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Football club Manchester City has won approval to redevelop a stand at its stadium in Manchester, UK, to increase capacity while adding a museum and hotel.

Designed by architecture studio Populous, the redevelopment of the Etihad Stadium’s North Stand will increase the venue’s capacity by more than 5,000.

The expansion will also include the creation of a large entertainment and hospitality building connected to the stand. Flanking a covered square, it will contain a 400-bed hotel, a museum and a club shop.

The development of the North Stand, which received planning approval last week, will see a large upper tier added above the existing lower tier that will be retained.

A sky bar with views of the pitch will be integrated into the top of the stand, which will be topped with a “stadium roof-walk experience”. This is similar to the one Populous created above the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London, which opened in 2019.

The redevelopment is the latest expansion to Etihad Stadium, which is home to Premier League football club Manchester City. It was originally designed by Arup as a 38,000-seat venue to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Following the games it was restructured into a 48,000-seat football stadium.

Populous previously added an expanded South Stand to the building in 2015, which increased the stadium’s capacity to 54,600.

The current expansion is set to be completed in 2026. It is being built as part of the redevelopment of the Etihad Campus, where Populous is also creating the Co-op Live arena that will open next year.

“For Populous, it is extremely exciting to witness the development of this project, located just a stone’s throw away from another of our projects, the Co-op Live arena,” said Populous senior principal Mike Trice.

“These ambitious ventures represent two of Manchester’s greatest loves — football and music, and will bring significant benefits to the local area by drawing in visitors and delivering further regeneration.”

Architecture studio Populous also recently unveiled the largest purpose-built soccer stadium in the US and is currently designing an “intimate yet intimidating” stadium for NFL team Buffalo Bills and a solar-powered arena as a “landmark for Munich”.

The imagery is courtesy of Populous.

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