^^ Comment under the YouTube video in response to someone who said it makes “zero sense” not demolishing and rebuilding:
It makes zero sense if you don't know anything about it sure. Let me educate you sir/madam.
Major utilities run beneath the North Stand, not just for the whole of Villa Park, but for some of the surrounding buildings. A full demolition wouldn't just have meant knocking down concrete. It would have required diverting or protecting power, water, drainage, communications, obtaining approvals from the utility providers, carrying out the diversion works and only then could you begin demolition.
Doing the full build from scratch that way would take at least 2 years, risk of not completing in time for 2028 Euros.
The massive blue Gottwald crane you see is the only one of that version in existence and its extremely in demand. this summer was the only time it was available, its literally booked up across Europe for years. This is also a MAJOR driver for the 1 year accelerated timeline. Its takes 3 bloody days just to deploy the beast (its going to take the cross beam off the north stand in the coming week).
So in summary
build around what you've got in 1 year = Common sense, financially lower cost, lower risk of not completing for Euro 2028
Knock down, start from scratch and build in 2 years = Not common sense, financially unsound, huge risk of not completing for Euro 2028
I hope that helps.
Cheers Percy, I haven’t been keeping up to date on this so appreciate the short explainer.
As a member and non STH I’m resigned to barely being at VP this season so.just want it done as quickly as possible
