Villa Park Redevelopment

[chrisw1]

Would it be possible to reconstruct the Witton Lane into a Thunderbirds type facility where the stand rises from a recessed bunker topped with palm trees into a ginormous triple decker holding at least 25,000 with beer piped intravenously to each seat on match days?

No, I don't think so tbh.  There would be all sorts of engineering issues and the costs would be prohibitive.  And you're not allowed alcohol in the stand either, so I'd say it's a non starter really.

Also, I'm no arborist but would palm trees survive in  such an environment?

I think they may survive, but a non indigenous species like that would certainly look incongruous in the environs of Aston.

[not3bad]

^^ Long term certainly. Need to be sure the demand is there at current ticket prices. If we have to discount them to sell out it defeats the objective for the owners.

Happy with the imagination shown by the NS expansion. I wonder if we could get many more seats in the Witton Lane Stand by re-profiling the lower tier to use the space between that and the pitch? No need to impact the houses behind it then.

Also, if safe-standing could go from a ratio of 1:1 to 1:1.4 or something we could go higher still. Purslow used to talk about 1:1.8 which would be fantastic.

Isn’t the lower tier of the North Stand ripe for safe standing?  It would complement the holte end well and make both ends of the ground hostile (can’t think of a better word).  Might push the total capacity up a few thousand too.

Sounds like a low hanging fruit. Wonder if it has been discussed.

[Brazilian Villain]

Isn’t the lower tier of the North Stand ripe for safe standing?  It would complement the holte end well and make both ends of the ground hostile (can’t think of a better word).  Might push the total capacity up a few thousand too.

Sounds like a low hanging fruit.

Certainly more so than palm trees.

[chrisw1]

Safe standing doesn't increase capacity, unfortunately.

[Ads]

The Trinity Road would be bigger. The upper tier tapers in, while we have that pavilion style box near the Holte.

[Percy McCarthy]

Safe standing doesn't increase capacity, unfortunately.

Under current legislation, yes. Get the regulator on the case.

[Mellin]

With the Thunderbirds idea rightly ruled out as nonsensical, I was wondering about elevated seating. Specifically, chairs with low emission thrusters attached to the base, operated by the ticket holder, meaning they can watch the game from a steady height directly above the pitch. This should increase capacity by approx 2,000 without too many collisions and fatalities. If that sounds TOO ridiculous, then some form of manufactured gravitational/magnetic field, with seats controlled by the club to prevent incident/disruption when someone gets smarts and propels themselves after a long ball.

[Somniloquism]

We just need to flip the sun rotations so the houses aren't north of the stadium but South of it.

[Mellin]

Can't believe I didn't think of that. So simple.

[Steve67]

^^ Long term certainly. Need to be sure the demand is there at current ticket prices. If we have to discount them to sell out it defeats the objective for the owners.

Happy with the imagination shown by the NS expansion. I wonder if we could get many more seats in the Witton Lane Stand by re-profiling the lower tier to use the space between that and the pitch? No need to impact the houses behind it then.

Also, if safe-standing could go from a ratio of 1:1 to 1:1.4 or something we could go higher still. Purslow used to talk about 1:1.8 which would be fantastic.

Isn’t the lower tier of the North Stand ripe for safe standing?  It would complement the holte end well and make both ends of the ground hostile (can’t think of a better word).  Might push the total capacity up a few thousand too.

Sounds like a low hanging fruit. Wonder if it has been discussed.

This is what they have at the Allianz Arena. Works a treat.

[Mellin]

Thought you'd quoted me there. Was about to load up Ryanair and Ticketmaster

[chrisw1]

With the Thunderbirds idea rightly ruled out as nonsensical, I was wondering about elevated seating. Specifically, chairs with low emission thrusters attached to the base, operated by the ticket holder, meaning they can watch the game from a steady height directly above the pitch. This should increase capacity by approx 2,000 without too many collisions and fatalities. If that sounds TOO ridiculous, then some form of manufactured gravitational/magnetic field, with seats controlled by the club to prevent incident/disruption when someone gets smarts and propels themselves after a long ball.

This is all very well in theory, but the cost per seat is going to mean this is almost certainly going to be GA+ seating.  With us struggling to sell out the eat-all-you-want buffet, I'm not sure we'd have the demand for this?

[LeeB]

With the Thunderbirds idea rightly ruled out as nonsensical, I was wondering about elevated seating. Specifically, chairs with low emission thrusters attached to the base, operated by the ticket holder, meaning they can watch the game from a steady height directly above the pitch. This should increase capacity by approx 2,000 without too many collisions and fatalities. If that sounds TOO ridiculous, then some form of manufactured gravitational/magnetic field, with seats controlled by the club to prevent incident/disruption when someone gets smarts and propels themselves after a long ball.

This is all very well in theory, but the cost per seat is going to mean this is almost certainly going to be GA+ seating.  With us struggling to sell out the eat-all-you-want buffet, I'm not sure we'd have the demand for this?

We'd have bring in Flightscanner as a ticketing partner. That might be another revenue stream. Maybe sell them duty free as well? One for the legal bods.

[IFWaters]

Would it be possible to reconstruct the Witton Lane into a Thunderbirds type facility where the stand rises from a recessed bunker topped with palm trees into a ginormous triple decker holding at least 25,000 with beer piped intravenously to each seat on match days?

No, I don't think so tbh.  There would be all sorts of engineering issues and the costs would be prohibitive.  And you're not allowed alcohol in the stand either, so I'd say it's a non starter really.

Also, I'm no arborist but would palm trees survive in  such an environment?

I think they may survive, but a non indigenous species like that would certainly look incongruous in the environs of Aston.

They work on Tracy Island so that's good enough for me. Plus they will soon be the predominant native species when the tangerine buffoon starts pumping millions more tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere reopening every coalmine between here and Tuscaloosa.

Another ground development suggestion, isn't it about time we monetised our most famous fans with a premium GA+ offering of tickets in a Royal Box, and The Tom Hanks Lounge?

[Percy McCarthy]

We could have a section for cryogenically frozen heads. We’d fit loads of them in.