Villa Park Redevelopment

[Toronto Villa]

I think it looks really good. Most importantly we get to stay at Villa Park which is a magnificent venue and somewhere we are very strong. I’ve gone back and forth on the new ground or stay thing over the years but given how we play there and how it looks on match days and especially at night the extra seats and surrounding improvements will make Villa Park a place other fans think as a proper football ground for a club that hasn’t entirely given up on its history.

[rob_bridge]

BBC reporting it. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cn91e9yxd95o

Don't worry, they still managed to squeeze a Man Utd mention into the article.

The Beeb really do have an unhealthy obsession with Rashford. Proper Stalker Behaviour.

[Duncan Shaw]

BBC reporting it. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cn91e9yxd95o

Don't worry, they still managed to squeeze a Man Utd mention into the article.

The Beeb really do have an unhealthy obsession with Rashford. Proper Stalker Behaviour.

Some great comments from away fans in the HYS comments on the Beeb article.  As much as we moan about it, alot of them seem to love it!!

[kippaxvilla2]

Anyone would think Villa Park had never exceeded 42000 before. I grew up with crowds of up to 60000 at Villa Park. I don’t recall much chaos outside. People are very precious these days.

Back then there were less cars, more buses and trams, and a lot more people living in walking distance of the ground.

And trams.

And horse and carts.  Where you could buy a pint a programme written in quill as well as a meat n potato pie and still have change of a thrupenny bit.

[Olneythelonely]

Now it's official, I think it looks good on all the renders and reducing the impact on capacity during the season is clearly a better idea than dropping us down to 34k-ish for 18+ months.

It sounds like the station upgrade will go ahead as well (but maybe not at exactly the same time) which is great news.

It'll be interesting to see what comes after this  because if they can even out the top of the holte and expand Witton Lane you'd think we could be up around 60k but those 2 feel like massive tasks that would need a lot of support from the council, mayor and community. Hopefully the Warehouse can serve as a community space to create the goodwill we'd need.

The station upgrade is very much needed but won’t help with train capacity.

The station upgrades are more for when it is packed out to make it safer for fans with more access options and less standing packed too close to edges. They might even extend the platforms so bigger trains could be used at set times to get people back to Birmingham.

I think extending the platforms is definitely going to happen.

I don’t think bigger trains will. Certainly not by 2027 anyway. And you’d have to extend loads of other platforms too.

[rob_bridge]

BBC reporting it. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cn91e9yxd95o

Don't worry, they still managed to squeeze a Man Utd mention into the article.

The Beeb really do have an unhealthy obsession with Rashford. Proper Stalker Behaviour.

Some great comments from away fans in the HYS comments on the Beeb article.  As much as we moan about it, alot of them seem to love it!!

Villa Park seems to be an awful lot of 'Other Fans' favourite ground. There are probably numerous reasons but the fact it is a ground, not a stadium is probably a big factor for the more tenured folks.

[Dave P]

Well there's one team who we can safely say it isn't their second favourite ground.  And they have 2 (two) threads on their forum stating it still wont be as big as the proposed wheels blunderdome and it isn't in Birmingham and not having Birmingham in our name will stunt our growth and wont get us revenue and we'll get eclipsed any day now. 

[Somniloquism]

Have they complained that the Council are building a foot bridge for us and not saving money for a tunnel for them?

[Ads]

There's some twat on SHA talking about Aston not being in Birmingham. Called Welsh Blue.

Don't sniff glue kids.

[Ads]

Villa struggle for revenue because they have no recent success but also their name is meaningless to overseas investors. It's not even on a map of England. And their location has no skyline.

How many generations of inbreeding does it take to be this thick?

Aston Villa; who have backing from the richest non-State owners in NWSE (Egypt and US respectively), who have also received investment from a 3rd owner, the investment arm of Comcast (market cap £125bn), with income in excess of quarter billion and likely to go to north of £300m in the next financials, struggle for income and overseas investors.

Fuck me.

[jon collett]

Ironically, the North Stand would probably have more chance of being listed than the old Trinity.

We tried!

[astonvilla82]

Villa struggle for revenue because they have no recent success but also their name is meaningless to overseas investors. It's not even on a map of England. And their location has no skyline.

How many generations of inbreeding does it take to be this thick?

Aston Villa; who have backing from the richest non-State owners in NWSE (Egypt and US respectively), who have also received investment from a 3rd owner, the investment arm of Comcast (market cap £125bn), with income in excess of quarter billion and likely to go to north of £300m in the next financials, struggle for income and overseas investors.

Fuck me.

Next they be saying that Prince William is related to some Nazi geezer called Adolf

[FrankyH]

Thick is a bit strong , when most of them seem to have a PHD in Geography . Well the Geography of Aston, Digbeth and Small Heath.

[LeeS]

So Heck was planning this all along. His decision to can the original plans that would have seen our capacity reduced wasn’t a big smokescreen for their lack of ambition after all. Blimey

[Clampy]

I've just had a quick look. One chap reckons we wont ever be successful financially because our location does not have a skyline. And no, I'm not making that up.