NSWE Investment

[robbo1874]

If you mirrored the Holte, but with the benefit of having it flush, you'd probably have a 14-15,000 seater. That's an additional 8,000 taking us to 50,000. If you fill the corners you'd have maybe 2,500-3000 each side? Taking us to ~55,000

Yeah maybe that would work. It's a shame we can't seem to do much with the WL Stand.

Part of me still thinks that whatever we propose, the council will block it, and then we have to start debating whether we build a new ground. We will see, I suppose.

i think it could be done. It was feasible with the Trinity. We just built out over the road and it goes underneath the stand now. There’s a bit of a gap between the footpath on the east side of Witton Lane and the houses, separated by the parkland, which used to be houses.

The main thing they need to do though is enlarge Witton Station and improve the train capacity and frequency to and from that and Aston Station and maybe put extra buses on to and from BC centre to make it more easily accessible by public transport.

[chrisw1]

I think the short answer to your question Rory in no, there isn’t room in the WL stand for Corporate & media facilities.  It’s tight as a gnats chuff in there.

[Ad@m]

If you mirrored the Holte, but with the benefit of having it flush, you'd probably have a 14-15,000 seater. That's an additional 8,000 taking us to 50,000. If you fill the corners you'd have maybe 2,500-3000 each side? Taking us to ~55,000

Yeah maybe that would work. It's a shame we can't seem to do much with the WL Stand.

Part of me still thinks that whatever we propose, the council will block it, and then we have to start debating whether we build a new ground. We will see, I suppose.

i think it could be done. It was feasible with the Trinity. We just built out over the road and it goes underneath the stand now. There’s a bit of a gap between the footpath on the east side of Witton Lane and the houses, separated by the parkland, which used to be houses.

The main thing they need to do though is enlarge Witton Station and improve the train capacity and frequency to and from that and Aston Station and maybe put extra buses on to and from BC centre to make it more easily accessible by public transport.

If you look on Google Maps, the distance from the pitch to Trinity Road is at least double the distance from the pitch to Witton Lane. Trinity Road also only cuts across a tiny corner of the stand whereas Witton Lane runs the length of the ground, parallel to the pitch.

I just don't see how we could go over Witton Lane in the same way. The concourse would still be tiny which would make the fan experience shit, and arguably more importantly there could be safety issues with a lower tier stand which didn't have direct egress routes to the road outside.

[algy]

Think it might be just a case of accepting that part of the cost of staying at Villa Park is that the Witton Lane stand will be small and/or a bit shit. Looking at the positives, it pretty much guarantees an asymmetrical ground, which is something many folks on here value - largely distinct stands.

[Brazilian Villain]

Think it might be just a case of accepting that part of the cost of staying at Villa Park is that the Witton Lane stand will be small and/or a bit shit.

Never sat there but it always looked a bit tinpot even before it was developed.

[cdbearsfan]

What about adapting it as a sitting on laps stand? Could double capacity that way.

[exigo]

We should be a couple of seasons away from setting our highest average attendance ever.

Home attendances for the 1948-49 campaign average 47,168, the highest in the club’s history.

[Drummond]

What about adapting it as a sitting on laps stand? Could double capacity that way.

That's a stupid idea. I mean what on earth would you do when your seat partner had tomato red sauce ketchup on their bacon Butty with no butter?

[curiousorange]

I'm actually a little surprised there hasn't been a serious feasibility study into moving Villa out of Witton. American sport seems to have little problem with ripping up tradition and building afresh, and one of our owners obviously comes from that milieu. Playing devil's advocate, it solves any crowding/parking/facilities problems. I personally want us to stay at VP and be huge, as do our owners by the looks of it, and that's great. But once you've done the North Stand, you're a bit stumped.

[cdbearsfan]

What about adapting it as a sitting on laps stand? Could double capacity that way.

That's a stupid idea. I mean what on earth would you do when your seat partner had tomato red sauce ketchup on their bacon Butty with no butter?

You'd commend them for not having butter but would have to hand them in to a steward for the red sauce disgrace.

[Alex77]

What about adapting it as a sitting on laps stand? Could double capacity that way.

That's a stupid idea. I mean what on earth would you do when your seat partner had tomato red sauce ketchup on their bacon Butty with no butter?

Why would a Birmingham City fan be in there?

[SaddVillan]

I'm actually a little surprised there hasn't been a serious feasibility study into moving Villa out of Witton. American sport seems to have little problem with ripping up tradition and building afresh, and one of our owners obviously comes from that milieu. Playing devil's advocate, it solves any crowding/parking/facilities problems. I personally want us to stay at VP and be huge, as do our owners by the looks of it, and that's great. But once you've done the North Stand, you're a bit stumped.

NFL team owners are very adept at "blackmailing" local and state authorities into funding new stadiums in order to keep teams in their area because of the prestige involved in having an NFL team and the fear of losing them to somewhere else. For example Buffalo Bills have just released plans for a new stadium to be built near their existing ground. The cost is estimated at $1.4bn, with the local authority stumping up $250m and the state $600m, with the "contributions" being paid from local taxes. Because most cities only have one team, it's much easier to get the local population to buy into the idea of paying the extra rax because in some way it's an affirmation of local identity and pride.

Somehow I can't see the City of Brum, or local Bluenoses being prepared  to be so generous.

Putting the finances aside where in the area is there a space big enough for a brand new stadium? 

In reality you're looking for an old industrial site which is no longer needed because the business that was there has either gone busy or moved out.

Longbridge would have been ideal size-wise, plenty of room for a state of the art stadium and for all the  car parking and hospitality that you could ever want. Furthermore the old Austin site had railway lines serving it for freight purposes, so I guess a new passenger station could have been built - but Northfield/Rubery a long way from Aston.

Another alternative, which is right on our doorstep and which I am sure would have been more acceptable to fans in terms of proximity to Villa Park waa the old IMI site just up the road from Witton Station, but that has now been redeveloped into a shed land of industrial units.

Guess we're stuck where we are.

[curiousorange]

I think it's more like being stuck where we are for now. One of the reasons given for VP expansion is the Euros bid, so say we get that, and by then Villa are established top 8/6, we might need more than 55k. Who knows what kinds of sites might be feasible by then?

[DB]

I am sure a new WL you could a few more thousand.

[curiousorange]

I am sure a new WL you could a few more thousand.

You would, but that's what's been discussed over the past few pages - could we do with the Witton what we did with the Trinity?