of capacity.
There are a large number of football stadiums and pitches in England and Wales, so this list does not have all of them. It includes:
A person who has watched a match at the stadiums of all 92 Premier League and Football League clubs in England may apply to join The 92 Club.
Notes
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American businessman. He controlled an oil company called Standard Oil, which sold most of the oil in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the first billionaire in world history. He is considered to be the richest man in American history, and one of the richest men in the history of the world.
Today, the money he made would be worth more than half a trillion dollars. He used the large amounts of money he had to do various things, including starting the University of Chicago, funding important medical research, and giving the land for the General Assembly Building of the United Nations.
Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York. He died in Ormond Beach, Florida from arteriosclerosis, aged 97.
2008 UEFA Cup Final
The 2008 UEFA Cup Final was the 37th final of the UEFA Cup. It is UEFA's second-tier club football tournament. The match was played at the City of Manchester Stadium. It is the home stadium of Manchester City F.C., in Manchester, England, at 20:45 CEST (19:45 local time) on 14 May 2008.
The match was played by Zenit St. Petersburg of Russia and Rangers of Scotland. It was called a battle of Rangers coaching staff, with ex-boss Dick Advocaat, currently the manager of Zenit against current boss Walter Smith. Smith has had two times as manager of Rangers. Both coaches led the Rangers to the Scottish domestic treble; Smith in 1993 and Advocaat in 1999.
Zenit won the match 2–0. They had goals from Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyryanov. It was their first UEFA Cup title. It made them only the second Russian side to win the competition, after CSKA Moscow in 2004–05.
The logo of the final shows a picture of the City of Manchester Stadium, created by English artist Liam Spencer. It was first shown at a ceremony in the stadium on December 6.
Zenit and Michel Platini asked the British government to ease visa procedures for Russian fans, despite Russia having cancelled visas for British fans travelling to 2008 UEFA Champions League Final in Moscow. However, the Director for British Visa Services for the CIS, Mandy Ivemy, said that "for the U.K. government, visas and biometric checks are a vital part of immigration policy, and we are not prepared to waive them".
Meanwhile, there was a mass flow of Rangers fans into Manchester. Over a hundred thousand supporters 'invaded' the city despite the club's official ticket allocation being just 13,000 and police requests for fans to stay at home. The influx of people resulted in there being no vacant hotel rooms in a twenty-mile radius of the city and the total amount of money that was ploughed into the local economy was estimated to be around £25 million.