Passengers travelling to the Etihad Stadium on matchdays will be greeted by special next stop announcements as Manchester City stars will feature on the PA system announcing the stops! Three players and manager Roberto Mancini have kindly agreed to record the messages which will make their debut on Sunday 17th February when Manchester City entertain Leeds United in the FA Cup – the first time that a football match will be taking place at the Etihad since the East Manchester Line opened this week.
Four stops on the East Manchester Line are to be voiced by the stars from Manchester City
with Vincent Kompany calling Piccadilly, Joe Hart New Islington, James Milner Holt Town and Roberto Mancini Etihad Campus (which has direct pedestrian access to the Stadium).
Steve Sayer, Director of Operations for the current Premiership champions Manchester City, said: “The new Metrolink service will greatly improve access to the Etihad Stadium for supporters on match days and other visitors to the Etihad Campus during the week. It’s a nice touch for the fans that some of our star players and manager will announce on the way to our home stadium to get everyone in the mood for the match.”
An interesting coincidence that Leeds is the team at the first use of the Manchester trams serving the City football match. The Elland Road siding may have been the last football-ground tram siding in use before this new one.
Danny Mills is quoted as saying Mancini will be out if City lose to Leeds tomorrow. I think our very own Gareth should be the voice of the Droylsden service!
Much as I like these guys I just wonder how many times they’ve ever used public transport. The voice of Metrolink should be a true Manc. Any suggestions? Maybe Noel Gallagher! Failing that, a true supporter of Metrolink eg Pete Waterman who is also kind to old steam trains.
Yeah, a true Manc is Noel, just like his brother, both upped sticks as soon as possible, now lives in that well known M/cr suburb of Chalfont……
Any truth in the rumour that the announcement at the Eastlands stop is ‘mind the (12 point) gap’?
Red Devil didn’t spot the exclamation mark after said Mr Gallagher’s name. At least Citeh have a tram service that stops outside the ground. United’s tramstops are hardly on the doorstep, so the gap between the tram doorway and Matt Busby Way is more than 12 points. If you had the choice of Chalfont or Burnage, three guesses where you’d live. I left Withington (M20 nicer than M19) yobks ago for South Oxfordshire. Now the trams are soon to be gliding by where I used to live, how I wish I was back. See you in the FA cup semi final Mr Red Devil where history will repeat itself.
I think that is enough football talk for now thank you. I don’t think we need to turn the comments section into a dispute between the two halves of Manchester. Now if you were talking about real football that would be a different story!