Tourists at Villa Park

[PeterWithesShin]

Last season there were quite a few tourists in A1 for a number of games. Most seemed to have some Villa merch from the club shop so they are okay with me. Apart from the ones in those wanky half and half scarves. Anyone who buys those for a league game is a twat.

[dave.woodhall]

Let's be honest - they're not here to see the Villa. They're here to watch what they doubtless call the EPL.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

As me and the Omnipresent one were discussing on Sunday, the tourists like their photos of the new Trinity Road stand. Just imagine how much they'd have been in awe if they'd seen the old one.

Probably not at all.

No ?

I'd imagined that fans making their first visit to Villa Park and seeing the old TR would have had the same awestruck feelings as I had the first time that I saw Fenway Park in person.

Do you really think that people who have been sucked in by the hype and glitz of the Premier League would care less about what was, in all honesty, a nondescript seventy year old structure?

Curious. Nondescript was about the last.word I'd use to describe the old Trinity, even taking into account its emotional connotations for us.

[Des Little]

If they're daft enough to suffer it they are more than welcome...for us it's a life sentence. Rather like Trevor McDoughnut visiting Death Row the other week on the telly.

[dave.woodhall]

Curious. Nondescript was about the last.word I'd use to describe the old Trinity, even taking into account its emotional connotations for us.

By football ground standards it was magnificent architecture but as Simon Inglis said, in a wider context it had no more merit than a late Victorian town hall.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

But the original context was as a backdrop for someone having their picture taken at Villa Park, not in front of some town hall. As such the old frontage was way more iconic than what's there now.

[dave.woodhall]

But the original context was as a backdrop for someone having their picture taken at Villa Park, not in front of some town hall. As such the old frontage was way more iconic than what's there now.

Not to a Premier League tourist it wasn't.

[PeterWithesShin]

I've seen and heard people when taking photos of the new Trinity and loads love it. Especially when it's a night game and it's lit up. Still looks half lego to me. It's shit compared to the old Trinity. Looks wise I should add, comfort wise it's miles better but i'd still prefer to be sat behind a pole in the old Trinity stamping my feet.

[pauliewalnuts]

I reckon the most awe inspiring view of Villa Park is from the Aston Expressway on the way in to the city centre.

I worked in the city centre for a few years, and drove past it every morning, and every single time, back then, and even now, I couldn't resist a long look at it.

If you drive past during the night, on the way to a night match, it looks even more impressive, all lit up. I always think that away fans, coming off the M6 and in towards the ground, must see it and think they're seeing a real institution on their way into the city.

[Pat McMahon]

After the Spurs defeat on Boxing Day I was chatting  to some Chinese tourists on Aston Lane -  actually students and first jobbers after university in Brum - and they said they loved the colours and liked the atmosphere  and quality of footie that is missing in China. When I said that we were shit - after a 0-4 stuffing  - they just laughed and said they were used to that in Chinese football.

Scots, Dutch and Swiss mates loved the old Trinity at Euro 96 and have more photos of it than I do. My mom says loads of visitors and the Argentinian team were posing in front of it in 1966 ( mind you the Argies also went shopping in Dorothy Perkins where she worked so they must have been short of things to do).

French  mates have been over and couldn't believe its magnificence, and I have subsequently met Italians who were at Villa Park for the Lazio-Inter final in 1999 (?) who thought it was the finest stand they had ever seen from the outside, and those Romans know a thing or two about architecture. They thought the food was an abomination though.

To non-Brits in particular it really was a joyous piec of very British architecture and unlike anything you find at European grounds.

[TheSandman]

Every time I go I get mistaken for a tourist. Last time I even had my strange foreign money refused when I wanted a programme.

I doubt any glory hunters are knocking down our door, as someone on here memorably put it the other week people who follow us are more like 'grief hunters'.

[KevinGage]

As me and the Omnipresent one were discussing on Sunday, the tourists like their photos of the new Trinity Road stand. Just imagine how much they'd have been in awe if they'd seen the old one.

Probably not at all.

The old stand was built at a time when only the best would do -and it maintained that grandeur throughtout it's life.  Even if the team on the pitch didn't reflect such lofty Rinder-like ideals.   

The new effort was a lot like the bloke who built it: functional.  Not terrible, but not particularly great either. If Rinder's motto was that 'Only the best will do,'   Herbert's was 'That'll do.'

[DeKuip]

Wasn't there an American student on whom the old Trinity Road stand made such an impression he came back many years later and bought the club - only to find it had been knocked down and replaced?

We seem to be assuming here that all the millions of overseas fans attracted to the Premier League via TV coverage are glory hunters. All the PL clubs get decent coverage over the season and I'm sure there are plenty of free-thinkers all over the planet who have been attracted to Villa for a variety of reasons - be it the name, the colours, a particular player or through a love of the underdog. Plenty will have been drawn to the Villa and other less popular clubs just to be different to their school friends or workmates. Yes there are even people in Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur who just want a football team they can have a good moan about week in week out.

[willywombat]

It's probably been said about a million times before but if only we could have found a way of improving the capacity and facilities whilst retaining the facade. Surely wouldn't have beyond the wit of man

[Walmley_Villa]

I'm still waiting for those Qataris to return, you know the ones that were going to buy the club...?