NSWE Investment

[algy]

Honestly, if they went back to one way systems after games the traffic would dissipate quickly. Provide buses in from New Street too.

I think, in the real world, this is the way forward - one way system in the area for matchdays, plus "temporary" shuttle buses to New Street station until the rail situation's sorted out (tho I'd guess we'd be looking at a good 15-20 years for that in reality).

One thing I would say is that I'd read something about German football a bit back, where it reckoned Bayern derive most of their income from corporate hospitality, which is how/why they manage to keep their 'normal' tickets priced pretty low.  With that in mind, I'm not sure we *need* a 60k capacity stadium.  Anfield at the moment is only 53k.  What we actually need is to increase the revenue from corporate tickets.  If we can get the transport issues sorted, I don't think there's really much need to leave Villa Park - we just need to work out how to maximise the revenue (IMO massively increase the capacity of the North Stand, and rebuild the Witton Lane stand with a lower capacity, but really high spec.

[algy]

So, "no" to cannons, then?

Better idea. There's medievil tunnels leading to Aston Hall from the direction of Bevington road. Widen them a bit to take a narrow gauge rail train (like the stuff you see at theme parks)  and then extend them to the wasteland behind the mosque on Park circus roundabout. Direct all the busses there and then people come out in Aston Hall after a quick trip underground.

Merge the ideas - flood the underground tunnels, then use them to form part of the proposal canal/hovercraft extension.

[chrisw1]

I don't see the problem with the multi storey suggestion.  If one of the limiting factors to a North stand redevelopment is limited car parking (as DW suggested it is) then a 1 or 2 deck multi storey seems to be a perfectly reasonable solution to me.  How would it be any worse than underground parking?

Yes getting out will be a pain, but I'm thiking one or two decks to replace lost parking and slightly increase what we already have, not a 7 storey monstrocity.  It wouldn't really be much worse than getting out of a surface car park (particularly if filter lanes were adopted to stip one exit route having priority whilst another is completely blocked).  Also, as many of the visitors are likley to be corporate guests, hopefull they leaving times will be a bit staggered anyway.

I appreciate people like to take the piss out of Fred, but game pricing and the multi-storey suggestion are perfectly valid comments to make.

I once parked in Londonderry House in Dale End to go to a gig at the Academy, you're talking 2,000 people. It was horrific trying to get out. Imagine enduring that only to be stuck on the local roads behind everyone else.

There's only one solution, and it's a zero tolerance curfew at least two hours either side of the match for anyone without a valid match ticket, with a 15-20 mile radius.

Yep, multi-story car parks are intended to be used where there's regular comings and goings like shopping centres, not where you've got hundreds of people arriving and leaving at the same time. It would just make a bad situation even worse.

I specifically addressed this.  I said a small 1 or 2 deck car park to replace the spaces lost to the North stand redev, not a big multi deck monstrosity.

[pauliewalnuts]

All you sheeple need to get with the times and stop thinking about physical presence.

It may have escaped your notice but much of the nation has spent almost two years working from home now. If we can 'work' from home then we can 'play' from home too.

I feel the solution involves getting rid of the stands and just putting in place a system to transfer what would have been on view in the ground, into our living rooms via some kind of viewing device.

Then we could all enjoy the action as if we were there.

The club could sell extra purchases for realism

A stinkbomb style device to make your toilet smell like the pits of the earth.

A tray of chips delivered to your house pre-cold, which only activate after 14 of the 15 minutes half time are over.

Every now and then, a racist to sit near you.

A tie-in with the local supermarkets where you show your subscription card and they give you warm beer at twice the usual price (after a suitable delay, obviously)

A modified smart speaker that plays abysmal 'music' at ear splitting volume as the teams walk out.

We need to start thinking BIG.

[sickbeggar]

So, "no" to cannons, then?

Better idea. There's medievil tunnels leading to Aston Hall from the direction of Bevington road. Widen them a bit to take a narrow gauge rail train (like the stuff you see at theme parks)  and then extend them to the wasteland behind the mosque on Park circus roundabout. Direct all the busses there and then people come out in Aston Hall after a quick trip underground.

Merge the ideas - flood the underground tunnels, then use them to form part of the proposal canal/hovercraft extension.

Aye. Or a combination of both. With the cable car easing the problem of private cars, the hovercraft tunnel scheme would deal with the public transport congestion.  Existing car parks and rail would cover the overflow. Just needed a bit of Blue Sky thinking.

[Drummond]

Do I have to have someone sat behind me constantly shoving the back of my seat too?

[Sexual Ealing]

I think a trebuchet from New St is the only viable option.

[Ad@m]

So, "no" to cannons, then?

Better idea. There's medievil tunnels leading to Aston Hall from the direction of Bevington road. Widen them a bit to take a narrow gauge rail train (like the stuff you see at theme parks)  and then extend them to the wasteland behind the mosque on Park circus roundabout. Direct all the busses there and then people come out in Aston Hall after a quick trip underground.

Merge the ideas - flood the underground tunnels, then use them to form part of the proposal canal/hovercraft extension.

If we're going down the tunnel route, how about a Tesla-inspired Hyperloop?  At 288mph you could get from Villa Park to New Street in 50 seconds!!

If the owners are serious in their ambitions it's the only sensible solution.

[john e]

He’s got a point about pricing

He would if we hadn't essentially sold both those games out.

Like it or not, the club will charge what people are willing to pay, and a near-as-dammit sell out suggests people are willing to pay a lot.

We hadn’t sold out so people weren’t willing to pay that’s the point

£50 with no concessions for kids at the top of the trinity is not well thought out imo
People saying other clubs do it is fair enough, But I don’t care about other clubs
we don’t have to follow if there’s a better way of getting people to take up far away seats, maybe family concessions etc then we should look at it

[Drummond]

A rollercoaster!

[paul_e]

Realistically if they are actually serious about increasing capacity, they will likely (and sadly) have to look away from Villa Park. The transport inflexibility is a huge problem that won’t be solved by hair brained ideas like cable cars.  It’s a beautiful shrine to football in the middle of a housing estate with as bad transport links as any in the professional game.

Everton had the same problem - as did Arsenal. Something will have to give in the end.

I'm starting to think that's the only alternative. I doubt Messrs McGregor and Ramsay would have let sentiment stand in the way of progress.

I agree Dave.

If we take Everton as an example, they were told that due to lack of availability of land, they'd have to build it out of town and so were looking at a site in Kirkby, on the other side of the M57 about 6 miles out of the city centre.  After a lot of opposition from fans, they did a deal and are now moving to the new site on the docks, a mile or two out of the city centre. They've got the area's World Heritage status to deal with as well.

It's difficult to see how you can get round a lot of Villa Park's inherent problems. It's always going to have a row of houses on one side, and a Grade I listed historic house and its park on the other. It's always going to be surrounded by streets that are too narrow for the volume of cars, and there's never going to be enough pubs/restaurants around to dilute people arriving and leaving en masse.

The worst thing is, if you account for the village and stumps the site has easily enough area, it's just an impossible shape. The more I look the better an idea I think it is to look at the gas towers site, it's a perfect size and shape (if you take up the industiral sites nearby as well), it's got a station that's about the same distance as aston is from the current ground, there's very good road networks to there, it's a reasonable distance to walk from the city centre and I think you could quite easily convince the council to extend a tram line to there as part of the link to HS2.

[Nev]

Jet Packs.

They could be given out as you get off the train or bus in Town, take off from the seemingly defunct tram lanes with landing sites in Aston Park.

[dave.woodhall]

Realistically if they are actually serious about increasing capacity, they will likely (and sadly) have to look away from Villa Park. The transport inflexibility is a huge problem that won’t be solved by hair brained ideas like cable cars.  It’s a beautiful shrine to football in the middle of a housing estate with as bad transport links as any in the professional game.

Everton had the same problem - as did Arsenal. Something will have to give in the end.

I'm starting to think that's the only alternative. I doubt Messrs McGregor and Ramsay would have let sentiment stand in the way of progress.

I agree Dave.

If we take Everton as an example, they were told that due to lack of availability of land, they'd have to build it out of town and so were looking at a site in Kirkby, on the other side of the M57 about 6 miles out of the city centre.  After a lot of opposition from fans, they did a deal and are now moving to the new site on the docks, a mile or two out of the city centre. They've got the area's World Heritage status to deal with as well.

It's difficult to see how you can get round a lot of Villa Park's inherent problems. It's always going to have a row of houses on one side, and a Grade I listed historic house and its park on the other. It's always going to be surrounded by streets that are too narrow for the volume of cars, and there's never going to be enough pubs/restaurants around to dilute people arriving and leaving en masse.

The worst thing is, if you account for the village and stumps the site has easily enough area, it's just an impossible shape. The more I look the better an idea I think it is to look at the gas towers site, it's a perfect size and shape (if you take up the industiral sites nearby as well), it's got a station that's about the same distance as aston is from the current ground, there's very good road networks to there, it's a reasonable distance to walk from the city centre and I think you could quite easily convince the council to extend a tram line to there as part of the link to HS2.

Didn't someone say it's been sold for housing?

[paul_e]

Realistically if they are actually serious about increasing capacity, they will likely (and sadly) have to look away from Villa Park. The transport inflexibility is a huge problem that won’t be solved by hair brained ideas like cable cars.  It’s a beautiful shrine to football in the middle of a housing estate with as bad transport links as any in the professional game.

Everton had the same problem - as did Arsenal. Something will have to give in the end.

I'm starting to think that's the only alternative. I doubt Messrs McGregor and Ramsay would have let sentiment stand in the way of progress.

I agree Dave.

If we take Everton as an example, they were told that due to lack of availability of land, they'd have to build it out of town and so were looking at a site in Kirkby, on the other side of the M57 about 6 miles out of the city centre.  After a lot of opposition from fans, they did a deal and are now moving to the new site on the docks, a mile or two out of the city centre. They've got the area's World Heritage status to deal with as well.

It's difficult to see how you can get round a lot of Villa Park's inherent problems. It's always going to have a row of houses on one side, and a Grade I listed historic house and its park on the other. It's always going to be surrounded by streets that are too narrow for the volume of cars, and there's never going to be enough pubs/restaurants around to dilute people arriving and leaving en masse.

The worst thing is, if you account for the village and stumps the site has easily enough area, it's just an impossible shape. The more I look the better an idea I think it is to look at the gas towers site, it's a perfect size and shape (if you take up the industiral sites nearby as well), it's got a station that's about the same distance as aston is from the current ground, there's very good road networks to there, it's a reasonable distance to walk from the city centre and I think you could quite easily convince the council to extend a tram line to there as part of the link to HS2.

Didn't someone say it's been sold for housing?

Not sure but that's something you'd hope the owners could remedy.

[dave.woodhall]

I don't think landgrabs are allowed anymore.