NSWE Investment

[Lastfootstamper]

Nobody's proposing we dump ourselves in another heavily residential area.

[Risso]

Do you think we’d be wanted any more in a different area?

In a less congested residential area closer to the city centre, absolutely. The businesses round there would love it.

[Chris Smith]

Do you think we’d be wanted any more in a different area?

In a less congested residential area closer to the city centre, absolutely. The businesses round there would love it.

Which area, which businesses?

[WarszaVillan]

Speaking up for the fans who manage to attend one or two games a season I want to stay at Villa Park, because it's ace and I love the place. Expand it, improve the facilities and get better transport links. Whenever I see these new stadiums where teams have moved to the atmosphere looks shite and I feel sorry for them.

[chrisw1]

WM Combined authority have been promising to do this absolute minor bit of works (a 60% Diaby [as Diaby is a Villa unit of measurement now]) for at least two years. It's necessary for the Euros, which will bring in extra cash. It wouldn't have anything to do with BCC and any planning applications elsewhere for anything we decided we wanted to do.

The notion that we'd need local government cash to do anything (as the Noses seem to think) is pretty laughable. We'd be looking to put a money generating, best in class, multi-billion pound regenerative project in their city. Commercial landlords are losing rents with retail, WFH etc, they'd absolutely say yes.

Which commercial landlords are going to say yes, and which underperforming retail parks are big enough to house a football stadium?  And Villa want to own, not rent anyway.

Investment values of developed land, even basic factories/warehouses are many times the value of brownfield sites.  Replacing existing retail, office or modern warehousing would just be a non-starter.  It's laughable that Lendlease would give up a multi billion mixed use redevelopment project just to sell the land to Villa.  Even the investment value of a fully let One Stop would be far too high, even though it's pretty much as shitty retail as you can get.

Added to that, the value we'd get back for VP is right at the lower end of the scale - it will be housing with a fairly high proportion of social housing, possibly with a small neighbourhood centre. 

Our owners are wealthy and I'm sure will be prepared to inject significant sums into the club, but the build costs for a new stadium are astronomical.  If you add astronomical site assembly costs to that it's just not going to be viable.

IF we choose to move, it will surely be to a mostly vacant site.  The gas holders would seem a decent shout, but contamination may make that impossible.

[dicedlam]

Make it about the fans, not the people who want a prawn-fucking sandwich and a comfy seat. Give me a standing space, a pie and a pint. Give me the chance to buy them, a chance to piss and shit them out after and let me get to and from the ground.

Football hasn't been about that for decades, though, and it never will be again, either. You also mentioned the sponsors - sponsors are the very people who want those improved corporate facilities.

If the area is a shithole, help the community have some pride, invest money in that and welcoming local people to the club and give them something too.

The club aren't going to be able to turn Aston around, it's a much bigger problem than that, and it's not even the club's problem to fix.

In fact, the thing the club could do to improve Aston most (for the people who live there) would probably be to leave it.

It's all very well for us as (largely middle class) fans who go in and straight out 20 times a season to talk about what's best for the area, but it's another thing for the people who have to live with the disruption caused.

Totally agree paulie.

If there was to be a poll conducted around the local area, I would say at the very least 70% of the people would vote for us to leave.

So my question is why would the club spend all that money on a new stand/stadium when you are not wanted in the area?

Do you think we’d be wanted any more in a different area?

Depends on the area.

If it was retail or industrial land then I don't think there would be to many objections.

[LeeB]

Speaking up for the fans who manage to attend one or two games a season I want to stay at Villa Park, because it's ace and I love the place. Expand it, improve the facilities and get better transport links. Whenever I see these new stadiums where teams have moved to the atmosphere looks shite and I feel sorry for them.

Which is fine once or twice, I'd probably feel the same, but the same old problems start to drag when you face them sometimes twice a week.

[The Edge]

WM Combined authority have been promising to do this absolute minor bit of works (a 60% Diaby [as Diaby is a Villa unit of measurement now]) for at least two years. It's necessary for the Euros, which will bring in extra cash. It wouldn't have anything to do with BCC and any planning applications elsewhere for anything we decided we wanted to do.

The notion that we'd need local government cash to do anything (as the Noses seem to think) is pretty laughable. We'd be looking to put a money generating, best in class, multi-billion pound regenerative project in their city. Commercial landlords are losing rents with retail, WFH etc, they'd absolutely say yes.

Which commercial landlords are going to say yes, and which underperforming retail parks are big enough to house a football stadium?  And Villa want to own, not rent anyway.

Investment values of developed land, even basic factories/warehouses are many times the value of brownfield sites.  Replacing existing retail, office or modern warehousing would just be a non-starter.  It's laughable that Lendlease would give up a multi billion mixed use redevelopment project just to sell the land to Villa.  Even the investment value of a fully let One Stop would be far too high, even though it's pretty much as shitty retail as you can get.

Added to that, the value we'd get back for VP is right at the lower end of the scale - it will be housing with a fairly high proportion of social housing, possibly with a small neighbourhood centre. 

Our owners are wealthy and I'm sure will be prepared to inject significant sums into the club, but the build costs for a new stadium are astronomical.  If you add astronomical site assembly costs to that it's just not going to be viable.

IF we choose to move, it will surely be to a mostly vacant site.  The gas holders would seem a decent shout, but contamination may make that impossible.

I'm a firm remainer but if we were to move the gasholder site would seem the best option for a new stadium if they can sort out the contamination issues. But the infrastructure would require a new awful lot of attention. We'd be moving away from any rail links and the roads would be awful. Not far from Matalan island.

[Risso]

Do you think we’d be wanted any more in a different area?

In a less congested residential area closer to the city centre, absolutely. The businesses round there would love it.

Which area, which businesses?

I've no idea. I don't know Birmingham that well, I'm not a chartered surveyor or property developer, and I'm not a billionaire who's just appointed a team of specialist land developers to the board.

[Drummond]

Make it about the fans, not the people who want a prawn-fucking sandwich and a comfy seat. Give me a standing space, a pie and a pint. Give me the chance to buy them, a chance to piss and shit them out after and let me get to and from the ground.

Football hasn't been about that for decades, though, and it never will be again, either. You also mentioned the sponsors - sponsors are the very people who want those improved corporate facilities.

If the area is a shithole, help the community have some pride, invest money in that and welcoming local people to the club and give them something too.

The club aren't going to be able to turn Aston around, it's a much bigger problem than that, and it's not even the club's problem to fix.

In fact, the thing the club could do to improve Aston most (for the people who live there) would probably be to leave it.

It's all very well for us as (largely middle class) fans who go in and straight out 20 times a season to talk about what's best for the area, but it's another thing for the people who have to live with the disruption caused.

Totally agree paulie.

If there was to be a poll conducted around the local area, I would say at the very least 70% of the people would vote for us to leave.

So my question is why would the club spend all that money on a new stand/stadium when you are not wanted in the area?

Is that 70% based on anything?

When the initial plan to redevelop the North was put forward, the local area was consulted and a positive response was given wasn't it?

I know that's slightly different argument, but still, if people really don't like the club being there, they are hardly likely to vote to make it bigger.

[Risso]

The only new ground I've been to where the atmosphere has been properly shit is West Ham. I suspect that's mostly because it wasn't designed to be a football stadium. Everywhere else is like everywhere else including Villa Park. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's rubbish.

[Risso]

Speaking up for the fans who manage to attend one or two games a season I want to stay at Villa Park, because it's ace and I love the place. Expand it, improve the facilities and get better transport links. Whenever I see these new stadiums where teams have moved to the atmosphere looks shite and I feel sorry for them.

It depends on what your two games are. For Man City the atmosphere was brilliant. The team battered the Mancs, roared on by the crowd for the entire 90 minutes. For the 0-0 against Sheffield United it was dire. The only real song heard all night was "Duh duh duh, football in a library" from the Sheffield fans.

[chrisw1]

For all those questioning where we would build a ground as there isn’t obviously ‘spare’ land it’s maybe worth considering the changing face of retail now, there are lots of poorly performing large retail parks owned by pension funds and the like who would now be far more willing to look at alternative income then they would have been in the past.

This is something I've been pondering on the Smithfield thing - yes it's supposedly a done deal, but one of the main anchor's is retail and offices and it has been in the planning for 3 years with nothing granted, I just wonder if with retail panning and people WFH they are looking at a different way forward?

They wouldn't be looking at building a shopping centre, it would be mixed-use retail and leisure (bars, gyms etc) to support the billion sq ft of offices and 3,000 high end residential apartments.  Think more like Brindley Place, but larger.

[Somniloquism]

Why would someone cough up the best part of a billion pounds? What’s in it for them?

They get their money back with interest over the 20-30 years of the investment repayments. But instead of Villa working on a current seasonal turnover of £100 mil, we could be working off £150 mil, the extra £50m is spilt between paying back the loans and interest and investing more in the team. And those are low balling. Tottenham went from £200mil turnover in WHL, to £630mil after they rebuilt. Of course they also had CL in there.

Fucking hell. Chicago Lion must eat a lot of pies.

He has moved to London now hasn't he? I meant Champs League.

[Drummond]

Do you think we’d be wanted any more in a different area?

In a less congested residential area closer to the city centre, absolutely. The businesses round there would love it.

Which area, which businesses?

I've no idea. I don't know Birmingham that well, I'm not a chartered surveyor or property developer, and I'm not a billionaire who's just appointed a team of specialist land developers to the board.

And that's the issue. It's all well and good saying move, find somewhere, spend a fortune, we should definitely do it, without actually having any idea whether it could even happen.

It's too easy to say move somewhere nice, where there's no residential, that's easy to get to, that's big enough to do lots of new fancy things. We've all scoured the map, nobody has identified anything that isn't already developed or that has a plan in place.

So, to help with suggestions.... 😉

How about Motorpoint and East End Wholesale on Lichfield Rd?

Or

And I've said this before, but the Royal Mail Distribution Centre on the A34?