NSWE Investment

[LeeB]

Whatever they do I hope the consider aesthetics, unlike Old Trafford which looks like a Lego set gone wrong or Sid James Park, where it looks like they've welded half the San Siro to half of the Bescot.

[Drummond]

I guess a lot depends on your individual circumstances. If we were near New Street, I'd make more games and I suspect others would too.

If we had more parking nearby with faster and easier entry and exit routes that would work for more too.

The issue is around infrastructure. We can moan about the stands but the views are fine, the service in the stands is shit but let's face it, most football grounds have the same issues around staffing.

But let's face it, Villa Park is our home. If the council, police and transport network could be trusted to work appropriately we'd all be happier.

[pauliewalnuts]

Whatever they do I hope the consider aesthetics, unlike Old Trafford which looks like a Lego set gone wrong or Sid James Park, where it looks like they've welded half the San Siro to half of the Bescot.

Talking of San Siro, there's a battle on atm to save its future. Demolish and replace with smaller more modern stadium vs refurbish existing.

[Drummond]

Whatever they do I hope the consider aesthetics, unlike Old Trafford which looks like a Lego set gone wrong or Sid James Park, where it looks like they've welded half the San Siro to half of the Bescot.

Amen.

[pauliewalnuts]

But let's face it, Villa Park is our home. If the council, police and transport network could be trusted to work appropriately we'd all be happier.

That's the challenge. That and at some point someone will need to find the money to upgrade the transport network.

re the other sites people have mentioned, I genuinely struggle to think of anywhere worse than the NEC. Yes, it's next door to the motorway, but you can spend absolutely ages just getting off the car parks there.

And how soulless would that be.

[kippaxvilla2]

I don’t think the NEC would be an option anyway.  I think they’re starting junction 6 ‘improvement works’ scheduled to last until 2025!

[Nev]

The issue with Villa Park is that with the paucity of pubs in the locality lot's of people now drink/eat in town and head straight to and from the game from there. This put's pressure on the transport network, in particular at the end of the game when a mass of people want to travel back into the City. It's something we do, we've tried to hang about but it's impossible to get into the Social/Tavern post match, at the other end the Heart is just as bad and you have to go out as far as the Barton's before you can get in anywhere comfortably. The Holte Suite was OK after Brighton but too many people just want to get off and this is something that the club need to plan around. I think shuttle buses are the easiest answer until you factor in the noted intransigence of the bus companies. It works OK at Edgbaston and Cheltenham Races where they face the same difficulties so something based on that could work.

[sickbeggar]

Think we need to increase the capacity of the existing stadium first. A new stadium would be 10+ plus years away anyway and by that time the council's anti-retail policies will be in full effect and we'll be able to build a new stadium on an empty Bullring.

[Pat Mustard]

My heart says stay at Villa Park every time, but logically I think it is inevitable we will eventually have to move unless there is a massive master plan to redevelop the whole area at some point. 

There are too many individual issues at Villa Park that restrict what we can do. Witton Lane can never go higher than it does now, if we move the stadium further towards the car park at the North Stand end then we probably just recreate the same problem for the houses behind the club shop etc, and effectively we are creating a new build stadium anyway, in an area where transport is always going to be a problem.  The Metro isn't being extended to Perry Barr any time soon (they are just having dedicated lanes for 'Sprint' buses), and there is nothing to indicate any interest in redeveloping Witton and Aston stations either - the Mayor is more interested in reopening other lines serving Moseley, Kings Heath and Sutton which do nothing for Aston.

I would imagine we will be at Villa Park for the foreseeable future, but suspect any redevelopment will be a relatively basic rebuild of the North Stand to increase capacity and corporate facilities with maximising revenue being the key driver.  There are plenty of examples of clubs in the last 30 years where they built new stands, only to move on a few years later (Arsenal and Leicester being obvious ones).  The question then would be where we could move to.  The Alexander Stadium is almost certainly out of the question now - I doubt they are going to spend £75 million creating the country's largest permanent athletics stadium just to turn it over to a football club a few years later.  Smithfield will be a no-no too as it is already master-planned for leisure, retail and residential - a stadium that is only used 20-25 times a year will suck the life out of that area.

The only realistic sites that are large enough within a reasonable distance of both Villa Park and the City Centre would either be where the gas holders are/were just outside the ring road near to Aston University, or where the Royal Mail sorting office in Newtown is currently (as I believe there are rumours this could move).  With the people we have in charge I've no doubt they are looking at all possibilities.

[Risso]

I guess a lot depends on your individual circumstances. If we were near New Street, I'd make more games and I suspect others would too.

If we had more parking nearby with faster and easier entry and exit routes that would work for more too.

The issue is around infrastructure. We can moan about the stands but the views are fine, the service in the stands is shit but let's face it, most football grounds have the same issues around staffing.

But let's face it, Villa Park is our home. If the council, police and transport network could be trusted to work appropriately we'd all be happier.

I’m struggling to think of many people who the current site suits to be honest. As seen from the mostly unsuccessful attempts to get local residents on board, the immediate surrounding areas of Aston aren’t exactly a hotbed of support.  It’s a lovely historic ground, just one that’s terrible to get to, whatever mode of transport you choose to use, with probably the least worst being to trudge it from New Street, which isn’t much fun at the best of times and even less if you’re taking kids. I’m 99% certain to give it a miss on Wednesday, mainly because I don’t fancy the M6 at rush hour to get there on time, and then almost certainly getting home after midnight afterwards.

[paul_e]

We could flatten and redevelop Villa Park on that site. If the whole ground was shifted towards the village and across a bit too there would be space.

The Alex is big enough but further out and more awkward.

The Smithfield site is closer to HS2. It's closer to the train and buses. It's worse for parking. It could become a hub for a lot of things but in not sure the council would want to lose all that space to a football ground. The cost would be the highest if all. Our nearest rivals would hate it.

The NEC would kill crowds in my view. There's just nothing else there. Unless there was a huge development for the social side, which wouldn't really work on non-football days.

Nelson Road is in the way so shifting the whole ground towards the village wouldn't help. To have enough space you'd need to buy out the entire road and probably the near side of Jardine Road as well. The whole process would take years, cost a fortune and result in an entirely new stadium with us having played somewhere else for a couple of years whilst it was done.

I agree the NEC is a terrible choice. Smithfield would be ok but I think it's too close to the blues really and there's not really a site big enough anywhere else in the city centre, which makes the whole conversation so much more difficult.

But that won’t happen Paul-e. We will end up with an Etihad/Amex/emirates type concrete steel soulless bowl.
It may or may not be central.
We fans don’t get to say.
So the choices stay and develop VP or take what you are given based on a set of criteria that probably do not have your best interests at heart.

Not sure how you can be so certain about this, I've seen nothing from these owners to suggest their plans would be to shit all over the fans as you suggest. I think they'd absolutely 100% talk to the fan groups before making any decision and I think celebrating the history of the club would be at the heart of anything they did.

[The Edge]

We could flatten and redevelop Villa Park on that site. If the whole ground was shifted towards the village and across a bit too there would be space.

The Alex is big enough but further out and more awkward.

The Smithfield site is closer to HS2. It's closer to the train and buses. It's worse for parking. It could become a hub for a lot of things but in not sure the council would want to lose all that space to a football ground. The cost would be the highest if all. Our nearest rivals would hate it.

The NEC would kill crowds in my view. There's just nothing else there. Unless there was a huge development for the social side, which wouldn't really work on non-football days.

The old wholesale markets site is going to be used for some temporary event space for the commonwealth games. Following that a massive development will be built called Smithfield with apartments, shopping and entertainment space with a 35+ storey tower at it's centre. The idea of realigning the ground on its current footprint is interesting although I don't know if that's actually achievable. I don't see much happening though until the transport issues are resolved. We just can't cope with our current capacity so an extra 10k or so would seem to be a pipe dream for now.

[Villan82]

Would hate to see us move from Villa Park. People are right to criticise the look of Old Trafford and I suspect Anfield will also look a bit odd now with the new stand. However, I think it's nice that both those clubs found a way to expand while remaining at their historic homes.

Villa Park is the heart of our club. I really hope we stay and find a way to improve some of the issues raised.

[The Edge]

Whatever they do I hope the consider aesthetics, unlike Old Trafford which looks like a Lego set gone wrong or Sid James Park, where it looks like they've welded half the San Siro to half of the Bescot.

The San Bescot does have a nice ring to it.

[LeeB]

If we were going to "out of town" it, a bit further north towards the Belfry and Bodymoor would be more appropriate.