Villa Park Redevelopment

[London Villan]

Wembley is very much a destination now though and id guess there are plenty if events at the arena as well as the stadium. The semi permanent idea would be good though.

[Ad@m]

Do any of the current stands lend themselves to safe standing?

The Lower Holte would be ideal.  Adding maybe 2-3k to the capacity and also adding to the atmosphere.  Having googled it, Xia reckoned that two areas of the lower holte could be used.  Might as well do the whole thing and avoid issued with standing/sitting in the same stand. 

Someone more qualified than me will be able to confirm but I don't think you could increase the capacity of an already built stand by converting it to safe standing as the capacity is dictated by the safety certificate which is driven by entrances, exits and concourse areas.

But can you get an updated safety certificate assuming access etc is up to scratch?

Probably but the only way it'll show a higher capacity would be if there were more turnstiles, exits, gangways, etc which can't be done without rebuilding the stand.

What if there's already enough to cope with a higher capacity?  I'm not saying there is, but surely an analysis has to be done?

I just don't see why we would've designed the Holte as an all-seater stand, in an era where standing had been fairly recently outlawed, but with the safety standards required for a terrace of a much higher capacity.

[pauliewalnuts]

Who on earth is going to travel into Aston to visit a BoxPark style venue?  No way can somewhere like that survive on 18 match days a season.  A leisure type development is just pie on the sky with the grounds location.  A more semi permanent area for mobile street food vendors with outdoor seating and some bars and perhaps a bit of weather cover could be an option though I guess.

Villa Park is used way more often than Wembley so how does box park survive?

It’s surrounded by huge resi towers now.  I think there’s also a uni campus there too.

Decent mobile street food options, with coverings, is probably the most viable option at Villa Park.

Yeah I get that and Aston is hardly known for its thriving nightlife nowadays.But with the amount of matchday pubs we've lost around the ground and the fact that we're talking about extending the ground to around 50,000 something along those lines could be a good move. And don't forget it would be owned and run by the club and could be a valuable income stream on matchday.

19 days of the year?

That's not a revenue stream.

[Lastfootstamper]

Has there been anything to suggest that 'safe standing' might be a goer in the UK any time soon? Given recent events at citeh and spurs, I'd think not.

[The Edge]

Who on earth is going to travel into Aston to visit a BoxPark style venue?  No way can somewhere like that survive on 18 match days a season.  A leisure type development is just pie on the sky with the grounds location.  A more semi permanent area for mobile street food vendors with outdoor seating and some bars and perhaps a bit of weather cover could be an option though I guess.

Villa Park is used way more often than Wembley so how does box park survive?

It’s surrounded by huge resi towers now.  I think there’s also a uni campus there too.

Decent mobile street food options, with coverings, is probably the most viable option at Villa Park.

Yeah I get that and Aston is hardly known for its thriving nightlife nowadays.But with the amount of matchday pubs we've lost around the ground and the fact that we're talking about extending the ground to around 50,000 something along those lines could be a good move. And don't forget it would be owned and run by the club and could be a valuable income stream on matchday.

19 days of the year?

That's not a revenue stream.

All the corporate is only 19 days a year. Is that not a revenue stream then?

[pauliewalnuts]

Who on earth is going to travel into Aston to visit a BoxPark style venue?  No way can somewhere like that survive on 18 match days a season.  A leisure type development is just pie on the sky with the grounds location.  A more semi permanent area for mobile street food vendors with outdoor seating and some bars and perhaps a bit of weather cover could be an option though I guess.

Villa Park is used way more often than Wembley so how does box park survive?

It’s surrounded by huge resi towers now.  I think there’s also a uni campus there too.

Decent mobile street food options, with coverings, is probably the most viable option at Villa Park.

Yeah I get that and Aston is hardly known for its thriving nightlife nowadays.But with the amount of matchday pubs we've lost around the ground and the fact that we're talking about extending the ground to around 50,000 something along those lines could be a good move. And don't forget it would be owned and run by the club and could be a valuable income stream on matchday.

19 days of the year?

That's not a revenue stream.

All the corporate is only 19 days a year. Is that not a revenue stream then?

Yes, it is, but it's an existing function inside the stadium itself. It doesn't require any further investment.

Also, re the earlier post, Wembley will be used way more often, by way more people, than Villa Park is. Not even close.

Two enormous concert venues - the Arena and the Stadium - for a start. Then the massive conferencing venues around it, the residential flats, all of that.

Villa Park has no footfall or commercial activity outside match days.

re numbers: In the last 'normal' year, Wembley Stadium hosted 38 shows, 855,809 tickets sold. That's just concerts at the stadium.

[dave.woodhall]

Wembley is a 365 days a year tourist destination for a start.

[cdbearsfan]

Has there been anything to suggest that 'safe standing' might be a goer in the UK any time soon? Given recent events at citeh and spurs, I'd think not.

What recent events?

[Lastfootstamper]

Has there been anything to suggest that 'safe standing' might be a goer in the UK any time soon? Given recent events at citeh and spurs, I'd think not.

What recent events?

At club level, citeh have reduced the number of seats in their ground in favour of advertising, and similarly spurs fucked their fans off upstairs when they were allowed back in instead of letting them in where advertising held greater sway pitchside. If it becomes a commercial decision, it ain't happening.

[cdbearsfan]

Thanks. I don't recall either of those clubs being massively in favour, Celtic seemed to have got quite far with it pre-Covid, as I recall. No idea if it has been forgotten about, now.

[The Edge]

Who on earth is going to travel into Aston to visit a BoxPark style venue?  No way can somewhere like that survive on 18 match days a season.  A leisure type development is just pie on the sky with the grounds location.  A more semi permanent area for mobile street food vendors with outdoor seating and some bars and perhaps a bit of weather cover could be an option though I guess.

Villa Park is used way more often than Wembley so how does box park survive?

It’s surrounded by huge resi towers now.  I think there’s also a uni campus there too.

Decent mobile street food options, with coverings, is probably the most viable option at Villa Park.

Yeah I get that and Aston is hardly known for its thriving nightlife nowadays.But with the amount of matchday pubs we've lost around the ground and the fact that we're talking about extending the ground to around 50,000 something along those lines could be a good move. And don't forget it would be owned and run by the club and could be a valuable income stream on matchday.

19 days of the year?

That's not a revenue stream.

All the corporate is only 19 days a year. Is that not a revenue stream then?

Yes, it is, but it's an existing function inside the stadium itself. It doesn't require any further investment.

Also, re the earlier post, Wembley will be used way more often, by way more people, than Villa Park is. Not even close.

Two enormous concert venues - the Arena and the Stadium - for a start. Then the massive conferencing venues around it, the residential flats, all of that.

Villa Park has no footfall or commercial activity outside match days.

re numbers: In the last 'normal' year, Wembley Stadium hosted 38 shows, 855,809 tickets sold. That's just concerts at the stadium.

Don't look like I'm winning this one. Oh well probably just a pipe dream. Maybe we can have a beer tent and a few burger  vans .

[chrisw1]

In terms of revenue streams, Box Park make their money by letting out units to permanent restaurants and leisure operators, rent include a percentage of turnover.  No leisure operator will rent and run a permanent unit for 1 match day every other week.

However, the club could do in-house catering or, as suggested earlier mobiile food vendors but with a better covered seated area.  The key thing for me would be to include a few bars and seating under cover - those semi permanent big top type canopies or that type of thing.  But even if they do, with our weather I'm not sure if that will be enough to drag people there early to spend money or not.

[chrisw1]

Liverpool have permission to increase their Anfield Road Stand by 7,000, taking over all capacity to 61,000

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11669/12333093/liverpool-given-green-light-to-increase-anfield-capacity-to-61-000

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/uk-sports/2020/02/12/liverpool-hope-to-launch-anfield-road-redevelopment-by-end-of-2020/

They're also trialling rail seating.

[eamonn]

That makes us jealous so no more about Liverpool, please!

[mr underhill]

is there a case for a 'cheap' option to increase capacity as the ground currently stands  to mitigate the risk of huge infrastructure investment?