Villa Park Redevelopment

[dave.woodhall]

True re Chelsea but I wonder how much they make per supporter in the ground based on ticket price, food and commercials....a lot more per customer than we do, anyway.

Corporates and ticket price definitely (although to be fair, we're making a good job of trying to catch up on the latter) but their ancillaries might not be so impressive as there's a lot of choice outside.

[chrisw1]

True re Chelsea but I wonder how much they make per supporter in the ground based on ticket price, food and commercials....a lot more per customer than we do, anyway.

Corporates and ticket price definitely (although to be fair, we're making a good job of trying to catch up on the latter) but their ancillaries might not be so impressive as there's a lot of choice outside.

We could double our ancillaries if they could just be bothered to serve us.

[The Edge]

True re Chelsea but I wonder how much they make per supporter in the ground based on ticket price, food and commercials....a lot more per customer than we do, anyway.

Corporates and ticket price definitely (although to be fair, we're making a good job of trying to catch up on the latter) but their ancillaries might not be so impressive as there's a lot of choice outside.

We could double our ancillaries if they could just be bothered to serve us.

Great point

[Gareth]

True re Chelsea but I wonder how much they make per supporter in the ground based on ticket price, food and commercials....a lot more per customer than we do, anyway.

Corporates and ticket price definitely (although to be fair, we're making a good job of trying to catch up on the latter) but their ancillaries might not be so impressive as there's a lot of choice outside.

We could double our ancillaries if they could just be bothered to serve us.

Plebs are at the back of the queue…it’s hospitality, hospitality, hospitality….rest of us are completely irrelevant.

If there was any inclination for them to improve it would have been done very very easily

[The Edge]

Interesting fact: The name Plebs comes from a district of ancient Rome called Pleb where all the poor people lived.
*Courtesy of Stephen Fry and QI.

[Gareth]

Interesting fact: The name Plebs comes from a district of ancient Rome called Pleb where all the poor people lived.
*Courtesy of Stephen Fry and QI.

Everydays a school day

[Percy McCarthy]

Interesting fact: The name Plebs comes from a district of ancient Rome called Pleb where all the poor people lived.
*Courtesy of Stephen Fry and QI.

Everydays a school day

And another - every day’s.

[Border villan]

Interesting fact: The name Plebs comes from a district of ancient Rome called Pleb where all the poor people lived.
*Courtesy of Stephen Fry and QI.

Everydays a school day

Unless your school is closed because of RAAC.

[Gareth]

Interesting fact: The name Plebs comes from a district of ancient Rome called Pleb where all the poor people lived.
*Courtesy of Stephen Fry and QI.

Everydays a school day

And another - every day’s.

:-) user error!

[Percy McCarthy]

Interesting fact: The name Plebs comes from a district of ancient Rome called Pleb where all the poor people lived.
*Courtesy of Stephen Fry and QI.

Everydays a school day

And another - every day’s.

:-) user error!

Haha. Sorry, I only posted it because of the gist of your post.

[SoccerHQ]

It begs the question really that rather than the site we currently occupy being the problem, is it more that Brum itself is not equipped to deal with a big fuck off crowd thanks to the poor infrastructure?

Yep. Tram should've been extended further out but we all know the short sightedness and dithering while other major cities just got on building it. Pretty sure there's yet another issue on Broad street so can't even get to Edgbaston Village from the centre.

If 20 years ago they'd been foresight to extend it down the A34 and towards Star City that would at least give two stops within 10 minutes walking distance of VP. Not perfect but better than bottleneck junction we currently have for the foreseeable.

Will be a major embarrassment if we're overlooked for the Euros bid. I think for that we'd just build the stand and it would be a repeat of commonwealth games, just have endless shuttle buses dotted around Brum and big car parks and get fans in that way given it would be more of an international crowd for that tournament.

Isn't there some tunnel needed to reach the Academy building so I assume that's tied in with the consultation. Interested how long the process took to rebuild Perry Barr station (redevelopment of University station has also overun by a year and still isn't finished).

It's not looking good.

[pauliewalnuts]

The city can easily manage big crowds, as it has done for years for football and cricket matches, Commonwealth Games, endless conventions (which attract way more people than a football match).

The problem with transport to Villa Park goes beyond actual available infrastructure, though. It is also about organisation.

Driving and parking up and getting away from the ground has always been a bit challenging - as you'd expect - but I am pretty sure the traffic situation up Aston Hall Road towards Lichfield Road and ultimately the motorway has been seriously, seriously worse than it was 10 years ago because of disappearing one way systems.

[The Edge]

It begs the question really that rather than the site we currently occupy being the problem, is it more that Brum itself is not equipped to deal with a big fuck off crowd thanks to the poor infrastructure?

Yep. Tram should've been extended further out but we all know the short sightedness and dithering while other major cities just got on building it. Pretty sure there's yet another issue on Broad street so can't even get to Edgbaston Village from the centre.

If 20 years ago they'd been foresight to extend it down the A34 and towards Star City that would at least give two stops within 10 minutes walking distance of VP. Not perfect but better than bottleneck junction we currently have for the foreseeable.

Will be a major embarrassment if we're overlooked for the Euros bid. I think for that we'd just build the stand and it would be a repeat of commonwealth games, just have endless shuttle buses dotted around Brum and big car parks and get fans in that way given it would be more of an international crowd for that tournament.

Isn't there some tunnel needed to reach the Academy building so I assume that's tied in with the consultation. Interested how long the process took to rebuild Perry Barr station (redevelopment of University station has also overun by a year and still isn't finished).

It's not looking good.

The tram extension for HS2 Curzon St has been built right to the top of Digbeth high street and as such will serve people heading to St Andrews. As far as I know there's no firm plans yet to extend it either down Lichfield Rd or the A34. Great forward planning.

[pauliewalnuts]

They're never going to build a tram line in an area where the main justification is 25 or so days a year, so extending it up Lichfield Road would have to fight it out as an option with lots of other potential routes

[Chap]

The council bottled building trams up the A34, giving in to the WRATS (Walsall Road against trams) brigade a number of years back. They somehow managed to get the sprint bus lanes through though, but I’ve not seen a sprint bus yet and doubt I will!!🙁