Villa Park as an Olympics Venue

[London Villan]

Couple of things...

Matrix signs driving into Coventry at the start of the week saying "Olympic events from 25th, AVOID CITY" which I thought was a great way of showing off your city.

London's hotel bookings are down by 25% YoY, with the normal tourists avoiding the place like the plague due to the disruption.

Saying that, I'm going to Cov on Sunday and despite having to get there two and a half hours before kick off I'm looking forward to it!

[villastikz]

Wish there had been a sign saying "AVOID CITY" when I got dragged there recently.

[dave.woodhall]

A couple of points - we don't get a cut of Charity/Community Shield ticket sales (the clue's in the name) but we do get marketing and commercial spin-offs. Football is the only sport in the Olympics which is spread around the host city's country, because there are rarely enough graded grounds in the city. Ironically, London does have enough (although places such as Orient & Brentford wouldn't qualify) but long before the venue for 2012 was announced the bid committee decided this was a way of giving something to the rest of the country.

[pauliewalnuts]

Wish there had been a sign saying "AVOID CITY" when I got dragged there recently.

I was about to type something along those lines, but then decided to wait, I was so convinced someone else would do it!

[paul_e]

Surely they don't need an 'avoid city' sign on the way into Coventry from Birmingham, we're close enough that we all know better than to visit there, surely.

[The Man With A Stick]

I think its amusing that as soon as we pulled out they chose bloody Coventry ahead of either of the other two clubs in Birmingham.  Both Small Heath and Smethwick would have killed their grannies to even get a sniff of the Olympics and "putting one over da Villa".

[DeKuip]

In hindsight maybe it would have been better to keep all the football in London, the grounds there are all big enough to have coped with demand.
Anyone know what the plans were for football when Birmingham bid for the 1992 Olympics? (I'll never understand why they chose Barcelona over Brum!)

Looking at the last London Olympics in 1948 the opening two games, which were a preliminary round, were played at Portsmouth and Brighton, but all the other games were played in London, using places like Ilford, Dulwich, and Walthamstow as well as Arsenal, Spurs, Fulham, Palace, Brentford and Wembley.

[DeKuip]

Did a bit of googling to try and answer my own question, above. No mention of plans for the football but I did find these drawings of the village and stadium at the NEC. And the logo, which would make a nice t-shirt to wear in London over the next few weeks just to confuse people.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1064099

[PeterWithesShin]

I think it's a disgrace we didn't go for the Olympic football. My heart would have swelled with pride seeing 25,000-30,000 empty seats in Villa Park for such high profile games as Gabon v Switzerland, Belarus v New Zealand and so on. Shame on you Villa for denying youngsters of today the chance to re-live the Simod Cup experience.

[KevinGage]

I think we're all being a bit harsh on remy.

 When we were first announced as one of the possible venues to host  football matches I don't recall many comments along the lines of "It's shit/ a waste of time," etc. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Indeed, there was a fair bit of criticism when we eventually pulled out.

I get the fact that the games aren't commercial moneyspinners for the clubs involved due to the way the sponsors and their vested interests have things tied up. So from that sense we aren't particularly missing out.

But this is a once in a lifetime event for the UK, and I'll admit I'd like to see my club involved. It would be far more fitting to have the second city and a renowned venue like Villa Park featuring in the thing rather than the Toxic Avenger mutant sprawl that is Coventry. 

I don't know for certain, but if a venue such as ours was involved, chances are we'd hosting bigger matches than New Zealand and co (no offence to any Kiwis) anyroad.

[Ger Regan]

I think we're all being a bit harsh on remy.

Disagree. Had he kept to the prestige argument then I don't think he'd have gotten as much stick as he has. Sadly, for him, he brought some utter nonsense into the debate, and is justifiably being ridiculed.

And I also have to disagree with your assertion that we'd be hosting bigger matches than New Zealand and the likes. The overall standard of the teams on offer is pretty poor, and we'd have been up against 3 other grounds that I would consider to have been ahead of us in the queue for the top matches, 4 if you include Hamden.

[dave.woodhall]

Remind me again what the city of Birmingham has done for us.

[UK Redsox]

Remind me again what the city of Birmingham has done for us.

Looking at a map of what constitutes "Birmingham", I'm surprised at how little of it I actually drive through on my way to Villa Park from Jct 1 of the M5.

[myf]

My recollection is we pulled out cus of the ground improvements which were required for the world cup bid, as opposed to ground improvements to meet villa demand

[Pete3206]

Wish there had been a sign saying "AVOID CITY" when I got dragged there recently.

Oh my ribs, stop it please.