Aston Hotel

[el león Benidorm]

Firstly, apologies if this has been covered in another thread and mods, please move if it has.

I have just read that the Aston Hotel is to be turned into a centre for the homeless.

This for me is a very sad day. Whilst I have been overseas for a few years now, the first pub that I used for a pre and post match drink was the Aston Hotel.

Years spent as a Season Ticket holder always included the ritual of the Aston before and after.

Always a great atmosphere and in a great location.

The fact that a pub has closed in such a prime position is endemic of the way that things are now. If managed correctly by local investors, it should have easily been able to stay open in it's correct form for supporters to use.

Breweries want too much and do not realise half the time what a gem that they have on their hands when imposing ludicrous rents and inflated barrelage prices for tenants.

Soon there will be nowhere to drink around the ground... but I suppose that is what the idiots who run the game want now.

It will only be a matter of time before the burger vans and the scarf/badge sellers are priced out of the market.

A very sad day indeed.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

It was closed throughout this season too but I get your point. Unfortunately the "match day experience" at VP is poor and getting worse. What few pubs are left charge an admission fee and are overcrowded. And as for places to eat, forget about it. I generally drink in town now pre match.

[brian green]

Agree Leon, and like so many vanishing pubs that one really was a very fine building in its day.

[PeterWithesShin]

Unfortunately for fans it's not just a match day pub though, it's got to be a viable business on the other 340ish days a year we aren't at home.

[Tony Erdington]

I think a lot of us used to go the pub before and after, but as time has gone by I tend to drift back towards Erdington, as I'm certainly not putting money in the hands of the door staff in pubs in Aston.

[DaveD]

I used to drink in there before and after games back when I had a season ticket, but that was over 15 years ago...

[brian green]

One way of solving the match days only trade problem could be like the system used at the races.  Contractors man the pumps on days when there is demand.  Problem is the drink prices go sky high to cover the uneconomic opening pattern.  A pint of lager bought from, say, Letherby and Christopher at Newmarket would be very much higher than a 365 days a year pub.

[Des Little]

Charging to get into a pub is just an utter nonsense and is the precise reason why I drink in town before and after games.  It's a very short sighted stance in my view, especially given the possibility that footfall will be down next season.

[AVH87]

Quite sad when you think how many pubs have gone from around the ground over the last couple of years - The Adventurers, The Aston Hotel, is the Witton Arms closed too?

I drink in the Aston Tavern now pre-games, huge pub so plenty of room most of the time, do charge £3 but that includes a turkey and stuffing baguette if you'll eat any old rubbish after a couple of pints! I think the only other pub really close to the ground is the Aston Social? Then there's a couple of others a bit further out like The Sacred Heart and another one which has recently been taken over.

[el león Benidorm]

One way of solving the match days only trade problem could be like the system used at the races.  Contractors man the pumps on days when there is demand.  Problem is the drink prices go sky high to cover the uneconomic opening pattern.  A pint of lager bought from, say, Letherby and Christopher at Newmarket would be very much higher than a 365 days a year pub.

One of the other ways is to close half the pub off that isn't being used on none match days. Use a skeleton staff to keep the turnover. Most pubs outside a city centre rely on weekend trade which buffers the quieter times.
The breweries need to acknowledge this and not screw the tenants with extortionate prices on beer.
The main issue is that most of the time the breweries will see it as a problem unit, and put rookie licensees in there or managers on rotation. They do not care and are looking constantly at the calendar on when they are leaving as opposed to someone who will take it and make it work.

Football pubs are hard premises to run, but if run right, they can make great venues.

[PeterWithesShin]

I went past the Witton Arms yesterday and it was open. The Yew Tree is pretty close as well.

[AVH87]

I went past the Witton Arms yesterday and it was open. The Yew Tree is pretty close as well.

Ah yes the Yew Tree is another, think that's away fans only though?

[PeterWithesShin]

Home fans mainly as far as I know. I don't use it but always seems to have Villa outside when i've gone past on a match day.

[Countryside Villain]

Certainly sad to see decent pubs go under like that.  It's a fine building and moderately residential around there too.  At least it's being put to good use rather than left to rot. 

[brian green]

My daughter tells me that the Oakhams rep who sells her beer, suggests that the owner is not over enamoured with the Barton's. Probably idle chit chat.  My daughter does get chatted up a lot.