NSWE Investment

[Drummond]

Yeah, West Ham have had loads of success.

How much did they pay for their stadium?

[Risso]

Yeah, West Ham have had loads of success.

How much did they pay for their stadium?

If our new owners can afford it, then the cost is largely irrelevant.  The Sawiris family is apparently worth about £40bn, I'm really starting to believe these guys are the real deal and aren't going to be happy until we're one of the biggest clubs in Europe.

[London Villan]

Didnt the family money come from concrete? He could give us mates rates...

[cdbearsfan]

Yeah, West Ham have had loads of success.

How much did they pay for their stadium?

What's that got to do with anything? Clampy suggested that we could only fill a larger stadium (be that an expanded Villa Park or a new ground) if we had continued success. I was refuting the suggestion.

[PeterWithesShin]

Considering no work at major work at VP would start for a couple of years and no move would happen for longer than that I don't get why so many are against the idea of the club possibly looking into it. Anyone would think we're knocking down VP tomorrow based on one good summer of ST sales.

[paul_e]

Considering no work at major work at VP would start for a couple of years and no move would happen for longer than that I don't get why so many are against the idea of the club possibly looking into it. Anyone would think we're knocking down VP tomorrow based on one good summer of ST sales.

If Villa Park is being used for the commonwealth games then I doubt anything will happen before then and the season will have started by the time it's done so you'd probably not do anything until 2023. What I'd like is that all the design, planning, etc is done before that point so work can start as soon as our last home game is done. I'd also want a proper fans consultation which adds 6-12months to the process.

[pauliewalnuts]

Yeah, West Ham have had loads of success.

How much did they pay for their stadium?

What's that got to do with anything? Clampy suggested that we could only fill a larger stadium (be that an expanded Villa Park or a new ground) if we had continued success. I was refuting the suggestion.

Also, when did Everton last win anything? They're still planning a new ground.

Also worth pointing out (earlier posts) that improving facilities is not just serving people beer quicker - it is having the space and set up to sell a higher quality corporate product.

We are starting to look like we are falling behind our peers. Given the time it takes to do stuff like upgrade or rebuild stadiums we have got to be looking at it now.

[Risso]

Yeah, West Ham have had loads of success.

How much did they pay for their stadium?

What's that got to do with anything? Clampy suggested that we could only fill a larger stadium (be that an expanded Villa Park or a new ground) if we had continued success. I was refuting the suggestion.

Also as I showed earlier, Man City filled their new ground long before the new owners showed up, and they've got a lot more in the way of local competition, and hadn't won anything since Jesus was a lad.

[SoccerHQ]

Yeah, West Ham have had loads of success.

Marginally more than what they were getting at Upton Park it seems.....

"West Ham: Newham council says the average attendance at West Ham was 42,779 based on the 12 games it attended - which is 12,530 fans fewer than the club's season average figure of 55,309."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45158878

[paul_e]

Yeah, West Ham have had loads of success.

Marginally more than what they were getting at Upton Park it seems.....

"West Ham: Newham council says the average attendance at West Ham was 42,779 based on the 12 games it attended - which is 12,530 fans fewer than the club's season average figure of 55,309."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45158878

Isn't that still about 7-8000 more than their old capacity? So even a shitty club like West Ham saw a 15-20% increase in attendance (and a 50% increase in tickets sales) by moving to a new stadium despite having absolutely no success to talk of for years.

[Lastfootstamper]

We're getting blasted out of the water on this by a side that's never won the league.

[Risso]

Yeah, West Ham have had loads of success.

Marginally more than what they were getting at Upton Park it seems.....

"West Ham: Newham council says the average attendance at West Ham was 42,779 based on the 12 games it attended - which is 12,530 fans fewer than the club's season average figure of 55,309."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45158878

Quoting tickets sold rather than physical bums on seats is nothing new.

[algy]

Villa have something - a visual style to the ground (old Trinity Road/Holte End) that few if any clubs can match. Follow that template and, wherever the ground is, it'll be Villa Park and it'll be a success. Live up to playing at 'the stately home of football' and we good rake in some serious money.

I'd imagine there'll be contingency plans on top of contingency plans, and as has been said before regardless of what happens we ain't building a new stand/ground overnight. Probably makes sense to start looking at options sooner rather than later.

Personally I'm a leaver if it's to a city centre site. I think we could genuinely mop up of we were walking distance from HS2/New Street and built an impressive enough ground. Thinking a horseshoe of red brick stands in a kind of half octogen* and a massive free standing "New Holte End" stand with rail seating akin to the Sudtribune in Dortmund. But with a different, modern design in contrast to the other stands. With two proper floodlights either side, one "A" and one "V".

* You know how the old Trinity Road stand was flat and then angled in at the ends?  Sort of carrying on that so each stand links up at 45 degrees the other.

[SoccerHQ]

Yeah, West Ham have had loads of success.

Marginally more than what they were getting at Upton Park it seems.....

"West Ham: Newham council says the average attendance at West Ham was 42,779 based on the 12 games it attended - which is 12,530 fans fewer than the club's season average figure of 55,309."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45158878

Isn't that still about 7-8000 more than their old capacity? So even a shitty club like West Ham saw a 15-20% increase in attendance (and a 50% increase in tickets sales) by moving to a new stadium despite having absolutely no success to talk of for years.

Well it's London so always more tourists floating around fancying taking in a game and of course after 2012 Olympic stadium is a world wide known stadium.

There is always a novelty factor with the new grounds and then interest starts to drop off unless you're winning the league like Man. City are most years.

Arsenal barely get over 50k for most games they play against non top 6 now and this is club with more worldwide fans than West Ham.

I was all for expanding the ground around 2008. Regular top 6 and european football and while the crowds did drop slightly they were still close to 40k than 35k over the season. Then look what happened. Regular relegation fights and our crowds predictably dropping to low 30s.

There's a proper feelgood factor around atm and understandbly so. However I very much doubt in two years time games will be struggling to make general sale if we're just about making the top half. Think we'd also need to sign some big  name players from europe to keep the fanbase engaged as Man. City have done over last ten years.

[SoccerHQ]

Yeah, West Ham have had loads of success.

Marginally more than what they were getting at Upton Park it seems.....

"West Ham: Newham council says the average attendance at West Ham was 42,779 based on the 12 games it attended - which is 12,530 fans fewer than the club's season average figure of 55,309."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45158878

Quoting tickets sold rather than physical bums on seats is nothing new.

Of course, we've done it in previous seasons.

Just disputing the narrative that 55k are rammed into West Ham every week and there's thousands more queuing round the block to watch Jack Wilshere do his knee ten minutes into the season. Reality at least according to that report is they're playing infront of 10k empty seats for over half their league fixtures.

On Man. City they've certainly had terrific support down the years. Didn't they have something crazy like 30k average when they were in division 2 in the late 90s?

Pretty sure their support was starting to decline a bit before the takeover. Remember talking to someone who went up to watch us get a rare win there. Might've been the game where Barton skied a penalty and he was saying there was row on row of empty blue seats and basically the ground was too big for Man. City.

I say leave VP as it is for next two years. If we're getting 40k + end of 2021 season and aren't far off qualifying for europe then decisions can be made then.

It would've been unthinkable in May 2010 to believe we'd be relegated within six years but it happened and could've easily in the three years before.

I'd rather have a stable base as competitive premier league club than just do it on the buzz of a promotion campaign.