2018: So what now for Villa Park redevelopment?

[Legion]

Id fill in the sides by the Holte and press the FA to allow standing at the lower North. That would take us up to 45000+ and the North stand could be developed when we have spare cash

I don't like the idea of filling in the corners. Let's be different, let's keep it as it is. We don't need more seats at the moment anyway.

I agree with this. Then just sand-blast or steam-clean the exterior of the North Stand, add a lick of paint and it'll look great.

[Salsa Party Animal]

Think we should go ahead as it will be cheaper to build the stand this summer rather than leave it as when the economy recover their will be more demand on builders and this means higher rate of pay.
 

[DeKuip]

Didn't we give up our chance of being an Olympic venue in 2012 because the North Stand was going to be done that summer?
I'll be bloomin' annoyed now if we don't – I was looking forward to watching the swimming there.

[cdbearsfan]

Don't worry... Birmingham City Council is planning on bringing back the city centre beach in time for us to host the beach volleyball.

[Legion]

We used to be 'Fortress' Villa Park. As we've currently turned into 'Bouncy Castle' Villa Park, there'll be much fun to be had.

[mrfuse]

We don't need extra seats as things stand. The only ways we won't is if we improve on the pitch (and I mean from 6th not our current 15th place) or cut ticket prices.

The North stand does need some work but one of the few things it has to commend it is low prices. If we develop it and improve the stand prices will probably go up.

At the end of the day 43,000 or so is what we need.

Yeah i agree with this ive been a season ticket holder in lower North ever since we moved the away supporters and the price is the main reason ive continued renewing if it goes up a lot their will be even more empty seats.

We need to get it right on the pitch before we thinks about anything else

[darren woolley]

I agree we need to get thing's right on the pitch first but a bit of a facelift or some other work on the North Stand would'nt go amiss.

[mr woo]

In May this year Randy Lerner said,

"There are a variety of balancing acts that go into generating additional capacity and at what cost are you going to do it."

Lerner added: "When will work start on the North Stand? We will start this year although not with a grand designer project to begin with. You will see small signs.

"The time frame? One to three years, two to four years, it depends. There are a couple of things that need to click in, in terms of our commercial model to put us in a position to really do something special with the North Stand.

"It is on our mind. We have got plans and drawings. It is the centre piece of our next big plan but I couldn't say definitively when we are going to get it done.

"If we do it, the capacity will increase to 50,000 at Villa Park."


I'm guessing, but the couple of things might be success on the pitch AND a winning WC bid?

[N'Rexy]

Hang on, what about a bouncy castle though? Knock the north down and buy a variety of inflatable fortresses to cater for varying numbers. We might have to have only 3 sides on a windy day but I can see this working.

No flares though, it might pop!

[villajk]

We don't sell out the corporate seats we already have. An additional 1500-2000 and going to be even harder to sell at the moment.

Is it not the case that all the corperate seats are sold on a seaon long basis, its just that loads dont turn up for certain fixtures?

No it is not.  Some are sold on a season long basis, others are sold on a match by match basis. 

[Ad@m]

Id fill in the sides by the Holte and press the FA to allow standing at the lower North. That would take us up to 45000+ and the North stand could be developed when we have spare cash

It's got sod all to do with the FA - the law says standing's banned at football grounds of teams in the top 2 divisions.

This is a good read - http://www.parliament.uk/briefingpapers/commons/lib/research/briefings/snha-03937.pdf

[Dante Lavelli]

The North Stand is a bit of a hole.  I wouldn't mind seeing it redeveloped with a bit more architectural flair, even if the capacity is not increased dramatically. 

I could see the Villa Village and all the admin buildings being consolidated into the new stand, maybe even a decent museum (a Blackpool style music venue?).  This could arguably provide space for a Tesco (or similar) to be built in the current Villa Village location.

Basically there are other ways of generating income other than just match tickets, none of which the current North Stand achieves at any level.

 

[Irish villain]

Leave the Holte as it is, let's not start turning the ground into Ibrox. I like the way the sun shines in through the Holte corner. I doubt there's any room to do anything major with the Holte corners anyway.

The North Stand should go though as others have said we are now struggling to sell out even the so called 'big' games. The football needs to improve and there needs to be a second wave of the Randy Revolution to get the bums on the seats. An injection of optimism and they'll be back. The North Stand just is showing its age and takes away from the greatness of Villa Park now (I know the traditionalists love it but lets face it, it's no old Trinity Road and its loss would not exactly be a travesty!).

[UsualSuspect]

Might as well leave it as it is and get back to sorting out things on the pitch.  Let's face it, we struggle to fill a 42k stadium.

Spot on

[KevinGage]

Man City weren't always selling out at Maine Road when Eastlands became available. They could have used the same logic.

Back then (less than ten years ago) they used to get low/mid 30ks. Today they get 45,000+
And did so before the Sheikh started throwing money about.

Sunderland didn't always sell out at Roker Park with a capacity of just 22,000.
Today they regularly top 40,000

Bolton weren't selling out Burnden Park. They rarely sell out the Reebook either, but they do get better gates today.

The point to all this? If you cap yourself by only making decisions based on current circumstances you reduce the potential to evolve and expand. That's something Rinder and co understood instinctively but the crew who followed years after much less so. It's that mindset -more than anything else- that needs to change, the make do and mend/ happy just to settle default position.

I doubt very much we'd sell out more than a handful of times initially if the capacity was closer to 50,000. But then again I can't say for certain. A bigger capacity would give us the opportunity to offer more fan friendly prices and higher away allocations, so I think topping 45,000 5-6 times per season wouldn't be out of the question in the short/medium term.

That's the thing, we wouldn't need to be selling out every game to make it viable. It would be a long term commitment and would pay for itself in time.

The North Stand as is is an eyesore and doesn't reflect well on the club. It needs to go.