Manchester City have been granted planning permission to extend the Etihad stadium to more than 60,000 seats.
The expansion will make it the second biggest stadium in the Premier League behind Old Trafford.
Manchester City Council has confirmed that City’s planning application to add up 14,500 extra seats to the Etihad has been granted.
The Etihad currenly holds 47,670 seats, some way short of Manchester United’s Old Trafford home which holds nearly 76,000.
City announced last summer that they intended to extend the Etihad stadium, and submitted a formal planning application in November.
This latest development is the latest effort by the club’s owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group, to help turn Manchester City into a world footballing superpower.
Last month it was revealed that City had climbed to sixth in the Deloitte Football Money League for the 2012/13 season.
City leapfrogged English rivals Arsenal and Chelsea for the first time thanks to a 17% revenue growth of £39.9million to £271million.
Bitter rivals Manchester United fell out of the top three for the first time in the history of the rich lists, swapping places with the European champions, Bayern Munich, who had previously sat in fourth place.
City’s owners will be hoping that the new stadium extensions will help further bridge the gap between them and their city rivals.
According to the planning application, the stadium expansion is expected to created 160 temporary jobs during construction and a further 110 matchday jobs once the work is finished.
Image courtesy of LiamUK (talk), with thanks.
