page_title: Maine Road
section_title: The move to the City of Manchester Stadium
hierarchical_section_title: Maine Road / The move to the City of Manchester Stadium
caption_attribution_description: English: Maine Road Football Ground Former home of Manchester City FC being demolished
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: 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.
caption: Maine Road Football Ground being demolished
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