Villa Park Redevelopment

[Drummond]

I'd have thought Comcast would want to be involved in any decision-making and that NSWE would want them to be, given their track record.

As such, putting it on hold is the right thing to do. The way it's been handled is crap though.

Perhaps there are lots of options, when you see this thread we've come up with loads, and they are doing a full assessment of them all before finalising the plan. I'm not sure there are many ways they could have gone about it without pissing someone off.

[AV82EC]

There may well be 200 empty seats on average but a lot of that is down to the perception that you can't buy them. If the club announced at the start of the week how many were left and they're on general sale, then updated two days before the match, they'd sell.

Some other clubs don't let you select a seat, you select an area of the ground and they allocate you one, ensuring you get, say 3 groups of 2 people in 6 consecutive seats rather than say, each group with an empty seat between.

I bet you what you like we have that pretty soon.

It's incredibly unpopular.

But if it fills the stadium and we don’t have the single seat issue?

Fans still won't like it. Not being able to pick where you sit would go down like a lead balloon.

With Heck in charge we seem to like lead balloons so watch this space.

[paul_e]

There may well be 200 empty seats on average but a lot of that is down to the perception that you can't buy them. If the club announced at the start of the week how many were left and they're on general sale, then updated two days before the match, they'd sell.

Some other clubs don't let you select a seat, you select an area of the ground and they allocate you one, ensuring you get, say 3 groups of 2 people in 6 consecutive seats rather than say, each group with an empty seat between.

I bet you what you like we have that pretty soon.

It's incredibly unpopular.

But if it fills the stadium and we don’t have the single seat issue?

Fans still won't like it. Not being able to pick where you sit would go down like a lead balloon.

More likely I suspect is the 'solution' a lot of theatres and cinemas have which is that they won't let you buy a block of seats that creates a single seat.

[Dogtanian]

A simple thing they could do is change the SOLD OUT text on the website to something like RETURNS ONLY, and offer a form to get your email to let you know when there are tickets returned.

I sometimes get my partner a ticket when he isn't working and for ages once I saw that sold out bit I never thought to come back and check periodically. I bet other people don't consider returns or forget to look back too.

[Dogtanian]

There may well be 200 empty seats on average but a lot of that is down to the perception that you can't buy them. If the club announced at the start of the week how many were left and they're on general sale, then updated two days before the match, they'd sell.

Some other clubs don't let you select a seat, you select an area of the ground and they allocate you one, ensuring you get, say 3 groups of 2 people in 6 consecutive seats rather than say, each group with an empty seat between.

I bet you what you like we have that pretty soon.

It's incredibly unpopular.

But if it fills the stadium and we don’t have the single seat issue?

Fans still won't like it. Not being able to pick where you sit would go down like a lead balloon.

More likely I suspect is the 'solution' a lot of theatres and cinemas have which is that they won't let you buy a block of seats that creates a single seat.

But remember, a lot of this will be down to the high percentage of season ticket holders who have kept their seats a long time. If someone drops out or moves or dies, it can leave a single which may be there for years.

[PeterWithesShin]

It would be an idea if the Villa ticket page on Twitter gave updates on availability. The whole point of it is for ticket info so it wouldn't take much to do a post saying there's still tickets available for XYZ matches.

[eamonn]

The pre-war Norwich ground, The Nest took some beating:

The only time I ever smoked crack was in a house just behind there.

How did it go?

[Villan82]

Looking again on google maps, I wonder would this be a possibilty?

1. Build a new North Stand and keep playing at Villa Park with a 36,000 capacity. 18 months-24 months
2. Buy up land/houses to allow re-route of Witton Lane so that we can develop that stand
3. When the enlarged site on that side is sorted look into building the new Witton Lane Stand behind the existing Witton Lane stand, as they did at Anfield thus allowing us to keep playing at Villa Park in front of c. 40,000-50,000 (depending on the status of the North Stand) while the new Witton Lane is under construction
4. Do the Trinity Road works that were designed to get its capacity up (seating the area where the old tunnel was, reforming the exist etc.
5. When all is complete you have your new 60,000 seater stadium and we haven't had to move and we probably have spent less than a total rebuild would require.

[Sexual Ealing]

The pre-war Norwich ground, The Nest took some beating:

The only time I ever smoked crack was in a house just behind there.

How did it go?

Drew 0-0.

[pauliewalnuts]

The pre-war Norwich ground, The Nest took some beating:

The only time I ever smoked crack was in a house just behind there.

How did it go?

It’s very moreish.

[Sexual Ealing]

It is if you like feeling like you’re having a heart attack.

[UK Redsox]

It is if you like feeling like you’re having a heart attack.

"It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
"Ask a glass of water."

[Chris Harte]

Looking again on google maps, I wonder would this be a possibilty?

1. Build a new North Stand and keep playing at Villa Park with a 36,000 capacity. 18 months-24 months
2. Buy up land/houses to allow re-route of Witton Lane so that we can develop that stand
3. When the enlarged site on that side is sorted look into building the new Witton Lane Stand behind the existing Witton Lane stand, as they did at Anfield thus allowing us to keep playing at Villa Park in front of c. 40,000-50,000 (depending on the status of the North Stand) while the new Witton Lane is under construction
4. Do the Trinity Road works that were designed to get its capacity up (seating the area where the old tunnel was, reforming the exist etc.
5. When all is complete you have your new 60,000 seater stadium and we haven't had to move and we probably have spent less than a total rebuild would require.

Seems like the common sense plan to me.

Only thing I would add is improvements to the Holte, expansion of upper and lower concourses, the lower possibly by removing or lowering (if local water table allows) the Holte Suite/Lower Grounds.

[oldhill_avfc]

A sequential development has a lot going for it - but you’ve got to build two new stands and significantly upgrade the two others - that takes a lot of time.

You’d also be wise to make the option of clearing the houses behind whitton lane, re-routing whitton lane and ideally shutting off trinity road entirely is all tied up before you start any of the work.

If the site can be extended then I’d assume the economics point to a Spurs type visionary rebuild.

[Olneythelonely]

The pre-war Norwich ground, The Nest took some beating:

The only time I ever smoked crack was in a house just behind there.

How did it go?

It’s very moreish.

Not from my one go. It was bullshit.