The Stadium Debate

What has annoyed me and many others this week though, has been the reaction of several leading English athletes to the fate of the City of Manchester Stadium once the games are over. Anger has been expressed by the likes of Jonathon Edwards and Paula Radcliffe that the running track will be ripped up and the Stadium completed to become the home of Manchester City Football Club, indeed both are quoted as having said that City should find their own Stadium, elsewhere, if they cannot accommodate Athletics as well.

Well I’m sorry to upset such lauded characters but the City of Manchester Stadium will become the home of Manchester City and for reasons beyond the scope of romantic ideals.

The Government had two opportunities to grant British Athletics the stadium it so desperately wants in Manchester. Firstly it could have backed Manchester’s successful Commonwealth games bid with sufficient funding to build a permanent facility for Athletics in the mould of the current City of Manchester Stadium. It chose not to, leaving the Manchester organising committee with little option other than to approach the Sports Council for lottery funding for the stadium. The Sports Council agreed to Manchester’s request as long as they could find a permanent use for the stadium once the games were over. Athletics wasn’t seen as a viable option because of the small attendance figures for meetings in this country coupled with a minimal number of events throughout the calendar year. Step forward Manchester City Football Club. City have been restricted to a capacity of 34,000 since the advent of all seater stadia. The prospect of a new permanent home within the City was one the club found hard to resist, particularly one with a capacity of 48,000. A deal was struck between Manchester City Council and Manchester City Football Club that would guarantee Manchester it’s games stadium and provide a permanent use for it once the games were over. The football club were involved in the planning from the start and a design was made for a football stadium that could first be used as an Athletics stadium before completion once the games were over. The temporary stand is a legacy to these plans as it enables the diggers to move in the day after the closing ceremony. That is where we are at today and as such Mr Edwards and Mrs Radcliffe should reflect on the fact that if it wasn’t for Manchester City Football Club there wouldn’t have been a City of Manchester Stadium, in it’s present form, for them to compete in.

Despite this, the Government was given a second opportunity to provide British Athletics a permanent home in Manchester when bidding was opened for the new National Stadium. Despite having the best bid in terms of Stadium design and a far superior transport infrastructure, Manchester was once again dismissed in favour of London after London was allowed extra time to beef up it’s bid. Without going into to much detail we are still waiting for that National Stadium years after the bidding process.

My point in all of this is that with Government backing Manchester would in all likelihood be host to an 80,000 capacity National Stadium that could host both Football and Athletics. The Commonwealth Games would have been held there and it would have been a financially viable project with a continued use once the games had concluded. Because of its continued use Manchester City Football Club probably wouldn’t have been approached to be the stadiums tenants.

For people to suggest that only London is a viable venue for major sporting events is nonsense. Was the last Olympic Games held in Australia’s capital, Canberra? Was the one before in Washington? How about the one before that, Madrid perhaps? Not at all, whilst the Government tries to sell you London as the only option, the fact remains that the last three Olympic Games have not been held in the countries capital city So if Jonathan Edwards and Paula Radcliffe want a scapegoat for the future use of The City of Manchester stadium don’t let them point the finger at the Football Club who made the Stadium possible but let them point it at the true villains in all this, the people with too many fingers in the London pie.

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