page_title: Maine Road
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Maine Road / Early years
caption_attribution_description: Maine Road, Manchester, shortly before the final game at the stadium.
context_page_description: Maine Road was a large football stadium in Moss Side, Manchester, England. It was home to Manchester City F.C. from when it was built in 1923 until 2003. It takes its name from the street it was built on which also had a remarkable history. The street was first known as Dog Kennel Lane. It formed part of an ancient route south of Manchester.
  When first opened, the stadium was the largest club ground in England and the second largest in the country after Wembley Stadium. Maine Road's record attendance was set in 1934, when 84,569 people attended an FA Cup tie between Manchester City and Stoke City. It is the record for an English club ground. The following February the stadium recorded the highest Football League attendance. This stood at 79,491 for a game against Arsenal. The record has since been beaten for the League, but it is still Manchester City's largest League crowd. The design of the ground changed several times over its 80-year history. Before it closed, Maine Road was an all-seater stadium, with a capacity of 35,150.
  The 2002-03 season was Manchester City's last at Maine Road. The last match was played on 11 May 2003.
context_section_description: The first match at Maine Road took place on 25 August 1923, and saw 58,159 fans watch the home side beat Sheffield United 2-1.
  
  The first changes to the ground took place in 1931, when the corner between the Main Stand and the Platt Lane end at the south of the ground was rebuilt to incorporate a roof. The highest attendance at an English football game of any type at a club ground was at Maine Road on the March 3, 1934, when Manchester City played Stoke City in front of 84,569 fans in the 6th round of the FA Cup. Changes at the Platt Lane end took place in 1935, extending the terracing and providing a roof for the full stand. This marked the peak capacity of the ground, estimated at around 88,000. Further changes were planned, but were suspended when Manchester City were relegated from Division One in 1938, and abandoned when World War II broke out. 
  The stadium was shared by Manchester United for a period after the Second World War, since Manchester United's Old Trafford ground had been partially destroyed during the Manchester Blitz. United paid City £5,000 per season, plus a share of gate receipts. The highest attendance for a League game at Maine Road occurred during this period, when 83,260 people watched Manchester United play Arsenal on January 17, 1948. This figure is a national record for a League game.
  Floodlights were installed in 1953, and in 1957, prompted by the hosting of two FA Cup semi-finals in successive years, the side facing the Main Stand (which until that time was generally known as the Popular Side) was redeveloped and named The Kippax Stand after a nearby street. Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, the Kippax became the part of the ground where the club's most vociferous fans congregated. In 1963, benches were installed at the Platt Lane end, meaning that Maine Road had more seats than any other English club ground of the time. The next major redevelopment came in the 1970s, with the construction of the North Stand, a cantilevered stand which remained in place until the closure of Maine Road. The 1980s saw ambitious plans for improvements: however, these plans were shelved due to financial pressures after the Main Stand roof had been replaced at a cost of £1 million.
caption: Maine Road on 11 May 2003, shortly before Manchester City's final game at the stadium
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "EXIF/JPEG image with thumb", "Image Make": "", "Image Model": "1.3M CMOS Camera", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "v22.4.21", "Image DateTime": "2000:01:02 03:48:33", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "294", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "704", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5564", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/562", "EXIF FNumber": "3", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2000:01:02 03:48:33", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2000:01:02 03:48:33", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "921/100", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1280", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1024", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "556"}