Villa Park Redevelopment

[VillaTim]

add in a few shops in the background where they are all either Turkish barbers or vape shops

[Dante Lavelli]

I was against a move when this debate started but now, in order, my preferences are:

1. Move to city centre location - ground that’s a year round venue/attraction,
2. Redevelop villa park with all its quirks.
3. NEC
4. New ground at villa park - I struggle to see the benefits of this. All the costs without the location for gigs etc.

I'd swap the last 2 because I see absolutely no value in going to the NEC but otherwise I agree. City Centre needs some definition though.

For me, city centre means walking distance from new street/HS2. That will help with the ‘year round’ part and also mean we can more easily cash in on causal football fans prepared to spend more per game.

I shouldn’t care but it’d blow Birmingham City out the water too. Birmingham = Aston Villa

[Ads]

so where did the 50,500 that they stated come from?

As it sounds good. Why you wouldn't just design it to breach 50k I do not know. But 19 sell outs a season would have left an average of 49,500 and change. Which would bug the life out of me.

It would also be tricky to wrap the Witton upper with the new North Upper like Risso suggested, as there is/was a structural roof support that runs diagonally down, starting outside of the Witton's foot print and tapering into the block R area. Such is/was the size of the Upper North, you'd have to have an absolute huge Witton to link too. That requires the removal of Witton Lane to build. Phase II would have posed huge challenges.

£100m to box yourself into a project that doesnt achive what we need. So let's build a new ground.

It's all possible though, and has been done many times to other grounds around the country. So to me it's a choice between having a capacity of 50,000 in two years and then 60,000 in 4-5 years, for say £250m total cost or a new 60,000 stadium somewhere else so far unidentified in 10 ten years + for £1bn plus. In terms of boosting revenue sooner rather than later, and also total cost I can't see why they'd go for the second option.

Everything is a trade off as unfortunately NWSE came in 2018 and not the summer of 2015. Ifs, buts etc, but maybe that new build would be a couple years out.

I think your point about actual Victorian era Villa Park and thereafter is a good one. You and others have said many times that what people love about the ground externally, is something roughly 15 years old, tacked onto a stand roughly 29 years old. Villa Park is an illusion in the imagination of football fans and should impress upon us that sentimentality means nothing.

A new build with some red bricks mixed amongst the steel and glass panes would create the same nods of global approval as Lerner's mosaic on Doug's Holte.

[LeeB]

Retail is dead anyway, should knock the Bull Ring down and stick it there. And put a triumphal arc outside as Ads suggests, something like below.




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[Simon Page]

I like the idea of identifiable rather than Victorian theme park (although Jacobean is my favourite style so that'll do). I don't want a copy of Wembley or Munich or Ajax. It can still be a bowl inside, but give it some beauty on the skin. Something that is unmistakably Aston Villa and has a bit of class, but that doesn't have to be four stands, AV floodlights, a cycle track or an Archie Leitch tribute act. It does need to be roughly where the club has always been.

Most of all, though, decent view, decent price, decent availability, decent team, decent toilets, decent service.

[Sexual Ealing]

Retail is dead anyway, should knock the Bull Ring down and stick it there. And put a triumphal arc outside as Ads suggests, something like below.




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Not only is retail dead, office working is too. That should give plenty of scope for an Escobar-style zoo/wildlife park to replace what we'd be losing with Aston Park. Imagine that, actual crocodiles, lions, rhinoceros. All too scared to drink in town.

[Risso]

As I said before, if they do go down the new stadium route away from Aston, then it'll have to be a site big enough for mixed use, because they'll want more of a return than just match day income which will be ploughed back into the club. They'll want retail, leisure, office space and restaurants etc. Think "Stadium District."

[Ads]

As I said before, if they do go down the new stadium route away from Aston, then it'll have to be a site big enough for mixed use, because they'll want more of a return than just match day income which will be ploughed back into the club. They'll want retail, leisure, office space and restaurants etc. Think "Stadium District."

It would/should be visible from the Tilton too. Nothing says imperial dominance like having to stare at the object of your misery in what is supposed to be your "fun" hobby.

[LeeB]

As I said before, if they do go down the new stadium route away from Aston, then it'll have to be a site big enough for mixed use, because they'll want more of a return than just match day income which will be ploughed back into the club. They'll want retail, leisure, office space and restaurants etc. Think "Stadium District."

It would/should be visible from the Tilton too. Nothing says imperial dominance like having to stare at the object of your misery in what is supposed to be your "fun" hobby.

It's needs to visible from space let alone the Tilton.

[Chris Harte]

As I said before, if they do go down the new stadium route away from Aston, then it'll have to be a site big enough for mixed use, because they'll want more of a return than just match day income which will be ploughed back into the club. They'll want retail, leisure, office space and restaurants etc. Think "Stadium District."

It would/should be visible from the Tilton too. Nothing says imperial dominance like having to stare at the object of your misery in what is supposed to be your "fun" hobby.

I think you're crackers if you seriously think we're going to move. As Risso says, you'd need a "stadium district", something that's not currently possible in the central Brum area.

The thought of new-VP being visible from the Tilton did make me titter though. It's almost a shame a stadium district wouldn't be possible for that reason alone.

[Dogtanian]

Rebuilding where we are is actually one of the easiest solutions.

• We already own most of the land - we'd be starting from scratch and paying through the nose to buy in the centre.
• Any required CPOs are minimal compared to what you'd need to build in centre.
• Easier to win over fans if staying in historic location than it will be to move somewhere new.
• Construction would start quicker because the number of hurdles to get over are fewer.
• We maintain the history which is a valuable commodity in selling the Villa brand.

There are two drawbacks:

• The land we have isn't in the right shape so we need some CPOs. But this is likely in the majority of places we'd build that aren't in the sticks.
• We will have to spend time playing elsewhere and therefore forfeit an amount of match revenue.

So basically, is it worth all the extra hassle to try and build anywhere else or in the centre just so we can play at Villa Park to the death? I suspect the scales aren't going to tip that way.

[dekko]

I think a lot of whats happening points towards a potential move or total rebuild.

Sadly though I think Heck wants to squeeze as much money as possible out of the matchgoing fans for a few years so he can pad his CV with good numbers, and long term plans will get in the way of that.

[dave.woodhall]

Retail is dead anyway, should knock the Bull Ring down and stick it there. And put a triumphal arc outside as Ads suggests, something like below.




images upload

Not only is retail dead, office working is too. That should give plenty of scope for an Escobar-style zoo/wildlife park to replace what we'd be losing with Aston Park. Imagine that, actual crocodiles, lions, rhinoceros. All too scared to drink in town.

This is something I suggested a long time ago - Win or Die. Every game we don't win, there's a poll to see which player should be fed to the crocodiles. If you charge an entry fee it should be a lucrative fundraiser and the wages we save would help with FFP.

[Sexual Ealing]

Now that's the spirit Dave!

[pauliewalnuts]

Retail is dead anyway, should knock the Bull Ring down and stick it there. And put a triumphal arc outside as Ads suggests, something like below.




images upload

Rather than swords, those should be actual field artillery cannons and on the stroke of midday every day, one should fire towards Sandwell and then other Small Heath.