NSWE Investment

[The Edge]

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?

Now now Drummond, we are not allowed to reasonably suggest obvious sites which might meet the goal of closer to the city centre, still close enough to our roots, and a reasonable chance of it happening because we are not "Billion Dollar property developers". All we can do is shout "City Centre", "Cranes" or "An office block over there was recently built, why not a stadium".

Plus I've been shouting for that bit of land as well. It is closer to the centre but still close to our roots and what transport we lose from no train stations we make up with lots of bus routes,  dedicated cycle lanes (and bike/scooter hire) and almost straight route access to both Spaghetti, the Walsall Junction AND the inner ring road / A38 Southbound. And loads of new student accommodation so that could maybe sustain any facilities that open nearby to give them more then just occasional weekend business.

Downside, it is Newtown......

That site is only as wide as our current site is now, across its maximum width. It would need the purchase of other adjacent properties as well to make it viable.

I still think that, as ambitious, as wacky, as expensive, as difficult to achieve it would be to pull off, the suggestion I made last Saturday is the most likely. We are playing in the richest football league in the world, so if it can happen anywhere then why not in Aston?

Your suggestion was the one where we buy up the houses on Witton Lane side wasn't it? I quite like that idea but I'm no one of those being forced to move so it's easy for me. We would have to pay well over the odds and I did a quick calculation and I reckon we'd be looking at something like 40m as there's probably 120 ish properties that would be affected. Much easier to close Trinity Rd and buy some of the parkland and move the stadium over that way 50 or 60 metres. Of course that would depend on whether council would be willing to accommodate us and at what cost.

[LeeS]

We're not going to build a new stadium in town with a plethora of options for people to spend their money outside of it.

They don't make much money selling pies and pints to punters like us. They make money selling seats and corporate packages. A city centre location with a capacity crowd each week (and all the boxes filled) will bring in many, many times more revenue than a few thousand bovrils. If there is a good central site i'd take it in a heartbeat.

[Drummond]

Based on my parents living on Kenilworth Rd up until 2015 and also my Uncle who lived on Aston Lane.

My mother was a carer for the local Asian community (home help) and often said that some of the community she cared for were frightened to go out whenever the Villa were at home. Believe me, I have heard some awful stories of being subjected to racial abuse whenever there is a game on.

Things may be a little better now than they were a few years back but it is very hard to convince the locals that it would be in there interest to support any expansion of Villa Park.

Apparently though, things/football is different now and we don't attract racists, ne'er-do-wells, and the like, we are gentrified and like prawns and stuff.

Joking aside, that is dreadful, and I'd hope that the situation really has changed and continues to do so. I'm not surprised that some people don't like it when the Villa are at home, large crowds etc. Though the argument that Villa have been there for 100 years would mean it pre-dates anyone still stands. Move us somewhere new and at that point we have a new set of arguments to be had with the local population.

I think that football clubs, like takeaway businesses etc. have a responsibility to their local areas and should be tidying up, and doing what they can to make sure that the area is looked after as well as it can be. Supporters all have a responsbility for that too.

[The Edge]

Has anyone asked Royal Mail what they think?

What actually happens there? Is it a letter sorting centre or do they do parcels as well, or is that now Parcel Force?

It's a main distribution centre and not that old. I think the suggestion is the rest of that industrial estate where there are a lot of small businesses. Location wise that's a reasonable shout but I've no idea how we could go about acquiring land and at what cost. There's an awful lot of businesses we would need to shift out.

[Drummond]

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?

Now now Drummond, we are not allowed to reasonably suggest obvious sites which might meet the goal of closer to the city centre, still close enough to our roots, and a reasonable chance of it happening because we are not "Billion Dollar property developers". All we can do is shout "City Centre", "Cranes" or "An office block over there was recently built, why not a stadium".

Plus I've been shouting for that bit of land as well. It is closer to the centre but still close to our roots and what transport we lose from no train stations we make up with lots of bus routes,  dedicated cycle lanes (and bike/scooter hire) and almost straight route access to both Spaghetti, the Walsall Junction AND the inner ring road / A38 Southbound. And loads of new student accommodation so that could maybe sustain any facilities that open nearby to give them more then just occasional weekend business.

Downside, it is Newtown......

That site is only as wide as our current site is now, across its maximum width. It would need the purchase of other adjacent properties as well to make it viable.

I still think that, as ambitious, as wacky, as expensive, as difficult to achieve it would be to pull off, the suggestion I made last Saturday is the most likely. We are playing in the richest football league in the world, so if it can happen anywhere then why not in Aston?

Your suggestion was the one where we buy up the houses on Witton Lane side wasn't it? I quite like that idea but I'm no one of those being forced to move so it's easy for me. We would have to pay well over the odds and I did a quick calculation and I reckon we'd be looking at something like 40m as there's probably 120 ish properties that would be affected. Much easier to close Trinity Rd and buy some of the parkland and move the stadium over that way 50 or 60 metres. Of course that would depend on whether council would be willing to accommodate us and at what cost.

Moving over to the park a bit, and moving that playground and the astro pitch makes more sense and is easier, but whether the land and trees are protected is another question. I'd have thought we could offset some of that by converting some of our other space in and around the area.

[Drummond]

Has anyone asked Royal Mail what they think?

What actually happens there? Is it a letter sorting centre or do they do parcels as well, or is that now Parcel Force?

It's a main distribution centre and not that old. I think the suggestion is the rest of that industrial estate where there are a lot of small businesses. Location wise that's a reasonable shout but I've no idea how we could go about acquiring land and at what cost. There's an awful lot of businesses we would need to shift out.

You'd think moving businesses would be easier than moving people from their homes though.

[PeterWithe]

Especially a business which is shrinking.

[paul_e]

Your suggestion was the one where we buy up the houses on Witton Lane side wasn't it? I quite like that idea but I'm no one of those being forced to move so it's easy for me. We would have to pay well over the odds and I did a quick calculation and I reckon we'd be looking at something like 40m as there's probably 120 ish properties that would be affected. Much easier to close Trinity Rd and buy some of the parkland and move the stadium over that way 50 or 60 metres. Of course that would depend on whether council would be willing to accommodate us and at what cost.

Moving over to the park a bit, and moving that playground and the astro pitch makes more sense and is easier, but whether the land and trees are protected is another question. I'd have thought we could offset some of that by converting some of our other space in and around the area.

The problem there is that to give us the space where we need it we'd  have to move everything across. It also still wouldn't really address the problem with generating non-matchday revenue from the site.

I'm ok with the royal mail site but as above you'd need to buy a lot more than just that site to have the space for a proper 60k stadium. It's in exactly the right area for me though and is the sort of place where it will be on the edge of the city centre before long for the reasons Paulie gave. That whole area will see a huge amount of growth driving out from the jewellery quarter and the ground would become a big part of that. Rebuilding where we are just won't achieve that even if we manage to buy all the extra land we'd want. You also have the issue where rebuilding on site means either reducing capacity for years or playing elsewhere, neither of which are particulraly good options.

[FatSam]

Moving over to the park a bit, and moving that playground and the astro pitch makes more sense and is easier, but whether the land and trees are protected is another question. I'd have thought we could offset some of that by converting some of our other space in and around the area.

Aston Hall is a Grade I listed building. It depends what we would want to do obviously, but there is nothing easy about any development that would affect its setting.

[The Edge]

Your suggestion was the one where we buy up the houses on Witton Lane side wasn't it? I quite like that idea but I'm no one of those being forced to move so it's easy for me. We would have to pay well over the odds and I did a quick calculation and I reckon we'd be looking at something like 40m as there's probably 120 ish properties that would be affected. Much easier to close Trinity Rd and buy some of the parkland and move the stadium over that way 50 or 60 metres. Of course that would depend on whether council would be willing to accommodate us and at what cost.

Moving over to the park a bit, and moving that playground and the astro pitch makes more sense and is easier, but whether the land and trees are protected is another question. I'd have thought we could offset some of that by converting some of our other space in and around the area.

The problem there is that to give us the space where we need it we'd  have to move everything across. It also still wouldn't really address the problem with generating non-matchday revenue from the site.

I'm ok with the royal mail site but as above you'd need to buy a lot more than just that site to have the space for a proper 60k stadium. It's in exactly the right area for me though and is the sort of place where it will be on the edge of the city centre before long for the reasons Paulie gave. That whole area will see a huge amount of growth driving out from the jewellery quarter and the ground would become a big part of that. Rebuilding where we are just won't achieve that even if we manage to buy all the extra land we'd want. You also have the issue where rebuilding on site means either reducing capacity for years or playing elsewhere, neither of which are particulraly good options.

We could do what Spurs did. Half of the ground would be built across the road and contine using Villa Park. We would still need probably one season away from VP when they're ready to complete the rest. Once moved across there would be space to develop where the DE current sits. Plus the land where the North Stand is would be available. Its all do-able but it will require a lot of problem solving. There's every reason to believe that the Altairos group will have the required know how to achieve all that.

[Ads]

If your dream is a city centre stadium that’s fair enough, it might be possible it might not

But this narrative that a city centre stadium will provide easy access for 60,000 people is probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read on here
You’ve totally lost your heads because you want something enough

Any ground in the city centre is difficult to get in and out of anywhere in the UK took me an hour to get away from Manchester couple of weeks ago, and it’s basically the same anywhere else

Yes the trains will provide a quicker access but not everyone uses trains and they certainly won’t provide transport for 60,000 people and that would cause its own problems anyway

Trains cost money, it takes me just over an hour to get to Villa Park. It’s as easy access as any ground in the country really, takes about half an hour to get away sometimes less, and that’s pretty good for a Premier League ground
I also use the train, but when there’s 3/4 people going to be expensive not everyone’s got the money so car is the cheapest way

The financial debate is different of course, and there is a lot of merit in things people are saying, if we need to change location to bring in a whole load of different clientele to come and spend money to stay competitive than I am admittedly an old timer and the whole Football thing is moving away from me altogether

So argue all you like about where we should build a new Stadium it won’t really matter because as others have said they will do what they are going to do anyway without consulting our little group

There's more parking in and around the city centre than anywhere else. There's 3 major train stations. There's every bus route going, there's trams, that by the time the ground would be done, will have routes to Halesowen etc. Its the best place for transport.

Yes trains cost money, but so does driving down from the North West every other week. I paid £109 for a return to Euston Sunday, saved 400+ miles and about 4 hours too. London is infinitely worse to drive around than Brum, even if I do know exactly where to park off the Holloway Road for free.

[algy]

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.

How big will the new platforms be compared to a country the size of Wales?!

Wrong unit of measurement - it's olympic sized swimming pools (length) or football pitches (area) first, then only when you've got too big a number of those do you move up to 'an area the size of Wales'es or a 'to the moon and back'.

[Stu82]

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?

Now now Drummond, we are not allowed to reasonably suggest obvious sites which might meet the goal of closer to the city centre, still close enough to our roots, and a reasonable chance of it happening because we are not "Billion Dollar property developers". All we can do is shout "City Centre", "Cranes" or "An office block over there was recently built, why not a stadium".

Plus I've been shouting for that bit of land as well. It is closer to the centre but still close to our roots and what transport we lose from no train stations we make up with lots of bus routes,  dedicated cycle lanes (and bike/scooter hire) and almost straight route access to both Spaghetti, the Walsall Junction AND the inner ring road / A38 Southbound. And loads of new student accommodation so that could maybe sustain any facilities that open nearby to give them more then just occasional weekend business.

Downside, it is Newtown......

That site is only as wide as our current site is now, across its maximum width. It would need the purchase of other adjacent properties as well to make it viable.

I still think that, as ambitious, as wacky, as expensive, as difficult to achieve it would be to pull off, the suggestion I made last Saturday is the most likely. We are playing in the richest football league in the world, so if it can happen anywhere then why not in Aston?

Your suggestion was the one where we buy up the houses on Witton Lane side wasn't it? I quite like that idea but I'm no one of those being forced to move so it's easy for me. We would have to pay well over the odds and I did a quick calculation and I reckon we'd be looking at something like 40m as there's probably 120 ish properties that would be affected. Much easier to close Trinity Rd and buy some of the parkland and move the stadium over that way 50 or 60 metres. Of course that would depend on whether council would be willing to accommodate us and at what cost.

This buy up the houses idea only works if they all sell. They are private properties and may not want to move at all.
If we stay Trinity Rd move would make much more sense.

With the appointments highlighted over the last few pages for V sports, it looks like whatever it is, staying at Villa Park and redevelopment, or a move to new site. it will be a major investment that will transform the club and put us firmly on a competitive footing with the scum 6.

Bring it on.

[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.

So all of those same reasons apply to why we’re not qualified to make the decision to leave the current site in the first place.

Newsflash Chris, whether we're qualified or not, we don't get to make the decision. It's just a discussion. You know like, we don't get to choose who plays out of Moreno or Digne despite our own preferences for one player or another. It's a discussion board, and people are giving their opinions. The club have cancelled plans that had been approved to replace the North. They've now got outside investment from a firm specialising in property development, and have appointed directors from that firm to the board. So that suggests either a complete redevelopment of Villa Park, or building a new stadium.

And in my opinion, the easiest way for that firm to make money is to build a new stadium that is part of a big new mixed use development away from Aston. And I still don't know where that would be, sorry.

[Risso]

Moving over to the park a bit, and moving that playground and the astro pitch makes more sense and is easier, but whether the land and trees are protected is another question. I'd have thought we could offset some of that by converting some of our other space in and around the area.

The land is in the curtilage of the listed building, so it would be difficult but not impossible. The sports pitches and the play area outside the Trinity are in what was the original park, so they've clearly allowed some building in the past. I would say the large area at the front of the hall going down towards the Holte End and the Church would be completely off limits. The bit at the side where the existing play areas are, much less so.