Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Dave Clark Five on August 14, 2010, 08:10:00 PM
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It was revealed in today's programme that the capacity has reduced by 2 to 42786. At least we know now.
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I don't think we'll be reaching it very often. Even the cheap seats in the lower North stand weren't full today - or are they no longer cheap?
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With the £10 deal for the Everton game and after today's performance we may start sneaking towards a full house.
Entertainment is what does it and we had plenty today.
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I want to know which 2 seats have gone, anyone know?
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I want to know which 2 seats have gone, anyone know?
O'Neill and Robertson's.
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I don't think we'll be reaching it very often. Even the cheap seats in the lower North stand weren't full today - or are they no longer cheap?
If the quality of the football is as good as it was today the fans will come back. I bet a lot of people who didn't come out today are regretting it.
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I don't think we'll be reaching it very often.
Be optimistic - you thought we'd be lucky to get 33 and a half thousand today.
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I don't think we'll be reaching it very often.
Be optimistic - you thought we'd be lucky to get 33 and a half thousand today.
Without a good turnout from West Ham, that's all we would have got. We don't sell out except for the big games, that's just the way it's always been.
I hope as much as the next man that the crowds come because the football on offer is good. It's one game into the season and the signs look good. (that's me trying to be optimistic)
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Early season crowds are always relatively low but tend to pick up as the season goes on. Hope the same is true this time although the economic situation might have an impact as the Tory cuts have yet to bite.
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last year opening game we had 35,120 and today we had 36,604 so its up, in the summer holidays its always lower as people are away! i'm missing the Everton game (reluctantly) due to my family holiday.
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last year opening game we had 35,120 and today we had 36,604 so its up, in the summer holidays its always lower as people are away! i'm missing the Everton game (reluctantly) due to my family holiday.
I would say on those figures with westham having a bigger following than wigan last year its about the same turnout of villa fans. With money becoming tighter I would say that is encouraging turnout.
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I don't think we'll be reaching it very often. Even the cheap seats in the lower North stand weren't full today - or are they no longer cheap?
I checked the website on friday, and the only area fully sold out was the lower north.
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I don't think we'll be reaching it very often. Even the cheap seats in the lower North stand weren't full today - or are they no longer cheap?
I checked the website on friday, and the only area fully sold out was the lower north.
Hmm. So what happened then?
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I want to know which 2 seats have gone, anyone know?
O'Neill and Robertson's.
[rapturous applause]
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Hi guys, it may be to do with the refurbishment of the superbox between the North Stand Lower and Witton Lane Stand. Im not sure if there is a seating area in the new structure, if there are seats in there, it may have lost net two seats. As far as I know corporate seating is counted for in the 42,000 VP+ capacity
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It was revealed in today's programme that the capacity has reduced by 2 to 42786. At lest we know now.
I knew the information was on here somewhere. Pity I couldn't think where it was as I thought it was 42766. Crucial error in the guess the crowd league.
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It was revealed in today's programme that the capacity has reduced by 2 to 42786. At least we know now.
That was the last time that I saw it quoted.
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Aha. I was right all those many dark moons ago...
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I was there just over a week ago and I think they have removed a few seats to put the video screen back in.
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Wait literally only 2 seats? That's a bit strange...
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Wait literally only 2 seats? That's a bit strange...
That was quoted in the programme at the time. However, having put the big screen back in the Witton, there will be another number now.
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Christ i'm in a timewarp. Anyone know the capacity then? Or why they've started stocking only halal meat at the club?
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Christ i'm in a timewarp. Anyone know the capacity then? Or why they've started stocking only halal meat at the club?
If you google it, there are quite a few variations on this.
It is one genuine time to 'ask Nicky Keye'.
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Christ i'm in a timewarp. Anyone know the capacity then? Or why they've started stocking only halal meat at the club?
39,339.
So, who's worried about this so called 'Millennium bug' thing and should we not just go and sign this Benni McCarthy kid?
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Christ i'm in a timewarp. Anyone know the capacity then? Or why they've started stocking only halal meat at the club?
39,339.
So, who's worried about this so called 'Millennium bug' thing and should we not just go and sign this Benni McCarthy kid?
I bet Doug does a really good job with the new Trinity
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77000.
This Pongo Warimg looks good. Mad as a box of frogs mind.
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Christ i'm in a timewarp. Anyone know the capacity then? Or why they've started stocking only halal meat at the club?
39,339.
So, who's worried about this so called 'Millennium bug' thing and should we not just go and sign this Benni McCarthy kid?
I'd rather we save the money for Danny Blind.
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Christ i'm in a timewarp. Anyone know the capacity then? Or why they've started stocking only halal meat at the club?
If you google it, there are quite a few variations on this.
It is one genuine time to 'ask Nicky Keye'.
I took the opportunity to ask Nicky Keye on Saturday. The capacity is 42674. A further 164 are permitted in the ground but these are seats that the Police have ordered to be vacant at the back of the Holte, due to persistent standing.
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Christ i'm in a timewarp. Anyone know the capacity then? Or why they've started stocking only halal meat at the club?
If you google it, there are quite a few variations on this.
It is one genuine time to 'ask Nicky Keye'.
I took the opportunity to ask Nicky Keye on Saturday. The capacity is 42674. A further 164 are permitted in the ground but these are seats that the Police have ordered to be vacant at the back of the Holte, due to persistent standing.
Quite a few stand up towards the back of the Holte in K4 or K5 i think. It's where most of the singing starts from as well. It seems to have become a standing area over the past few years.
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Christ i'm in a timewarp. Anyone know the capacity then? Or why they've started stocking only halal meat at the club?
If you google it, there are quite a few variations on this.
It is one genuine time to 'ask Nicky Keye'.
I took the opportunity to ask Nicky Keye on Saturday. The capacity is 42674. A further 164 are permitted in the ground but these are seats that the Police have ordered to be vacant at the back of the Holte, due to persistent standing.
Quite a few stand up towards the back of the Holte in K4 or K5 i think. It's where most of the singing starts from as well. It seems to have become a standing area over the past few years.
If the Police use that logic then surely the 3,000 or so away seats would be mostly empty as they stand for most of the game
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And half the Lower North would be empty.
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It's why a standing area somewhere would be a good idea.
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It's why a standing area somewhere would be a good idea.
This idea had a standing area. I blame Kaiser Bill that we haven't got it.
(http://i37.tinypic.com/zya45k.jpg)
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It's why a standing area somewhere would be a good idea.
This idea had a standing area. I blame Kaiser Bill that we haven't got it.
(http://i37.tinypic.com/zya45k.jpg)
That's the 1940s plans. Blame Hitler for that.
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That Adolf has a lot to answer for. Is that Doug's roller I can see in the car park?
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It's why a standing area somewhere would be a good idea.
This idea had a standing area. I blame Kaiser Bill that we haven't got it.
(http://i37.tinypic.com/zya45k.jpg)
That's the 1940s plans. Blame Hitler for that.
Other than redeveloping the Witton Lane End, isn't that we we got by 1940. The Holte End shown is the pre-1990 Holte End without the roof.
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Sorry, my mistake; that's the Leitch plans from 1914. Note that the finished Trinity Road was even more elaborate than his original idea. The pre-World War One plans for a capacity of 120,000 were on an ever grander scale and (I think) included keeping the cycle track.
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I'm sure I've seen a drawing of the planned 120,000 capacity stadium that had an old Wembley style bowl effect, presumably because of plans to keep the cycle track.
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Didn't Lerner say there were plans to redevelop the North Stand? Is that unlikely to happen now?
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Didn't Lerner say there were plans to redevelop the North Stand? Is that unlikely to happen now?
Not really much point as we can't fill the stands we have very often.
I would rather the investment go on the squad
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It's why a standing area somewhere would be a good idea.
This idea had a standing area. I blame Kaiser Bill that we haven't got it.
(http://i37.tinypic.com/zya45k.jpg)
That's the 1940s plans. Blame Hitler for that.
Are you sure ? They were Archibald Leitch plans as shown in the bottom RH corner.
"Before Leitch, Villa Park was an oval-shaped ground with a cycle track and a single stand. At one match in 1913 it managed to
accommodate 59,740. But it had been an uncomfortable crush. The Leitch perspective above, presented to shareholders in June
1914, proposed removing the track – a move bitterly opposed by the city’s cycle enthusiasts – and creating a rectangular ground.
Many a Victorian ground underwent a similar remodelling to cater for the football boom. The structures Villa chose to retain were the barrel-roofed Witton Lane Stand, designed by EB Holmes in 1897, and, on the left, the fanciful brick buildings left over from the Aston Lower Grounds Company. Designed by Thomas Naden in 1878 in a Byzantine, style, before Villa turned them into the club offices and a gymnasium they housed an aquarium, menagerie, café and mineral water manufactory. For many years their faded majesty pervaded Aston Villa’s culture and identity, until finally they were demolished in the late 1970s. The adjacent bowling
green was lost too, in 1966. Note that Leitch’s original design for Trinity Road did not feature a roof gable or a central stairway,
both of which appeared when the stand was finally built in 1922. Of the two end terraces, only the Holte End (right) was built, raising Villa Park’s capacity to 76,000. But neither Rinder nor Leitch lived to see it finished. Work did not begin until 1939, some 25 years after the drawing"
http://www.playedinbritain.co.uk/pdf/engineering-archie-140-141.pdf
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That's odd. So they started building in 1939 and we got our record attendance in 1946?
So they must have been building during the war. Wasn't that a bit stupid bearing in mind a bomb could easily render all the work pointless?
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That's odd. So they started building in 1939 and we got our record attendance in 1946?
So they must have been building during the war. Wasn't that a bit stupid bearing in mind a bomb could easily render all the work pointless?
The Holte End was extended during the war.
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That's odd. So they started building in 1939 and we got our record attendance in 1946?
So they must have been building during the war. Wasn't that a bit stupid bearing in mind a bomb could easily render all the work pointless?
There was a crowd over 75,000 at VP in 1938 for a cup game so I doubt if there was exetensive building projects during the war years.
The article seems to infer the larger end terracing was started in 1939, I don't know.
However, if the Villa had decided to build during war time I don't think it would have been pointless.
1) The Luftwaffe preferred to bomb Small Heaths ground.
2) Do you seriously think the Third Reich even at the height of its powers could have took the Holte End ? ;)
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Bombs were dropped on the Witton Lane stand.
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Bombs were dropped on the Witton Lane stand.
You can see where in this England v Scotland game played at VP in 1945.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/browns-day-at-villa-park/query/villa+park
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Bombs were dropped on the Witton Lane stand.
And the chippy down the road. Bastards.
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They bombed Villa Park AND the chippy? Honestly, the more I learn about Hitler, the more I dislike him.
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I think Sty Andrews got more of a pummelling from the German Bombers? Pity they didn't do a complete job!
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It did mean the unwashed had to share our ground though.
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Aside from the repaired bomb damage, a few adverts and the addition of floodlights that was the Villa Park I first started watching football in.
I love those old films of the ground, thanks for posting.
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There were plans to take the capacity to 130000 at one point with an interim of 104000.
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I think Sty Andrews got more of a pummelling from the German Bombers? Pity they didn't do a complete job!
They must have done a pretty decent job because it still looked like a bombsite until the nineties.
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The luftwaffe bombed the sty and caused £2 million worth of improvements.
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The luftwaffe bombed the sty and caused £2 million worth of improvements.
My mother-in-law come to stay last week...
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Bombs were dropped on the Witton Lane stand.
You can see where in this England v Scotland game played at VP in 1945.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/browns-day-at-villa-park/query/villa+park
Never seen that before, great stuff. My father gave me the program for that game but I had no idea the crowd was so large. Matt Busby got injured, whatever happened to him?
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What a great video... Thanks for sharing that... Does anyone have any similar clips of villa games from that era? Cheers.
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Just go to this website...
http://www.britishpathe.com/
Put "Aston Villa" or "Villa Park" into the Search box. Easy-peasy.
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Thanks, some great videos on there... Holte end looks amazing in that England v Scotland game.
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This one is quality. Anyone know the players?
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/aston-villa-start-training-aka-football-is-coming/query/aston+villa
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That games looks shit though.
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Had a look at the squad on this pic...
http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/lists/71585/11-cracking-vintage-fa-cup-photos.html?pid=11731
I reckon the blond player is Frank Moss (sr). Not sure on the dark-haired player but it could be Clem Stephenson.
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Christ i'm in a timewarp. Anyone know the capacity then? Or why they've started stocking only halal meat at the club?
If you google it, there are quite a few variations on this.
It is one genuine time to 'ask Nicky Keye'.
I took the opportunity to ask Nicky Keye on Saturday. The capacity is 42674. A further 164 are permitted in the ground but these are seats that the Police have ordered to be vacant at the back of the Holte, due to persistent standing.
Isn't that just the block of seats in the corner of the Holte right by the witton that are always empty as they are restricted view?
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When the new Trinity opened was the capacity 43,000 for a few years?