Villa Park Redevelopment

[TonyD]

I was thinking more if we did build a new £1-2Bn stadium, the club probably won't want that debt round their neck and may look at a lease arrangement with one of the big US stadium owner/operators

And how is any stadium operator going to spend that much on a venue and make a profit?

They will sell lots of hot dogs and beers.   

[Risso]

Both the Jets and the Giants play in the Metlife, which is 5 miles west of Manhattan. Nothing really to do with franchising, it’s just because there’s more space there. 

They don't play in the state they're from. It would be like us moving to Sandwell, which is only 4 miles from Villa Park, because there is more space.

It's the New York metropolitan area though. No different really from Manchester United playing in Trafford, or Grimsby play in Cleethorpes. It's nothing like the Oakland/LA Raiders moving to Las Vegas.

[LeeB]

Ikea have the nerve to call the shop in Wednesbury 'Birmingham', Christ imagine the horror on here if a proposed new site was next door to that or something.

[Smithy]

A bigger capacity, and the revenue that brings is important, but let's not lose sight of the fact that in terms of overall revenue, gate receipts have an ever decreasing importance as the money continues to flow into the game from all angles. Man City's gate receipts were about 10% of their total revenue last season. Tottenham made £100m in a year from gate receipts, which is incredible, but it's still only 25% of their revenue.  Another 5k on our capacity probably pays Tieleman's wages.  Which is great, but it's not the difference between us competing commercially with the big boys, or not.  That happens outside of the stadium.

We can compete on the pitch with a slightly smaller stadium (as we're showing), but we shouldn't have to.

However, I also think having a bigger stadium, one that allows say, 10k more fans in each game, has a bigger, longer-term advantage.  I read an interview a few years ago with the former CEO of Uber, a dodgy bloke all around, but he said something interesting about the service, in that in the early days, they knew if they could get someone to use the service twice, they had a user for life.  That's all it took to get them hooked.  A trip to Villa Park is similar.  We shouldn't underestimate the impact a trip to VP has on creating lifelong supporters. I remember my first visit about as clearly as any game I've ever attended. I'm sure that's true with plenty of others on here.  And with a capacity of 42k-ish, our ability to give that first experience to a new generation of lifelong fans is a bit limited.

I'm not saying we should be actively soliciting day-trippers at the expense of season-ticket holders and regular match-goers, but I know that if we had a bigger stadium, we'd have more first time visitors at each game, and we'd be creating new lifelong fans at a rate of potentially thousand a week.  And then, even if they don't go to games regularly, they will buy merchandise and invest their time in the club that generates revenue in other ways, helping close the commercial gap away from the stadium.

It's a bit cynical, but I think having a larger stadium is about more than just "gate receipts".

[chrisw1]

Good point Smithy.  It's very difficult for non-claret members to get two seats together.

[Risso]

Good post Smithy. We're by the biggest club between London and the North West, and we should be hoovering up neutrals, as the only other clubs in the area are much smaller, provincial nobodies.

[Drummond]

Good post Smithy. We're by the biggest club between London and the North West, and we should be hoovering up neutrals, as the only other clubs in the area are much smaller, provincial nobodies.

The only way to do that is by being successful and therefore recognised as a big club.

Newcastle have a captive audience and, like Leeds, a one club city. Both of them will have their fare share of glory hunters in their midst. We've not done anything (unlike those two) in terms of qualifying for the Champions League or pressing for it, for 15 years. Now is our time.

[Smithy]

Good post Smithy. We're by the biggest club between London and the North West, and we should be hoovering up neutrals, as the only other clubs in the area are much smaller, provincial nobodies.

It's a good point. I wonder how many potential fans live within a 60-minute drive of VP? That's probably as far south as Northampton given it's motorway all the way for them.

[LeeB]

Good post Smithy. We're by the biggest club between London and the North West, and we should be hoovering up neutrals, as the only other clubs in the area are much smaller, provincial nobodies.

It's a good point. I wonder how many potential fans live within a 60-minute drive of VP? That's probably as far south as Northampton given it's motorway all the way for them.

Another thing is it's probably much easier for folk from those parts and towns even closer to London to go to a match up here, probably true as far down as Luton.

[AV82EC]

Good post Smithy. We're by the biggest club between London and the North West, and we should be hoovering up neutrals, as the only other clubs in the area are much smaller, provincial nobodies.

It's a good point. I wonder how many potential fans live within a 60-minute drive of VP? That's probably as far south as Northampton given it's motorway all the way for them.

In a ring from VP Crewe, Stoke, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Northants, MK, Banbury, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Shrewsbury. There’s probably a few I’ve missed. That’ll include about an hour on the train as well, we don’t all increase pollution and congestion in Brum by driving <winky thing>.

[Smithy]

Good post Smithy. We're by the biggest club between London and the North West, and we should be hoovering up neutrals, as the only other clubs in the area are much smaller, provincial nobodies.

On the hoovering up fans in the surrounding area thing. When I was at Uni, I did a placement year, and wrote to Villa to see if they'd take me on for a year to work in their Marketing team.  This would have been early '96, so we had quite a good side back then. It was also the VERY early days of the Internet. In my application I pitched the idea of 30-second ads in provincial cinemas as a cheap way to reach new fans.  I'd worked in my own town's cinema during my GCSEs and A Levels, and I'd seen the crappy ads for local restaurants and the like, and how cheap it could be, so I knew if we could create a compelling 30-second video, it would definitely work and we could drive potential new fans to check out our new 'website'.  I never heard back from anyone...

[Chico Hamilton III]

Good post Smithy. We're by the biggest club between London and the North West, and we should be hoovering up neutrals, as the only other clubs in the area are much smaller, provincial nobodies.

It's a good point. I wonder how many potential fans live within a 60-minute drive of VP? That's probably as far south as Northampton given it's motorway all the way for them.

Another thing is it's probably much easier for folk from those parts and towns even closer to London to go to a match up here, probably true as far down as Luton.

We come up for home games on the train and, apart from absolutely loads of Villa getting on at London,  there’s also a fair stream of Villa fans getting on the train at some stations I’ve never heard of. There’s a crawler of a train from Marylebone that must stop at 20 stations and you can guarantee that Villa fans will be at every one of them. I’m always impressed at how widespread our support is.

[LeeB]

I think we did that crawler train down for the semi in 2000, took about 6 hours but was dirt cheap.

[aev]

Good post Smithy. We're by the biggest club between London and the North West, and we should be hoovering up neutrals, as the only other clubs in the area are much smaller, provincial nobodies.

It's a good point. I wonder how many potential fans live within a 60-minute drive of VP? That's probably as far south as Northampton given it's motorway all the way for them.

Another thing is it's probably much easier for folk from those parts and towns even closer to London to go to a match up here, probably true as far down as Luton.

We come up for home games on the train and, apart from absolutely loads of Villa getting on at London,  there’s also a fair stream of Villa fans getting on the train at some stations I’ve never heard of. There’s a crawler of a train from Marylebone that must stop at 20 stations and you can guarantee that Villa fans will be at every one of them. I’m always impressed at how widespread our support is.

How long does the journey take on the train to and from south of the river? 

[Nev]

I think we did that crawler train down for the semi in 2000, took about 6 hours but was dirt cheap.

Used to be referred to as the "Milk Train", I can guess it was something to do with multiple deliveries or some such. By the time you get to Long Buckby, wherever the fuck that is, you need another shave.