LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 27, 2025--
Manchester City today announced a new global partnership with viagogo, the world’s leading ticket marketplace, to give fans around the world new opportunities to access and experience live men’s and women’s matches.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250327094610/en/
This multi-year agreement will see hospitality tickets from the Club’s existing hospitality allocation for Manchester City men’s home fixtures and tickets for Manchester City Women’s fixtures made available directly on viagogo’s platform.
With viagogo operating in 195 countries, and 33 languages, the platform’s extensive reach will provide Manchester City fans worldwide with the opportunity to purchase this allocation of tickets safely and securely.
Each ticket listing will be marked with an ‘Official Partner’ designation, giving fans confidence in their purchase. viagogo will also offer fans the flexibility to relist their tickets if they can no longer attend in line with the terms and conditions of the sale.
The partnership with viagogo complements the Club’s existing ticketing and resale infrastructure, adding another trusted distribution platform for fans to easily access hospitality tickets. viagogo will offer fans a seamless ticket-buying experience and in collaboration with the Club, create safer ticket purchasing habits.
In addition, the Club will work with viagogo to leverage the platform’s extensive data intelligence on ticketing purchasing habits to gain a deeper understanding of Manchester City’s local and global fanbase, allowing the Club to tailor future ticketing solutions and services to better serve supporters.
Danny Wilson, Managing Director, Manchester City Operations, said: “We’re pleased to welcome viagogo as an Official Partner of Manchester City."
“By working closely with viagogo throughout this partnership, we will be able to offer a secure, safe option for fans to purchase hospitality in this way, improving access and best practices along the way alongside our current ticketing infrastructure.”
Matt Drew, International Business Development Lead, viagogo said: “Manchester City understands the importance of its supporter base both in the UK and across the world and our global platform will provide powerful data to enhance the club’s understanding of existing and further potential fans."
“Our goal is to enable more fans to enjoy the unbeatable live experience of matchday attendance with a safe, secure, and seamless experience, while helping our partner further expand their global reach."
“This partnership also highlights the benefits of viagogo’s direct issuance strategy, enabling Manchester City to distribute ticket inventory directly on the platform, giving fans more choice to see world-class football.”
Manchester City joins viagogo’s growing portfolio of sports partnerships that include BWT Alpine Formula One Team, and through its sister brand, Stub Hub North America, the New York Yankees and Major League Baseball.
Hospitality tickets will be available on viagogo for fans to purchase from today.
About Manchester City Football Club
Manchester City FC was initially founded in 1880 as St Mark’s West Gorton and officially became Manchester City FC in 1894. Situated on the wider Etihad Campus, the Club’s footprint includes the 53,000 capacity Etihad Stadium, the 7,000 capacity Joie Stadium and City Football Academy, a state-of-the-art performance, training and youth development facility home to the Club’s men’s, women’s and academy teams. Ranked as the Most Valuable Football Club Brand in the Premier League by Brand Finance, Manchester City FC is currently developing a best-in-class fan experience and year-round entertainment and leisure destination at the Etihad Campus. The Club is committed to operating in a sustainable and socially responsible manner and ensures that equality, diversity and inclusion is embedded into its decision-making processes, culture and practices.
For more information, please visit www.mancity.com
About viagogo
viagogo is the world’s leading marketplace to buy and sell tickets to any live event, anywhere. Through viagogo internationally and StubHub, our platform in North America, we service customers in 195 countries in 33 languages and 49 available currencies. With more than 100 million tickets available to events around the world annually -- from sports to music, comedy to dance, festivals to theatre -- viagogo offers the safest, most convenient way to buy or sell tickets to the most memorable live experiences.
Manchester City Announces Global Partnership With viagogo
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
