60,332: The Etihad’s Highest

Yesterday Manchester City’s final home game of the season saw the Etihad stage its record crowd for football (any sport actually). It was also City’s highest home attendance for 54 years. The attendance was 60,332 and next year the capacity will increase again as some hospitality areas will then open. The game was also the final emotional match for manager Pep Guardiola, Bernardo Silva and John Stones.

I posted the following the other day, but here is the last home crowd of 60,000+ City attracted at Maine Road (ignoring the Charlton 1985 promotion match which many think was around that figure). There’s also a little bit of history of capacities at City.

The last 60,000+ crowd was for the Manchester Derby on 6/11/1971 and was 63,326. These images are from that game (lots changed since then – the MCFC badge has been redesigned 3 times; Brian Kidd became a Blue, then a Red coach then a Blue coach)

The last 60,000+ home cup attendance was 60,844 v Newcastle on 29/1/1969.

For those wondering about home attendances over 75,000, the last one of those was 76,129 for City ve Everton in the FA Cup on 3/3/1956.

For the first 49 years of its existence the capacity of Maine Road was over 60,000, with the record attendance at the old place being 84,569 (see the story of this elsewhere on this site). Stadium developments, alongside safety changes and legislation, reduced the capacity from that high to about 63,000 by 1967. The Ibrox disaster of 1971 caused a reconsideration of stadium safety and a further reduction and City took the decision to seat the one year old North Stand. That meant the capacity from 1972 was approximately 52,600 (there was an attendance of over 54,000 in 1972-73 which I’ll explain about another day based on an interview – and admission – by the then club secretary Bernard Halford!).

The capacity of Maine Road (based on official records and announcements) over the years is:

1923 – 84,000

1931 – 86,000

1935 – 88,000

1946 – 84,000

1953 – 76,500

1957 – 77,000

1963 – 64,000

1972 – 52,600

1989 – 48,500

1992 – 39,359

1994 – 19,150 (first game of the season; increased gradually throughout the season)

1995 – 31,458

1997 – 32,147

1999 – 34,026

2000 – 34,421

2002 – 35,150

You can read more about Maine Road’s record crowd here:

A National Record – 84,569

And watch Maine Road’s opening game in 1923 here:

Maine Road