NSWE Investment

[pauliewalnuts]

Worth mentioning also that Juventus moved - to a significantly smaller stadium - 69,000 to 41,500 - because the facilities at the older stadium were so poor.

Also interesting (and I didn't realise this until i just checked on google) but since moving in 2011, they've only averaged 38,000

Think it's interesting that match day revenues actually increased (doubled even) after as you say the attendances halved.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/251160/revenue-of-juventus-turin-by-stream/

Do you think that's just a lot more corporate boxes? We'd have to sell a lot of balti pies to double our match day takings!

The attendances didn't halve - the capacity at the old stadium was 69k but it was barely half full most of the time, and with next to no corporate facilities.

[AV82EC]

Bayern moved, Juventus moved, I think if we have any serious ambition of living up to our history (rather than living in it) we would probably have to move too.

Worth mentioning also that Juventus moved - to a significantly smaller stadium - 69,000 to 41,500 - because the facilities at the older stadium were so poor.

Also interesting (and I didn't realise this until i just checked on google) but since moving in 2011, they've only averaged 38,000

Juventus are such a weird club. If they played all their home games in Southern Italy, they'd sell 80,000 tickets week in, week out, but their home crowds are abysmal and have been for years.

Yep Torino the bigger club.

How on earth did you arrive at that conclusion?

I was joking...

[Lastfootstamper]

When you say, "old stadium", are you referring to the Delle Alpi, that was built about 3 years before the Doug?

[pauliewalnuts]

When you say, "old stadium", are you referring to the Delle Alpi, that was built about 3 years before the Doug?

Yes, their previous stadium - built for the 1990 World Cup.

[cdbearsfan]

They always hated it. From Wiki...

"The delle Alpi's design was widely criticised due to the poor visibility. This was caused mainly by the distance between the stands and the pitch. Views from the lower tier were also restricted due to the positioning of advertising hoardings. The stadium's location on the outskirts of town never found favour with fans, and the stadium design left spectators exposed to the elements. These factors contributed to low attendances; in the 2005–06 season, for example, Juventus' average attendance was 35,880. The poor visibility led to very low attendances. For example, in the Coppa Italia home match against Sampdoria in the 2001–02 season, only 237 spectators showed up."

[SoccerHQ]

Rebuild the North Stand, fill in the corners, make it up to 50,000.  The need is there, more people on the planet now than ever, make use of it.  Birmingham is a fantastic city, I'm sure that the likes of Christian Purslow will turn the football club back into an internationally renowned club but it might take a bit of time.  The stadium though, could be done next summer.  In-between London and Manchester, there is fuck all worth watching. might as well take advantage of that!

But the facilities remain poor.

Yes they do and need sorting.  It has to be a systemic change and the matchday experience needs to be a whole lot better, I agree. 

As I've said before the design of the Upper Trinity in the concourse is pretty terrible, not much you can do that or indeed the Upper Witton which is hemmed in. From memory the lower tiers of both stands are a little better in at least you can breath when it's a full house.

The Holte is really the only stand where with a bit of foresight you have more than enough space to work with to reduce bottleneck queues at half time.

It's a very interesting thread this. 15 pages in about 2 days indicates there's a good level of opinion and tbh I was mostly expecting a tree hugging response of leaving VP over my dead body so quite interested to see plenty pretty much indifferent to us staying or potentially moving.

Guess times are changing and for new generation of fans it's not just about the sightlines and 90 minutes on the pitch but pre match build up and service that you get at likes of Etihad and Spurs ground.

[pauliewalnuts]

Last sentence of above post - exactly

[Ads]

There's some desperate attempts to try to prove Villa's support is rubbish. Not really sure why, our support was spectacular up and down the country while we were in the second tier, and people are more enthused about the club than they have been in decandes. The ticket sales speak for themselves. We have a choice, expand... or force our own fans to miss out.

This man knows.

[cdbearsfan]

I don't know how to spell "decades", it seems. 🙁

[Ads]

If we were to move to Smithfields, then its unlikely to be for a good few years regardless. Worth noting that you could be a Cockney Villain and jump on HS2 and be in New Villa Park quicker than you could drive from Halesowen to it the way the roads are at the moment.

The point being, the possibilities for commercial revenue in the city centre are huge. You'd have a hotel full every weekend for one. You'd have people drinking in your bars and restaurants on non-match days too. You'd have increased foot traffic 7 days a week to your club shop and museum.

It's not something achievable in Aston. The infrastructure just doesn't exist and never will.

[FatSam]

I keep hearing that these days the actual through the gate punter isn't that important, financially, to clubs in the top division anymore, it's all about tv money.

It’s less important than it used to be, but not unimportant. Man Utd match day revenues are comfortably the highest at £110m, and Spurs now make £800k per game from restaurants. It all helps to build momentum that leads to things like larger sponsorship deals as well. It’s not to be sniffed at when our shirt sponsorship is something like £10m per season isn’t it? If you are looking at ways to make the club more competitive, then it has to be part of the discussion.

[brentastonb6]

My first thoughts on ground development were leave Aston over my dead body, build a world class stadium here with the back drop of Aston Hall, Park and Church which just can’t be bought. There’s plenty of scope for road improvement on both Lichfield road and park circus for improved traffic flows and still ample land for parking ( if we get a shift on and stop building new industrial/ warehouse units between us and Spaghetti Junction. That said if someone can show me plans for a world class 80,000 capacity stadium in the East Side of the City centre ( not to be shared as in Milan) with access for bars, restaurants , shopping and hotels, coupled to the scope for commercial opportunities, which a unrivalled football museum, stadium tour and concerts could bring whilst really pissing on our little neighbours turf from the greatest of heights I’d seriously consider it .

[Clampy]

I don’t think using Man City and West Ham Will ever be good examples to justify a new stadium. They used existing facilities built for the entirely different events. Spurs seems to be the closest thing to something fans actually want.

Again, it doesn't really matter how they got into the new grounds. The point is, even a half-arsed club who used to be famous like West Ham are pulling in well over 50,000 a game.

In London.

Did all the London clubs used to get bigger crowds than us when neither they nor us were filled to capacity?

I've no idea. What I do understand though, is that the Premier League juggernaut keeps on rolling and that London is perfectly placed to take advantage.

In the future perhaps that could happen in Birmingham. If the Villa (and potentially the other West Midlands clubs too) become successful, then crowds will follow. The potential is huge. But there has to be some measure of success to warrant spending millions, or even billions, on a stadium.

Exactly. Just because we've had a waiting list for the first time in years, doesn't automatically mean we should start looking to move. Let's just see how things progress on the playing side. Besides, the fact they are knocking down and re-building Villa Village and the Academy suggests we're not going anywhere anytime soon.

[Percy McCarthy]

If we’re going to compete at the very top we need to grow revenue multiple times what it is now or we’ll always fall foul of FFP. I suspect that NS and WE intend to compete at the very top. Big changes ahead.

[AV82EC]

Yep that revenue needs to grow at an alarming rate to just compete with West Ham, Everton and Newcastle. It’s taken Spurs nearly 20 years to get a turnover on a par with Arsenal and Chelsea.