Villa Park Redevelopment

[Chris Smith]

As for those 200 unsold single seats spotted around the ground - some clubs already allocate seats when you buy them - ie you say “I want a 40 quid seat” and they decide where it is, not you, picking seats for you. They do this to avoid the single unsold seats you get otherwise

Aren’t the unsold single seats usually season ticket holder’s seats they’ve put up for resale when they can’t attend? Often only a day or two before the game.

I reckon so. We wanted tickets for Burnley for family members who can only make occasional games these days. On the day they went on sale they sold out in minutes but a couple of days later we were able to get 4 together in the DE.

[AlexAlexCropley]

Also fwiw,when we had season tickets in L7 us to last season, there was always a clump of about 20 seats always unoccupied just in front of us. This always puzzled me.

[Chris Harte]

If this faibled new North Stand ever gets built I hope that as well as accomodating the corporate types that there is some scope of increasing the "family area". It is currently three blocks within the Trinity, but when I tried a few weeks back actually getting three seats together in there was impossible for tomorrow's game against Burnley.

If it becomes prohibitively difficult for young fans to see live games then we could lose out on their support (and money) very longer term.

[Billy Walker]

Just ruminating on it all, it strikes me that there is absolutely no sense in the medium to long-term in maintaining Villa Park as a 40-45k stadium. For V Sports, who are looking to grow the status and value of Villa as quickly as possible, it makes no sense.  For the City of Birmingham it makes no sense - especially when one considers the likes of London, Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff and Liverpool have at least one stadium of 60k. I have no idea what the plan is, but sticking with the status quo, logically, cannot be it.

[wolfman999]

Just ruminating on it all, it strikes me that there is absolutely no sense in the medium to long-term in maintaining Villa Park as a 40-45k stadium. For V Sports, who are looking to grow the status and value of Villa as quickly as possible, it makes no sense.  For the City of Birmingham it makes no sense - especially when one considers the likes of London, Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff and Liverpool have at least one stadium of 60k. I have no idea what the plan is, but sticking with the status quo, logically, cannot be it.

Agree completely. While there is no doubt a short term drop in revenue due to reduced capacity, this decision leaves us very much mid table with regard to capacity. Both Liverpool clubs ( once Everton move), both Manchester clubs, Spurs, Arsenal and West Ham and probably Chelsea in the future and Newcastle will all have considerably more capacity than the Villa. The only way to increase revenue will then be to get more money out of the present attendees. Look forward to ever more expensive ST prices, backed up by the waiting list threat.

[pauliewalnuts]

As for those 200 unsold single seats spotted around the ground - some clubs already allocate seats when you buy them - ie you say “I want a 40 quid seat” and they decide where it is, not you, picking seats for you. They do this to avoid the single unsold seats you get otherwise

Aren’t the unsold single seats usually season ticket holder’s seats they’ve put up for resale when they can’t attend? Often only a day or two before the game.

They don’t count as unsold though , as they’re already bought and paid for by ST holders

[villa_cads]

Considering the above, is it likely that they'll be assessing multi sport / use options to widen opportunities for revenue as a principle consideration? That has been a key driver for the updated bernabeu and Spurs. If that is the case, then shelving the current plans avoids baked in constraints to that - a moveable pitch for example.

[nick harper]

Just took a look at this year’s prices to see where we are against other clubs, particularly outside London. I agree we are going to see an eye watering increase for next season especially if the team continues to do well. Best standard tickets will be £1k with other areas not far behind. It will be interesting to see if demand holds up. These stats are from The Athletic.

2023/24 Premier League season ticket prices
Club

Fulham
£595-£3,000
Tottenham
£807-£2,025
Arsenal
£974-£1,784
Newcastle
£438-£1,108
West Ham
£310-£1,105
Manchester City
£385-£1,030
Manchester United
£551-£1,007
Chelsea
£750-£940
Crystal Palace
£545-£895
Liverpool
£699-£886
Wolves
£525-£883
Aston Villa
£610-£864
Bournemouth
£595-£821
Brighton
£565-£800
Everton
£600-£690
Nottingham Forest
£465-£660
Brentford
£419-£549
Sheffield United
£419-£529
Luton Town
£510-£510
Burnley
£335-£500

[Dante Lavelli]

If it becomes prohibitively difficult for young fans to see live games then we could lose out on their support (and money) very longer term.

At arsenal the ‘waiting lists’ has resulted in season tickets being passed down from one generation to the next.  The emotional attachment to th seat meaning it never comes back onto the market for sale.

[Scott Nielsen]

Maybe our owners simply think it's too expensive to build a new stand with Heck having been assigned the job of rolling it all back.

A new stadium is just not on the cards given the very clear commitment to remaining at Villa Park for the forseeable future. As Dave W said, that's at least a decade.

[Dante Lavelli]

I reckon it’d need a decade from now to acquire the land, likely from multiple landowners, agree deals with other stakeholders, get planning and to finally build the thing.

I think it is their long term plan, despite what they’re saying publicly.

My guess is that they’re looking at developing villa park with a payback within that timescale. The North Stand and Villa Live would possibly have needed a longer period to get their money back.

[The Edge]

I reckon it’d need a decade from now to acquire the land, likely from multiple landowners, agree deals with other stakeholders, get planning and to finally build the thing.

I think it is their long term plan, despite what they’re saying publicly.

My guess is that they’re looking at developing villa park with a payback within that timescale. The North Stand and Villa Live would possibly have needed a longer period to get their money back.

If they have any plans to relocate the stadium out of B6 then the proposed 30m redevelopment of Witton Station along with the tunnel being built beneath it would be a total waste of everyone's time and money. WMCA who are jointly funding it would surely have insisted on a guarantee that Aston Villa FC would be using the site for a very long time. Imagine doing all that work then the club announcing plans to move away. The more I think about it the more it makes long term sense for the club to be looking at buying land around Villa Park for redevelopment or a total rebuild.

[Risso]

Or just doing nothing.

[itbrvilla]

Can't find these 200 odd unsold tickets today...

[algy]

I reckon it’d need a decade from now to acquire the land, likely from multiple landowners, agree deals with other stakeholders, get planning and to finally build the thing.

I think it is their long term plan, despite what they’re saying publicly.

My guess is that they’re looking at developing villa park with a payback within that timescale. The North Stand and Villa Live would possibly have needed a longer period to get their money back.

If they have any plans to relocate the stadium out of B6 then the proposed 30m redevelopment of Witton Station along with the tunnel being built beneath it would be a total waste of everyone's time and money. WMCA who are jointly funding it would surely have insisted on a guarantee that Aston Villa FC would be using the site for a very long time. Imagine doing all that work then the club announcing plans to move away. The more I think about it the more it makes long term sense for the club to be looking at buying land around Villa Park for redevelopment or a total rebuild.

This is a good point, there's no case for redeveloping Witton station if it's not the closest station to Villa Park (or a new stadium).

I reckon it’d need a decade from now to acquire the land, likely from multiple landowners, agree deals with other stakeholders, get planning and to finally build the thing.

I think it is their long term plan, despite what they’re saying publicly.

My guess is that they’re looking at developing villa park with a payback within that timescale. The North Stand and Villa Live would possibly have needed a longer period to get their money back.

Also think this is a good point.