The full report is available online, with the entry on page 9 suggesting that the negotiations will take place between September 2010 and January 2011.
Meanwhile, a Local Development Framework: Core Strategy Pre-Publication Partial Consultation Report, which is available here, reiterates the following with regard to the development:
The vision is to broaden the activities in the area to ensure development opportunities secure the wider regeneration of the surrounding area and deliver maximum benefits for the community. Although it is anticipated further sites will come forward over the plan period, currently there are two sites which are identified as a focus for development:
Land around the City of Manchester Stadium, including the Collar Site to the
east. which provides an opportunity for a visitor attraction of national significance alongside associated developments. A landmark design will be key to delivering such a prestigious development which, together with the existing developments within Eastlands, will not only provide a sense of place but will also ensure integration with the surrounding community. Developments that are predominantly tourism/ leisure based, with office and food and drink will be appropriate together with ancillary retail required to support the principle uses.
Openshaw West site is suitable as a focus for sports related development and also for purposes complementary to the wider vision for the development of Eastlands as a major tourism/leisure destination.
Developments which support the overall vision for this major regeneration initiative on sites within the general environs of Eastlands will be appropriate, provided they do not prejudice other policies within the plan.
Proposals will be expected to show how they contribute to decentralised low
and zero carbon energy infrastructure in the regional centre as set out in the Energy policies.
Any development proposal would be expected to address access, delivery, design and layout, flooding, energy infrastructure and the scale of uses within the area.
3.10 Sportcity has been a catalyst to the regeneration of East Manchester from the 1990’s until now and further development will continue this role. It is an established cluster of sports facilities serving a regional/national sports role. The continued development of this area is supported by the existing and planned infrastructure including Metrolink. The area is located
in the top 5% most deprived communities in England and suffers from high rates of worklessness. The site will offer a range of employment opportunities accessible to local communities.
3.11 Sportcity has been a flagship regeneration project dating back to the 1990's and continue to offer further potential to expand as a focus for sports and leisure uses. The area is both a district centre and focus for major national and regional sporting events. It is characterised by large-scale high quality design structures and buildings. Future development is seeking to build on the locations focal point and hub by creating a visitor destination of national/international significance. To the West of Alan Turing Way new development should ensure design reflects this prominent frontage.
The land around the stadium is that earmarked for the visitor attraction, of course, plus land which is no doubt ripe for further development in due course - i.e the north car parks (rumours of eventual underground parking at that end of the Sportcity site to replace that which will be lost when the land is developed in due course).
This also represents what I think is the first official confirmation concerning the Openshaw West land, which is what I refer to for ease of reference rather than a desire for precision as the Aniline site (there may be parts of the actual Aniline site which aren't included and areas outside the former Aniline site which are). Anyway, it seems that this land is earmarked for sports facilities and development ancillary to the leisure attraction.
So in essence we have official confirmation here of a world class leisure attraction and a major sports facility, plus official word of something that looks very much as though it points to a stadium expansion. In one sense, this gives us nothing we don't know already. Even so, however, I view it as very significant: the official nature of the sources, albeit that they're sneaking the information out rather than shouting it from the rooftops, is a real first.
Anyway, sweeping up the news that's in the domain plus gossip from what we might call well-placed sources, the following represents my best guess as to the current situation:
- The News of the World recently reported that the England 2018 bid team is aware that the capacity of CoMS will be significantly expanded by the time of the tournament. I believe this to be true.
- In terms of capacity, as I've been banging on about for a while, if this is what they do, the aim will be to beat or match Old Trafford, and it's irrelevant whether we'll fill the stadium or not. Partly it's about prestige (we want an iconic ground, and no matter how good it is, the perception will suffer if there's a clearly bigger stadium 4 or 5 miles away) and partly it's about attracting non-City events that currently go to OT, a semi final in 2018 being among them, as I speculated months ago. Again, the NotW picked up on this recently!
- As an aside, I understand that the club did look extremely seriously at a new stadium, but on the north car park, not the Aniline site as some have been suggesting. This isn't going to happen, partly because the Council and Sport England wouldn't let us knock down CoMS, as we wanted to if we built a new one, and insisted on it remaining as a sports and concert venue.
- City author Gary James (I assume most people finding their way here will be familiar with his work - if not, and you follow City, you really owe it to yourself to be) recently stated on the Bluemoon message board that his book on the club's deveopment under the Abu Dhabi owners will now come out next summer. He deined that this anything to do with any anticipated success on the pitch - so by a procvess of elimination, it must relate to infrastructure development.
- There's been some suggestion that the really exciting thing is the training complex, but of course that's a completely subjective judgement so we may not think so when the whole thing is made public.
- I now think that my hope, based on the NEM Masterplan, for an announcement in 2 or 3 weeks from now may be optimistic. I reckon that before the end of the year remains a good bet, however.
- They're talking about an underground link between the Aniline site and the stadium so that players can be transported in from the former on matchday without going through the matchday crowds. This is why I've been banging on about removable pitches (a guess, nothing more) on the Bluemoon site. Pitches could in theory be cultivated on the Aniline site and moved into the stadium via the underground route.
Nothing's set in stone so these things can always change, and not all of the above may pan out. Anyway, little by little we're getting closer to finding out what will be happening at least in terms of the old Super Casino site, the Aniline and the stadium. That, it seems, won't be the end of it, however: then there's the rest of the Sportcity site to wonder about! What interests me there is that if there'd been a new stadium where Lancs CCC were slated to go back in 2005/6 (i.e. the north car parks), and, if it were built, City wanted CoMS demolished because it would waste a big area of the site earmarked for something that isn't a stadium, then presumably ta major facility will end up on the north car parks eventually. So what will it be? The intrigue isn't over yet, then!
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