Maine Road – historical stadium description

When works finished after exactly 300 days, in 1923, it was England's second largest stadium after Wembley. No wonder it soon received the nickname 'Wembley of the North'. It was supposed to match Wembley as architect Charles Swan aimed at 120,000 capacity instead of 80.000 that were built. Of course back then it looked nowhere near the stadium closed in twenty-first century. Only 10,000 people had roof over their heads and spectators around the pitch were all placed on a massive bowl, on land-slope-based stands.

It had several episodes in the history of English football and, of course, was a real temple for Manchester City fans, retaining unmatched club record of 84,569 people at a Stoke City fixture back in 1934.

To date no other club managed to get this kind of crowd at a league game. Only Manchester United came close, but that match was played... here. It was after WWII, when City offered United ground-share as Old Trafford was bombed.