The Big Interview

[The Edge]

All this talk of 60k capacity and Champions League is great, but I dream of a VP where you can get a pint at half time without having to start queuing on 35 minutes and actually get served before the teams re-appear.  I live in hope.

Great point.

[Chris Smith]

It's great to have ambition but don't tell me, show me.  60,000, yes please! But please show me.

I take your point but if they were not telling us there would be others complaining about a lack of communication.

[Drummond]

One of the things I learned hanging around street corners on matchday is that once a Villa Park crowd gets above 35k the number of Villa supporters doesnt go up much.

It's a good point and it's likely that the teams who get big crowds are similar. We'd certainly have people wearing claret and blue (maybe in half and half scarves) but they'd be glory hunters too. Not many teams get big crowds unless they are having a decent level of success...

[PeterWithesShin]

When I was regularly sitting in the Upper Trinity it never ceased to amaze me how many tourists were up there, and not just for the 'glamour' games, for Wigan, Blackpool type games as well. And they'd often be decked out in newly bought Villa merchandise with more than carrier 1 bag full of stuff from the Villa shop.

And as Dave says, from standing outside for a couple of hours selling the fanzine you really do realise how many day trippers, trips for junior football teams, neutrals etc, were at Villa games.

[Drummond]

Absolutely and the number of Scandinavian visitors too for particular games is something.

[Dave Cooper please]

If Brum is confirmed as the Commonwealth Games city for 2022 (as today it was chosen for U.K. choice over Liverpool), will VP development be a required or will the board want it ready for the games? Anyone know?

Probably isn't really needed, there's no football at the Commonwealth Games so there's only really the rugby 7's that could be played there.

[cdbearsfan]

They've already said that Alexander Stadium will be temporarily expanded to accommodate 40,000 for the main events. Villa Park is just hosting the Rugby Sevens.

No plans yet for St Andrews. I'm sure they could organise a car boot sale or something.

[cheltenhamlion]

The Olbiyun prick that works for me is often bemoaning their away support. He won't concede ours is far better obviously but some of his comments are interesting.

Their away followings are terrible. And I don't blame them for that. Watching Pulis set out a team to time waste from the first minute must be hard on the soul.

The interesting bit was that a fair number are not Olbiyun fans at some games. They will sell tickets to any bugger that wants one and he has been agog at how that in tandem with the £30 price cap means they end up with shit loads of "EPL" day trippers in the away end when they go to London or the more successful clubs. Funnily enough, they find it hard to beef out their allocation with these sales when they go to Burnley.

[DB]

If Brum is confirmed as the Commonwealth Games city for 2022 (as today it was chosen for U.K. choice over Liverpool), will VP development be a required or will the board want it ready for the games? Anyone know?

Probably isn't really needed, there's no football at the Commonwealth Games so there's only really the rugby 7's that could be played there.

Yeah, just read that it will be the rugga. Maybe Tone wants to improve the stadium to show it off on a big stage.

[paul_e]

They've already said that Alexander Stadium will be temporarily expanded to accommodate 40,000 for the main events. Villa Park is just hosting the Rugby Sevens.

No plans yet for St Andrews. I'm sure they could organise a car boot sale or something.

Permanently improved and expanded to 25000ish and then temporary expansion to 40-50000 was in the bid.

[Louzie0]

The only Villa Engine I'm interested in is the one being revved up by the African Car Reverser.

Great

[SoccerHQ]

My memory of that time was that the Barry transfer request (along with signings that weren't of perceived top four quality) started to make some people lose belief in the new regime.  Lerner simply couldn't maintain the initial positive momentum of the takeover and O'Neill appointment and the quick upturn in attendances just as quickly melted away.   

My memory is that in January 2009 we were convinced we were about to put in a proper challenge for the title and the Champions League was a formality. The crowds still went down, as they did the year after when we were still in top four contention for much of the season and still spending big money. No-one, at least on here, was talking lack of ambition then.

Did they Dave?

Games from January 2009 that season:

West Brom- 41, 757, full house.

Wigan- 41, 766, full house and very good crowd considering Wigan would've probably taken less than 1k.

Chelsea- 42, 585, full house.

Stoke, 39, 641, O.k a bit of a dip but that was I think from memory a Sunday lunchtime game and it was 3 days after Moscow and possibly a few fans had been hacked off by how we treated that game.

Spurs, 41, 205. Back up to a virtual sell out.

Everton, 40, 100. Not quite a sell out but this was an Easter Sunday game.

West Ham, 39, 535. Season starting to drift now but nearly 40k for West Ham was still good go. At this point we'd won 1 game in about 11 games I think.

Hull, 39, 607. Surprised how high this attendance was as I remember they changed this game very late to a Monday night and so I couldn't go as I was back at Uni at the time.

Newcastle, 42, 585. Back to a complete sell out to see Newcastle relegated.

So even though our season dramatically collapsed over that time and we only won three of those home games we still had 40k + crowds in all but three of them and the others were 39k.

For the record I struggle to see us selling 60k much even if we were ridiculously successful, 52k is more debatable.

We would do neither if we were 8-10th in the premier league. Ticket price costs would also be important, our fanbase isn't as affluent as many London clubs obviously. Both Manchester clubs keep their matchday prices relatively low.

I'm pleased the ambition is there at least. Many clubs are increasing capacity so when we get back to the prem 42k will actually be seen as one of the smaller capacities.

It will all fall apart if it dosen't translate onto the pitch of course so I reserve judgement given the hard work we're making of even attempting a promotion challenge at this level.

[cheltenhamlion]

The only Villa Engine I'm interested in is the one being revved up by the African Car Reverser.

Great

The African Car Reverser is carrying the flag for Botswana at the opening ceremony.

[Louzie0]

The only Villa Engine I'm interested in is the one being revved up by the African Car Reverser.

Great

The African Car Reverser is carrying the flag for Botswana at the opening ceremony.

Wearing a claret shirt. That would work.

[KRS]

Re:60k attendance...I doubt we'd sell out every game, but if we were consistently in the top 6 with a team full of top players then I could easily see attendances over 50k each week. I would imagine there would be a strong promotional campaign, cheaper tickets and a rebrand required to support this though.

One of the things that I do like about going away to Man City is that they have a full match day experience going on outside the ground...from entertainment to bars to quality fast food outlets to stores. The whole set up is very consumer friendly, and these things easily translate to a day out and a much better match day experience.