The Manchester City Thread

Bullshit they have.

Anyone that thinks City regularly have 47k people are probably stupid enough to believe that we had over 70k turn up against Cluj when the Stadium was half empty, after all, that was the official attendance.

City will need a 60k seater stadium seater eventually, but until that demand is there it makes absolutely no sense to do anything more than make plans. Otherwise its just wasting money.

I think it's part of the plan to bump start City as a major club by a heavy investment in infrastructure. I think it's a move they'll make regardless of demand but not one that a club would make unless it was part of that plan.

I don't think it's a simple case of 'we need more space because we have too many fans to fit in the current stadium', cynically I would suggest it's part of a plan to use creative official attendance figures to increase match day revenue and channel money into the club through means which are FFP approved because there's no way City will regularly fill a 60k seater stadium for at least 3 or 4 more seasons (and arguably more than that).

Seriously? The powers that be at Manchester City are skewering the attendance figures in order to justify a stadium expansion that gives them a better chance of complying with FFP?

Listen to yourself.

How would giving away free tickets funnel money into the club/or give City more financial clout. And if they are going to meet FFP easily, then what is the point? This would mean City's owners would be spending a lot of money to lie in their accounts, which I'd imagine could get them a punishment from UEFA.

It just seems like a pretty mad idea and you don't seem to have any evidence to substantiate such claims, aside from seeing empty seats at the Etihad on TV.

Aside from the fact that City's bumper Etihad sponsorship deal with their owners half brothers air line company clearly suggests that City are using methods not dissimilar to this to bypass the fact money can't be put in to the club directly.

Alongside the fact they are the only club in a recession who would seek to increase their stadium capacity when demand is questionable. They're clearly not doing it intending to lose money, so you have to wonder how they're intending to make the endeavor profitable, because, I can't see how City are currently filling a 60k stadium apart from against other big clubs when they more often than not struggle to do that in a 47k one.

I just don't think you have any conclusive quantitative data to support your points. Is demand questionable, aside from supposed empty seats at the stadium? I'm not a fan of City's spending habits, and I hope FFP actually forces them to act more responsibly financially, but this conspiracy theory you seem to have created doesn't really seem to have any real credibility. City are fast becoming one of the biggest clubs in world football and I think it's perfectly likely they could fill out a 60,000-seater stadium.

Although for a late tackle on Sinclair, he probably shoulda just let it go. Not really gonna miss Sinclair if he gets injured are they..