Villa Park Redevelopment

[pablo_picasso]

@usav - You seem to really be in Heck's corner on all of this. He's come in with a big reptutation, as a leader in his field, but can you honestly tell me one thing he has got right during his time at the club? Within 6 months, he's fucked the badge launch, vandalised the Holte and stopped the North Stand development. If he can make sweeping decisions like that, why is his priority not to stop the concourses streaming with piss?

First and foremost should be clear and concise communication, and he's even been fucking terrible at that.  Nothing he has done so far has given me even a glimmer of confidence that he 'gets' this football club.

#OnBrand my arse.

This.

And the arrogance that comes with his piss poor communication leaves open serious questions about what he is actually doing & why he is doing it...

[Pat Mustard]

I drove through town today and past the old wholesale markets site that is now called Smithfield. It's still a huge derelict site and not a spade has been put in the ground regarding the proposed developments there. They used it for the commonwealth games two years ago and it held various events last summer. It got me thinking that's all. I would HATE us to leave Villa Park full stop.

I have no idea if it's big enough for a stadium, but a city centre ground negates the need for road and rail links for fans.

That whole area is already masterplanned, and a stadium there would be terrible for the redevelopment of the city. The whole idea is that Smithfield will link the centre of town with Digbeth and beyond, a stadium would act as a massive wall that would come to life every couple of weeks at best.

Only just watched the Heck interview and it’s even worse than I thought. A load of meaningless bollocks, devoid of proper detail or cohesive vision. The most telling point for me though is this idea that 42k is adequate. It’s no coincidence that almost all of the clubs in the top 10 now have bigger grounds than us, and 3 are still increasing capacity - Liverpool and Man City already underway, and West Ham are applying to finally use their stadium to its full 67k capacity.

At precisely the point we are finally punching our weight on the pitch, we are getting left behind off it. Perception matters when it comes to things like this, and pretty soon we could well have a stadium smaller than more than half of the Premier League which doesn’t help us attract the support, coverage and ultimately players we need.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know.

Ha! You may actually have a point, for example what's the story with the Council and costs for Witton station, have the costs of building materials increased beyond the expected budget, how long do we expect the redevelopment to be on hold, are we waiting for a time when Villa aren't playing in the CL, are there no Villa fans who don't have season tickets and want to see games at Villa Park, have we abandoned attracting new supporters and what will happen if on the pitch we dominate English and European football for the next 50 years? Will it still be on hold?

My kingdom for a straight answer.

[PeterWithe]

Agreed although nothing the owners have done suggest they are going to be happy with second best, maybe there is a misstep from Heck or the owners have chosen the wrong guy here.

They have done nothing to suggest that the current state of VP is the height of their ambitions.

[pauliewalnuts]

Even if you get to the final of the Champions League, how many extra home games is that, 6? So if we qualify two years running, AND we get to the final both years, we'd miss out on the revenue for 12 games. (Plus the usual league games of course). But now look at the revenue for league and European games for years 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 etc, plus all the summer concerts and what not.

Exactly.

Champions League revenue isn't through matchday receipts, it is through tv and sponsorship. I can't believe he hasn't worked that one out.

[VillaTim]

Maybe Heck is conditioning everyone gradually for a ground move . Run Villa Park into the ground, "vandalise" sacred areas such as the Holte with Tererace View and Lower Grounds buffet nonsense , and pretty soon everyone will be less precious about moving

[pauliewalnuts]

There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don't know.

Ha! You may actually have a point, for example what's the story with the Council and costs for Witton station, have the costs of building materials increased beyond the expected budget, how long do we expect the redevelopment to be on hold, are we waiting for a time when Villa aren't playing in the CL, are there no Villa fans who don't have season tickets and want to see games at Villa Park, have we abandoned attracting new supporters and what will happen if on the pitch we dominate English and European football for the next 50 years? Will it still be on hold?

My kingdom for a straight answer.

The Council are nothing whatsoever to do with paying for the station upgrade, nothing. And even if they were, this is the period in history where they are as unlikely to be able to as ever.

[pablo_picasso]

Yeah, suggesting he's causing damage is a little OTT.

He damaged our brand identity in the summer, and the overwhelming opinion on here is that he's damaged the Holte End with the addition of that terrace thing. Now this plan will damage our future revenue streams and long term competitiveness. I do recall Clamps, you saying I was being ridiculous when I suggested that going into administration under Tony Xia was a possibility. Remind me how that turned out.

I just think he has an arrogance about him that means that things are his way or none at all & he doesn't give two fucks what the fans think...

I wondered about the branding when he came in & bulldozed it completely whether he was so insecure that he couldn't have a "Perslow project" running while he saw himself in charge.

Im starting to think more & more that is the case..

[jon collett]

Agreed although nothing the owners have done suggest they are going to be happy with second best, maybe there is a misstep from Heck or the owners have chosen the wrong guy here.

They have done nothing to suggest that the current state of VP is the height of their ambitions.

I was thinking this.

It’s the first misstep for a while.

If Heck is not up to it then surely they are going to notice? Most other recruitment has been spot on!

[pauliewalnuts]

It felt pretty fucking empty in that interview - which is basically, their own puppy feeding him questions he himself will have chosen - where he was asked what we're doing instead, and he basically says, we're doubling the size of the club shop and turning a building into a pub.

This after saying 10,000 extra seats is "too much" when, for literally every other club in our peer group, it is not.

It just stinks of small time thinking, and this club more than most of its size has a long history of this, which explains why today's interview clusterfuck is having such an impact.

[Villan82]

A lot of our peers are aiming for 60k and Heck says 42k is enough for us.

He really is Mr momentum killer isn't he.

Edit: I see they hadn't the guts to post the interview on the social channels where they no doubt knew it would get pelters.

[pauliewalnuts]

And what great timing, on pitch screams ambition and progress, off pitch, it's him and his 42k will do shtick.

[PeterWithe]

It just stinks of small time thinking, and this club more than most of its size has a long history of this, which explains why today's interview clusterfuck is having such an impact.

Without info to the contrary, this seems to be it

[Stu]

One of my problems with Heck is not that I don't think he knows what he is doing - on the contrary, I bet he does.

It is that he just is an absolute fucking loose cannon with PR. The cack-handed excuses made for the badge fiasco - honestly, he must think we're fucking idiots to believe that one year trial thing was their plan from the start, the turning the FAB meetings into everyone listening to him tell us what the ultimate truth is and bad luck if you don't like it, and now this, announcing the halt on the new stand buried away in some pointless fucking in-house interview and then blathering on about focusing on the customers we already have.

Really, I am not too sure stopping bogs over flowing with piss and painting the inside of stands is really something you need to halt all your other ambition to put right.

There are thousands of people who sit in the north stand who have thought they'd have to move and maybe not even get a seat for the next two years. They've heard absolutely nothing about it addressed directly to them from the club, and although they might be happy with these developments, they deserved to be the first to know.

Heck thus far has shown us lots of "we won't be doing that" and hardly any "this is what we are going to do".

Yeah, the messaging has been poor and high handed even if he makes good points re sacking off the expansion of VP for the foreseeable. An American way of doing things maybe? I don't know, but the info cascades have been a bit insensitive.

He's going to have a shock if he thinks Westminster will spend any money around here though, regardless of whatever business case he presents in the future.

[The Edge]

What i find so strange is , why announce it today ? 2 days before we could be potentially top of the league , and with all the goodwill around the team & manager , i find the off field action too reminicent of dougs time ffs , so smalltime even the noses are taking the piss on sha

What you doing on there? Hope you've had your vaccinations