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Author Topic: Villa Park Redevelopment  (Read 529485 times)

Offline in exile

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #315 on: March 30, 2021, 11:19:21 AM »
As long as disabled parking is catered for, I like the Box Park kind of idea.

Offline chrisw1

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #316 on: March 30, 2021, 11:30:51 AM »
A home game once every other week isn't going to sustain a Box Park type deveolpment.  Yes nicer space for mobile street food vendors and some covered areas would be good, but there just wouldn't be the custom for a permanent leisure venue here. 

Offline dave.woodhall

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #317 on: March 30, 2021, 11:39:49 AM »
A home game once every other week isn't going to sustain a Box Park type deveolpment.  Yes nicer space for mobile street food vendors and some covered areas would be good, but there just wouldn't be the custom for a permanent leisure venue here. 

Pre-lockdown, what was the demand for that Digbeth Dining Club thing once the novelty had worn off?

Offline chrisw1

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #318 on: March 30, 2021, 11:50:25 AM »
A home game once every other week isn't going to sustain a Box Park type deveolpment.  Yes nicer space for mobile street food vendors and some covered areas would be good, but there just wouldn't be the custom for a permanent leisure venue here. 

Pre-lockdown, what was the demand for that Digbeth Dining Club thing once the novelty had worn off?
You mean in the North Stand car park?  Always seemed very busy, but not sure how many fans are up for paying £8-9 quid for pre match food in the long run.  Of course the club loose money on their own catering too.  Still, I thought it created a good atmoshere and in a more structured environmemt with access to bars and toilets etc it could be very good.

Online LeeB

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #319 on: March 30, 2021, 12:44:29 PM »
A home game once every other week isn't going to sustain a Box Park type deveolpment.  Yes nicer space for mobile street food vendors and some covered areas would be good, but there just wouldn't be the custom for a permanent leisure venue here. 

Pre-lockdown, what was the demand for that Digbeth Dining Club thing once the novelty had worn off?

Without using it myself because we'd been stuffing ourselves in the Barton's beforehand, I walk to the North Stand  past them and they always seemed to be busy, though the one time I did want something they didn't have the facility to take cards which was a bit crap.

Offline eamonn

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #320 on: March 30, 2021, 01:12:02 PM »
That will likely change post-Covid with cards increasingly being accepted without charge almost everywhere.

Offline N'ZMAV

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #321 on: March 30, 2021, 01:18:42 PM »
A home game once every other week isn't going to sustain a Box Park type deveolpment.  Yes nicer space for mobile street food vendors and some covered areas would be good, but there just wouldn't be the custom for a permanent leisure venue here. 

Pre-lockdown, what was the demand for that Digbeth Dining Club thing once the novelty had worn off?
You mean in the North Stand car park?  Always seemed very busy, but not sure how many fans are up for paying £8-9 quid for pre match food in the long run.  Of course the club loose money on their own catering too.  Still, I thought it created a good atmoshere and in a more structured environmemt with access to bars and toilets etc it could be very good.
it'll probably be £8-9 a pint once all this shit is out the way

Offline dave.woodhall

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #322 on: March 30, 2021, 02:35:56 PM »
It's a balancing act. Some years ago under Lerner the healthy food options were announced and someone on here charmingly replied that there were too many wankers going to football now and lads wanted pies and burgers. Equally, the loud minority believe that everybody wants the sort of expensive stuff that they do. I've long thought that the biggest problem in getting supporters spending time and money at the ground is that there's nothing else around Villa Park for miles so we've got used to the idea of meeting away from there  and arriving at the match later.

Online paul_e

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #323 on: March 30, 2021, 03:34:53 PM »
It's a balancing act. Some years ago under Lerner the healthy food options were announced and someone on here charmingly replied that there were too many wankers going to football now and lads wanted pies and burgers. Equally, the loud minority believe that everybody wants the sort of expensive stuff that they do. I've long thought that the biggest problem in getting supporters spending time and money at the ground is that there's nothing else around Villa Park for miles so we've got used to the idea of meeting away from there  and arriving at the match later.

That was always my plan when I went regularly, if I was at the ground much earlier than 10minutes before kick off it was very rare. I think the club could do with organising a lot more events on match day (there were the family fun days a while back that seemed pretty popular and having a space or 2 that are easy to setup for things like that would be useful, could do things like kit launches and live player interviews to get more out of it.

Offline Toronto Villa

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #324 on: March 30, 2021, 04:03:12 PM »
Having lived in North America for a long time the one thing that is glaringly different is the choice of food inside and outside of the ground vs what we see out here. Football grounds have always been about getting as many people in, serving them a basic menu as quickly as possible in a compressed amount of time. A part of the solution is changing the overall experience of coming to be sports event versus focusing on one thing. From what I have read it apppears Spurs have gone down that road, but then their new stadium allows them to do that versus older stadiums across the country.

Online LeeB

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #325 on: March 30, 2021, 04:15:09 PM »
When we went to Hamburg, their fan park was off site and the fans were shuttled on free buses, maybe something similar is the answer.

Offline Ad@m

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #326 on: March 30, 2021, 04:16:46 PM »
Having lived in North America for a long time the one thing that is glaringly different is the choice of food inside and outside of the ground vs what we see out here. Football grounds have always been about getting as many people in, serving them a basic menu as quickly as possible in a compressed amount of time. A part of the solution is changing the overall experience of coming to be sports event versus focusing on one thing. From what I have read it apppears Spurs have gone down that road, but then their new stadium allows them to do that versus older stadiums across the country.

Whilst I agree with you, some of the issues are out of the clubs control though.

Firstly, US sports take ages!!!  If you've got a whole day at the game then you can take your time a bit more.  It's more akin to cricket in the UK where adding an hour before the start isn't a massive impact when you plan to be there all day anyway.  Whereas a game of football is done and dusted in an afternoon - turn up 1/2 hours early and you've doubled the amount of time you're out of the house.

Then there's the historic issue of alcohol.  Again, at a cricket match in the UK or any US sport you can go and get some food, bring it back to your seat and take your time over it.  Football is all about squeezing as much food and drink in to the bits around the game as quickly as possible, which lends itself to basic stuff akin to fast food.  If you could drink beer in the stands at a football match it would make more varied food options more viable.

Offline dave.woodhall

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #327 on: March 30, 2021, 04:24:49 PM »
As someone once said about beer at football - in the clubs' ideal world it would be compulsory to buy and illegal to drink.

Offline ChicagoLion

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #328 on: March 30, 2021, 04:28:39 PM »
Food is far more important for Americans, what ever they do wherever they go there is food available and usually lots of it. Only in the US will you see someone go to the bar and order shit loads of food and then say as an afterthought, “does anybody want any drinks”

Offline dave.woodhall

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Re: Villa Park Redevelopment
« Reply #329 on: March 30, 2021, 04:35:43 PM »
Food is far more important for Americans, what ever they do wherever they go there is food available and usually lots of it. Only in the US will you see someone go to the bar and order shit loads of food and then say as an afterthought, “does anybody want any drinks”

That's a point I'd never thought about before but it's true. Americans have the same attitude to food as we do to beer. Whatever the occasion, it's there.

 


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