NSWE Investment

[LeeB]

My money is on either washwood heath or castle brom when jlr downsize it.

Any spare land in Washwood Heath has been taken by HS2. The area around Castle Brom can't even cope with the traffic when they change shifts at JLR.

True dat.

But to add, having the stadium at the JLR site would be magic, me and Olaftab could skip there hand in hand.

[simboy]

There's the area past Aston Cross, from Avenue Rd to the Middleway, but it's still a bit of a hike from the city centre and you lose Witton station.

That's where I and many others park at the moment, around Chester Street down from the Cross. It's not too far from the city centre, which would inevitably creep out to it.

Yes, because that’s what’s happened with The Barton Arms, Lower Grounds, Adventurers, Vine etc. 

Whilst I get a move may be a sensible centrally from Villa’s point of view, I suspect the local authority would take a huge amount of convincing for all sorts of reasons. Football grounds are traditionally located away from city centres (with the odd exception) and probably for good reason. Even with new stadiums they tend to be outside the main commercial areas.

[algy]

For what its worth, Cris Harte above has proposed something workable and amitious

Well, it was certainly ambitious.

It also involved demolishing nearly all the houses in the area behind Witton Lane.

Yes, ambitious, but not remotely workable.

But 30 years ago we had to buy the first row of houses and demolish them. All those houses are now 30 years older and there is much more money involved now and also much more regeneration etc.

Anyway, I am at a point where I am convinced we probably are moving and I will get used to it because doing nothing just isn't an option.

There's a few things keeping me going, V82. First, we built that new academy by Witton station. Second, I've no idea how much it'd cost to buy up a city centre plot, but it's bound to be more than buying up ~100 houses in the area (which is everything in Holte Road, McGregor Close, and a few houses in Nelson Rd), which even at £500,000 per house is still only £50m. And you'd imagine anyone in those houses would snap your arm off at that kind of price because it's far more than they're actually worth.

We could then build the North Stand and Witton Lane Stand up to maybe give us 30,000 seats spread between those 2 stands so maybe bordering on a 60k capacity stadium in our traditional home.

Regardless of what the naysayers say ("nay", I imagine) we've played at Villa Park for all bar 25 years of our existence (in fact, slightly less than that) so any comparison to leaving Wellington Road is utterly spurious. Villa Park is our ground, and the Holte End is a bloody marvellous stand that looks brilliant and will be considered a (football) architectural marvel in 20 years time, if it isn't already.

[olaftab]

I’d love to know where some of you live if you think Finsbury Park is a ‘shithole’, or that Islington is in any way similar to Aston.

Exactly. Sometimes there is an amazing lack of awareness. Just walking around the ground today, the food and drink options are vast and varied,  and options you would never have around  Villa Park.

But is there anywhere in Brum like Islington?

Yes Moseley and Harborne, maybe even better.

[rougegorge]

I’d love to know where some of you live if you think Finsbury Park is a ‘shithole’, or that Islington is in any way similar to Aston.

Exactly. Sometimes there is an amazing lack of awareness. Just walking around the ground today, the food and drink options are vast and varied,  and options you would never have around  Villa Park.

But is there anywhere in Brum like Islington?

Yes Moseley and Harborne, maybe even better.

Yes I was just about to say that...smaller maybe but lots of options

[olaftab]

But to add, having the stadium at the JLR site would be magic, me and Olaftab could skip there hand in hand.

Haha...I can see it now, walking through the church grounds, a church gifted by the Parish of Aston, sauntering down the hill round the magic  roundabout and under the M6, over the bridge...YES!

[pauliewalnuts]

It’s worth noting that the ‘city centre’ doesn’t mean what it used to. The councils ‘Big City Plan’ which has been in operation for a few years now has the specific aim of enlarging the city core.

That’s why we are now seeing 50 storey towers getting approved as far out as Matalan island. The centre is much bigger than it was and much of that land is going to be changing in terms of ownership and usage.

It’s also worth mentioning in this discussion of space to build, it is way, way easier to build on land which is currently industrial as you’re dealing with a handful of industrial clients - who almost always don’t own the land - rather than hundreds of residential owners with emotional attachments.

Anecdotally, I was on a train pulling into Moor St recently. There were two guys sat in front and one said to the other, “Jesus, look how many cranes there are”, and there are, tens of them all over the city centre and pretty much all building something where there was already something there.

I appreciate stadiums have a much bigger footprint than skyscrapers but the point here is that development can happen in areas where there is already something there and if it’s not residential, it’s easier to buy the land. The point being, if we are looking, we won’t be limiting ourselves to big open spaces.

[tomd2103]

For what its worth, Cris Harte above has proposed something workable and amitious

Well, it was certainly ambitious.

It also involved demolishing nearly all the houses in the area behind Witton Lane.

Yes, ambitious, but not remotely workable.

But 30 years ago we had to buy the first row of houses and demolish them. All those houses are now 30 years older and there is much more money involved now and also much more regeneration etc.

Anyway, I am at a point where I am convinced we probably are moving and I will get used to it because doing nothing just isn't an option.

There's a few things keeping me going, V82. First, we built that new academy by Witton station. Second, I've no idea how much it'd cost to buy up a city centre plot, but it's bound to be more than buying up ~100 houses in the area (which is everything in Holte Road, McGregor Close, and a few houses in Nelson Rd), which even at £500,000 per house is still only £50m. And you'd imagine anyone in those houses would snap your arm off at that kind of price because it's far more than they're actually worth.

We could then build the North Stand and Witton Lane Stand up to maybe give us 30,000 seats spread between those 2 stands so maybe bordering on a 60k capacity stadium in our traditional home.

Regardless of what the naysayers say ("nay", I imagine) we've played at Villa Park for all bar 25 years of our existence (in fact, slightly less than that) so any comparison to leaving Wellington Road is utterly spurious. Villa Park is our ground, and the Holte End is a bloody marvellous stand that looks brilliant and will be considered a (football) architectural marvel in 20 years time, if it isn't already.

You could upgrade Villa Park to a 60,000 stadium, but it would involve sorting the problem of developing on Witton Road.  There's probably enough room behind the North Stand and Holte to develop corporate facilities.

The big question is though is whether it would generate enough non-matchday income to make a significant difference.

[LeeB]

Starting to think we should just relocate to London where we cannot be beaten.

[pauliewalnuts]

Starting to think we should just relocate to London where we cannot be beaten.

Ha ha excellent.

[London Villan]

Fine with me!

[Demitri_C]

Fine with me!

And me !

[Richard E]

As long as it isn’t to a really rough area like Islington.

[luke95]

Starting to think we should just relocate to London where we cannot be beaten.

Plenty of room in the future kings back garden ! 😎

[Chico Hamilton III]

I’ve said it before but moving grounds has had minimal impact on Spurs and Arsenal fans because their new grounds were built in the shadow of their old ones. So supporters can follow exactly the same match day rituals they always have. 

I showed the old Highbury to my son yesterday, on the walk to the ground - where you can buy a flat for £800k. Not bad for a Finsbury Park shithole.