The demolition of the old Trinity very neatly illustrates DE’s corner shop mentality. A long-term plan would’ve been necessary to retain it, conceived even before the Holte End and Witton Lane stands were redeveloped, in order to compensate for the lower capacity and reduced facilities when compared to a complete new build. Mr Aston Villa didn’t have this vision, he approached each stand as a stand-alone project, one after the other.I enjoyed listening to Gary Naylor contextualising Aston Villa’s early 80s success in the brilliant Nessun Dorma podcast, touching on the London and Manchester press, and the role of Villa Park in the collective football consciousness. I always think that Birmingham has a strange relationship with its past, and doesn’t value its own history enough. Perhaps the fact that Manzoni’s destruction of parts of the historic city was intended to usher in a progressive future, but instead accompanied economic downturn, is in some way to blame. You might think that either (like Manzoni) there wasn’t anything valuable to lose, or (like his opponents) that much of what was valuable had been lost. Villa Park is almost a microcosm of this, with HDE in the Manzoni role.
Let me know if you do it again. I would enjoy that.
Quote from: London Villan on March 08, 2021, 01:27:28 PM40,000 seat commonwealth games stadium. Good opportunity to get it sorted.I think it's only going to hold 30k now, and the two temporary ends will be completely open to the elements. Not sure if I'd fancy sitting in a temporary stand in the pissing rain in the middle of January!If we redevelop a stand at a time I don't think we would need to move anywhere - when we were rebuilding the Holte and the Trinity we were able to use parts of the stands for some of the season, and even if not we are only losing about 7k off the capacity without the North Stand.
40,000 seat commonwealth games stadium. Good opportunity to get it sorted.
Quote from: Pat Mustard on March 08, 2021, 01:57:01 PMQuote from: London Villan on March 08, 2021, 01:27:28 PM40,000 seat commonwealth games stadium. Good opportunity to get it sorted.I think it's only going to hold 30k now, and the two temporary ends will be completely open to the elements. Not sure if I'd fancy sitting in a temporary stand in the pissing rain in the middle of January!If we redevelop a stand at a time I don't think we would need to move anywhere - when we were rebuilding the Holte and the Trinity we were able to use parts of the stands for some of the season, and even if not we are only losing about 7k off the capacity without the North Stand.It really does sound like Birmingham is determined to put on the shittest, cheapest games possible. We've already decided we aren't going to bother with an athletes' village. Either do it properly or don't fucking bother.
Quote from: Ads on March 08, 2021, 11:01:42 AMA full Villa Park at night, bouncing, one of the greatest places on earth. The atmosphere at the Everton game at the start of last season, it was like a release of a decade of shite.The atmosphere at the start was brilliant. The atmosphere at the end with the last minute goal was simply sensational.
A full Villa Park at night, bouncing, one of the greatest places on earth. The atmosphere at the Everton game at the start of last season, it was like a release of a decade of shite.
I don't think I'll ever witness an atmosphere at VP like the Atletico Madrid game in the late 90s.
I would throw in the Utd LC Semi with those gamesI watched the Everton game on the TV, at 63 i should stop eating onion sandwiches as they have a tearful effect on me
Anyone who has an interest in Birmingham history should try what myself and a few others did a couple of years back. We met up in town then joined the canal at Brindley Place and walked it all the way to the Swan and Mitre before heading to Villa Park. A couple of bottles of beer on the way it was a great way to get to Villa park and really interesting perspective on the city's canals. It was knackering though but we took it steady and got to the Swan and Mitre in about an hour.
Quote from: dave.woodhall on March 08, 2021, 11:59:07 AMQuote from: Drummond on March 08, 2021, 11:49:58 AMI'd almost have no issue with a bowl-type effect if they rebuilt the North Stand. but leave the Holte as a stand on it's own, I guess actually that would then be a horseshoe?Anyway, I reckon we could get planning permission to build the Witton Stand over the road, as we have with the Trinity. I also think there's a huge amount of space to re-do the North as a monster of a stand. In terms of capacity to aim for, I think 50k is conservative, we should go for more.You'd be imposing on the housing behind Witton Lane. And building over the road would do nothing to improve the concourse areas in the lower Witton, which is a large part of the problem with the current stand.
Quote from: Drummond on March 08, 2021, 11:49:58 AMI'd almost have no issue with a bowl-type effect if they rebuilt the North Stand. but leave the Holte as a stand on it's own, I guess actually that would then be a horseshoe?Anyway, I reckon we could get planning permission to build the Witton Stand over the road, as we have with the Trinity. I also think there's a huge amount of space to re-do the North as a monster of a stand. In terms of capacity to aim for, I think 50k is conservative, we should go for more.You'd be imposing on the housing behind Witton Lane.
I'd almost have no issue with a bowl-type effect if they rebuilt the North Stand. but leave the Holte as a stand on it's own, I guess actually that would then be a horseshoe?Anyway, I reckon we could get planning permission to build the Witton Stand over the road, as we have with the Trinity. I also think there's a huge amount of space to re-do the North as a monster of a stand. In terms of capacity to aim for, I think 50k is conservative, we should go for more.