Villa Park as an Olympics Venue

[remy]

Remy, you're comparing football matches that people give a shit about to football matches that virtually nobody gives a shit about. Apples and oranges mate.

"Matches Virtually nobody gives a shit about" = zero people (apples)

Attendance at Coventry for New Zealand vs Belarus 14,457 (oranges)

[PeterWithesShin]

Surely it could only be zero if nobody gave a shit? Virtually nobody implies that a relatively small amount of people do. Like 14,000 out of an area the size of the West Midlands.

And how come you now think we'd get 10-15K at VP for matches when earlier you were saying our crowds would be higher than at Cov?

Finally, surely the fact that you're on a football forum and there is little interest in the Olympic football shows you the apathy towards that sport in the Olympics?

[villastikz]

***raises hand in the air***

Please Mr Moderator, I got told off for doing so, but considering the continued ridiculous comments, I think the disallowing of calling remy a dick should be rescinded and everyone be allowed the opportunity to call him a dick too.

[remy]

Surely it could only be zero if nobody gave a shit? Virtually nobody implies that a relatively small amount of people do. Like 14,000 out of an area the size of the West Midlands.

--Yes your right, the term 'virtually nobody' implies compared to the size of Birmingham's population. 8,000 turned up for one of our greatest ever players - Paul McGrath's Villa Park testimonial out of our Aston Villa supporting population.

And how come you now think we'd get 10-15K at VP for matches when earlier you were saying our crowds would be higher than at Cov?

--Well we wouldnt have got any less.

Finally, surely the fact that you're on a football forum and there is little interest in the Olympic football shows you the apathy towards that sport in the Olympics?

--I agree.
But before the games, because the games hadnt been in this country for a very long time and this is the birthplace of football, national sport etc. they chose the largest grounds in anticipation of large amounts of people to accomadate the matches not thinking about potential low attendances comparatively to other matches played there normally.

[paul_e]

Once again, if a team named Aston Villa (with anything afterwards) are playing then no one can (or should) argue about them being there.  It's our ground, regardless of quality we play games there.

If no team containing the name aston villa is playing there then I only want there to be a game if aston villa are getting something out of it.

Lots of scenes of the camera panning across a nearly empty stadium whilst the women of New Zealand play Cameroon, to me, offers us nothing (that's the next enticing fixture hosted at coventry).  Compare this to a full ground, with advertising, watching Chelsea and Man City contest the annual kick-off to the english season.

I fail to see how anyone could want the former over the latter.

If football was meaningful in the olympics (or we were asked to host a meaningful event) I'd be with you but the fact that it doesn't take long for any discussion about it to turn to "should they even have it as an event" sums it up for me.

I just don't see any prestige in hosting it, afterall, without googling, can you name any of the grounds used for football in beijing, or athens, or sydney (other than maybe the one the final was played in).

[Dante Lavelli]

I watched that game last night and I struggle to see how Villa could have benefited from hosting matches.  If I was a neutral I would not have been watching the TV thinking what a great event and I doubt any extra kudos will be awarded to Wembley (or Cardiff - not sure where it was being played) as a result.

I found the atmosphere and the game incredibly flat.  The whole thing lacked any sort of passion despite it being a reasonable game. 

No need to reply to this remy - this is just my opinion having watched my first match.

[Dave]

***raises hand in the air***

Please Mr Moderator, I got told off for doing so, but considering the continued ridiculous comments, I think the disallowing of calling remy a dick should be rescinded and everyone be allowed the opportunity to call him a dick too.

Or we could just all act like grown-ups.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

***raises hand in the air***

Please Mr Moderator, I got told off for doing so, but considering the continued ridiculous comments, I think the disallowing of calling remy a dick should be rescinded and everyone be allowed the opportunity to call him a dick too.

Or we could just all act like grown-ups.

To quote my dead friend Buddy Holly 'That'll be the fucking day'.

[kippaxvilla2]

Remy, you're comparing football matches that people give a shit about to football matches that virtually nobody gives a shit about. Apples and oranges mate.

"Matches Virtually nobody gives a shit about" = zero people (apples)

Attendance at Coventry for New Zealand vs Belarus 14,457 (oranges)

A chance to host Man Citeh v Chelsea in the Community Shield - 42,300 (pears)

[Joe S]

***raises hand in the air***

Please Mr Moderator, I got told off for doing so, but considering the continued ridiculous comments, I think the disallowing of calling remy a dick should be rescinded and everyone be allowed the opportunity to call him a dick too.

Or we could just all act like grown-ups.

controversial

[richardhubbard]

What would have been wrong with people taking their kids to see teams like brazil, Spain etc for say 10 quid at villa park.

I took mine to see 2games at old Trafford being team gb and brazil and they were cracking atmospheres.

Odds are we my kids won't get see likes of neymar very often down the villa..

[Ger Regan]

What would have been wrong with people taking their kids to see teams like brazil, Spain etc for say 10 quid at villa park.

I took mine to see 2games at old Trafford being team gb and brazil and they were cracking atmospheres.

Odds are we my kids won't get see likes of neymar very often down the villa..

Nothing would have been wrong with it, except in all likelihood it wouldn't have been the likes of spain, brazil etc playing at villa park, no matter how special we think the ground is.

[john e]

i dont care much for Olympic football, but i certainly wouldnt have a problem with them using Villa Park,

i find the whole 'whats in it for us' thing a bit ungracious,
 if we were able to offer VP and they wanted the use of it then thats fine by me, sometimes you can help out for the greater good without always having an ulterior motive,

maybe we wouldnt have got much kudos out of it, so what,
 isnt life about offering what you can for the benefit of others, without wondering if you will come out ahead.

i'm sure AVFC had good reasons for pulling out, and it doesnt bother me personaly that we are not involved,
 but posters saying they watched a bit of football from other stadiums and didnt think it good enough for us to be associated with is a bit purile to be honest

[Ger Regan]

i dont care much for Olympic football, but i certainly wouldnt have a problem with them using Villa Park,

i find the whole 'whats in it for us' thing a bit ungracious,
 if we were able to offer VP and they wanted the use of it then thats fine by me, sometimes you can help out for the greater good without always having an ulterior motive,

maybe we wouldnt have got much kudos out of it, so what,
 isnt life about offering what you can for the benefit of others, without wondering if you will come out ahead.

i'm sure AVFC had good reasons for pulling out, and it doesnt bother me personaly that we are not involved,
 but posters saying they watched a bit of football from other stadiums and didnt think it good enough for us to be associated with is a bit purile to be honest

You do realise that the Olympics isn't a charity, right? It's possibly the most corporate event going.

[paul_e]

i dont care much for Olympic football, but i certainly wouldnt have a problem with them using Villa Park,

i find the whole 'whats in it for us' thing a bit ungracious,
 if we were able to offer VP and they wanted the use of it then thats fine by me, sometimes you can help out for the greater good without always having an ulterior motive,

maybe we wouldnt have got much kudos out of it, so what,
 isnt life about offering what you can for the benefit of others, without wondering if you will come out ahead.

i'm sure AVFC had good reasons for pulling out, and it doesnt bother me personaly that we are not involved,
 but posters saying they watched a bit of football from other stadiums and didnt think it good enough for us to be associated with is a bit purile to be honest

You do realise that the Olympics isn't a charity, right? It's possibly the most corporate event going.

I get your point John but, given a choice of taking a one off game that will show definite benefits or taking 12 matches with limited benefits and additional negatives of course you're going to take the former.

As for bringing some kind of moral sense into things as if it's part of the greater good that's utter nonsense.  If coventry wasn't big enough and had sold out for every match you'd have a point but as it hasn't the olympics benefits nothing more from us than it does coventry.

The city and people of the city probably get as much benefit from the 1 match we have due to the way merchandising, etc is controlled by the olympics as well.  So it's not so much what's the benefit to us as "would the tournament/club/community benefit enough to make it worthwhile to anyone" and the answer is no in all 3 cases for me.

Aside from that, anydiscussion regarding english football has to be considered in full awareness of the fact that morality has had nothing to do with any decisions made in the game since 1992.