Sisk may take up Man City home expansion work

Article posted by Coliseum, July 11^th, 2023

Image: Manchester City

John Sisk & Son is in talks to build the £300m expansion of the Premier League team Manchester City F.C.’s residence – the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England (UK).

‘Construction News’ stated that the Premier League winners are planning to add an upper stand, with 7,700 seats, to the North Stand at their stadium in East Manchester. The proposed expansion would also see a 3,000-capacity fan zone with food and drink outlets, as well as a club shop, museum, office space, and hotel.

Hertford (UK)-based John Sisk & Son Ltd (‘Sisk’) is an innovative, international, engineering, and construction company. It is a progressive business with long-term vision, operating since 1859. Sisk is Ireland’s No 1 provider of construction services with extensive operations across Ireland, the United Kingdom and mainland Europe.

The Manchester City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Manchester (UK) that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark’s, they became the Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894.

The Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England (UK) is the home of the Premier League club Manchester City with a domestic football capacity of 55,000, making it the sixth-largest football stadium in England and ninth-largest in the United Kingdom.

‘Construction News’ further stated that the Laing O’Rourke had been in advanced talks over building the scheme, but walked away from the project last month, having failed to agree to a deal. The Manchester City Football Club subsequently reached out to several other contractors.

Laing O’Rourke is a multinational construction company headquartered in Dartford, England (UK). It was founded in 1978 by Ray O’Rourke. It is the largest privately-owned construction company in the United Kingdom.

Sisk is already working on preliminary groundworks relating to the project, but the Irish contractor is now also in advanced talks about delivering the entire scheme, subject to it receiving planning permission from the Manchester City Council.

The Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a City and Metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England (UK). Manchester is the sixth largest City in England by population. Its City Council is composed of 96 councilors, three for each of the 32 electoral wards of Manchester.

The Manchester City Football Club has previously said the project would involve “over £300m investment in the East Manchester area”, although the value and type of construction contract are unknown.

An official contractor announcement is expected to be made in Autumn, with work starting around November. The works would take the stadium’s capacity up to 61,000.

The football club is hoping to open the newly upgraded North Stand by August 2025, ready for the 2025-2026 seasons, while it expects the hotel and public realm works to be complete by mid-to-late 2026.

The Manchester City revealed plans in 2014 to boost the stadium’s capacity to around 60,000, with its South Stand and North Stand to be enlarged. However, only the proposals to upgrade the South Stand with a third tier have so far come to fruition, with Laing O’Rourke completing the 6,000-seat job.

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