Another Attendance Record

On this day (18 October) in 2003 Manchester City scored 6 goals at their new home, the City of Manchester Stadium (now Etihad Stadium), for the first time. It was also the 6th consecutive record attendance for the new ground. There was also a sending off for Shaun Wright-Phillips. It was an odd day in some ways but you can read more below:

Although the game was 1-1 at half-time, City defeated Bolton 6-2 at the City of Manchester stadium.  The 6^th was scored by Claudio Reyna in the 84^th minute.The Bolton victory was notable from a stadium perspective as it also marked the sixth consecutive highest record breaking attendance for the venue.  Due to seating reconfigurations taking place throughout the early part of the season, a new record crowd for the stadium was set for the first five League games.  

The first competitive game (TNS, UEFA Cup) saw 34,103 – capacity had been restricted to about 35,000 due to safety legislation – followed by a record in every one of the following five League games staged – 46,287 (Portsmouth), 46,436 (Arsenal), 46,687 (Villa), 46,842 (Spurs) & 47,101 (Bolton).  Each of those matches was watched by a capacity attendance.  Over the following months further changes, such as reducing the size of the Directors’ Box, increased capacity further and the record crowd was broken again when Leeds United came on 22^nd December (47,126) and then Liverpool (47,201) six days later.  Ultimately, the Chelsea game on 28^th February became the season’s best with an attendance of 47,304.