Villa Park Redevelopment

[Risso]

The appointments to the board though suggest bricks and mortar rather than South American conquest.

Not necessarily. I'd have thought that was the idea, but as Aston Villa is the main asset in the company they've invested in, it's not unusual in a deal like that to see people from the investing company being given a seat on the board. I still can't really see what's in it for them if there's not going to be a big development somewhere though. I wouldn't have thought there was that much money to be made in a Brazilian football club itself, so what the long term objective is remains unclear. As I said before, as it stands they've just invested in a Premier League club that is losing money hand over fist.

The usual way to get a return would be to invest in something that generates a load of cash in the future, like a new ground with a host of revenue generating units around it, or via a sale of the club in the future.

[chrisw1]

Everton had a blank piece of paper and decided 52,900 was enough.  Of course, it will be laid our perfectly to maximise the GA+ and corporate revenue whilst also being a great stadium for day to day fans.  I guess the hard maths they did was an extra 7k would always just be the cheapest seats and transient supporters and overall wouldn't add that much to the bottom line.  Whilst not great for future growth, this does make a fair amount of sense.

So can we replicate that?  I'd guess with a huge north we could have 53-55k and as many lounges as we want, albeit not all with access to the pitch.  But you could have a single corporate tier encompassing the whole middle trinity and the middle section of the new north.  If they manage to do something sensible with the Witton boxes and space behind them, then that could be enough.  At least that would start to make us competitive quickly and would probably suffice for the next decade.  Then a longer term plan could be developed for the Witton, if ever required.

I still think we ought to be able to take a small slice of the trees at the bottom of the bank of Aston Hall Park, but the cost benefit of sorting out the Holte-Trinity corner probably just isn't worth it.

[Bad English]

Well, you know what thought did? Killed the cat.

Actually that may have been curiosity, but the point stands.

#curiosityandprayers

[usav]

Everton had a blank piece of paper and decided 52,900 was enough.

Genuine question: are Everton going to fill that every game, even against the Bournemouth and Lutons of the world?

[chrisw1]

Everton had a blank piece of paper and decided 52,900 was enough.

Genuine question: are Everton going to fill that every game, even against the Bournemouth and Lutons of the world?

I'd say their fan base is just as strong as ours, so it will depend on their success.  Having one of the best stadiums in the country, superbly located and with top corporate facilities will make them financially as competitive as they can be without CL football, so you would imagine success could follow.

[Dante Lavelli]

Everton had a blank piece of paper and decided 52,900 was enough.  Of course, it will be laid our perfectly to maximise the GA+ and corporate revenue whilst also being a great stadium for day to day fans.  I guess the hard maths they did was an extra 7k would always just be the cheapest seats and transient supporters and overall wouldn't add that much to the bottom line.  Whilst not great for future growth, this does make a fair amount of sense.

So can we replicate that?  I'd guess with a huge north we could have 53-55k and as many lounges as we want, albeit not all with access to the pitch.  But you could have a single corporate tier encompassing the whole middle trinity and the middle section of the new north.  If they manage to do something sensible with the Witton boxes and space behind them, then that could be enough.  At least that would start to make us competitive quickly and would probably suffice for the next decade.  Then a longer term plan could be developed for the Witton, if ever required.

I still think we ought to be able to take a small slice of the trees at the bottom of the bank of Aston Hall Park, but the cost benefit of sorting out the Holte-Trinity corner probably just isn't worth it.

GA+ demands extra space on the concourses so I’m not convinced that we can have unlimited lounges within the stadium.  “Tents” like at Twickenham are an option but it strikes me as a bit poundland without proof there’s demand.

[Dazvillain]

I just don’t understand what is happening with stadium at the moment and comms from club are poor to non existent .
Heck said we would be adding a couple of thousand seats , but with 900 displaced , corporate seating which looks slightly larger than normal seating to me, also being a loss, where are we going to show a gain of a good few thousand to show net gain of 2500 ?
Very wide ranging, random blocks affected according to those received letters today inc, lots of upper north at front of blocks, R1 and 2 lower north and M1 and2 lower DE, so either side of away fans, bizarre

[FatSam]

Everton had a blank piece of paper and decided 52,900 was enough.

With the in-built ability to expand to 62,000

[Ads]

I wonder what they're doing with R2? R1 was covered most of last season.

[Villan82]

I just don’t understand what is happening with stadium at the moment and comms from club are poor to non existent .
Heck said we would be adding a couple of thousand seats , but with 900 displaced , corporate seating which looks slightly larger than normal seating to me, also being a loss, where are we going to show a gain of a good few thousand to show net gain of 2500 ?
Very wide ranging, random blocks affected according to those received letters today inc, lots of upper north at front of blocks, R1 and 2 lower north and M1 and2 lower DE, so either side of away fans, bizarre

Indeed, and a huge come-down from announcing we'd be 50k by 2026 to well, actually there will be less seats in the stadium. And, given Heck has claimed full responsibility for the badge issue in that marketing magazine interview I am still convinced the stadium issues are also his decision seeing as last autumn the club were still making amendments to the original planning application (remember the club shop was moved, and Risso overall thought the original plan looked better than the emended) which suggests it was very late in the day they decided to pull the plug

[Chris Harte]

I just don’t understand what is happening with stadium at the moment and comms from club are poor to non existent .
Heck said we would be adding a couple of thousand seats , but with 900 displaced , corporate seating which looks slightly larger than normal seating to me, also being a loss, where are we going to show a gain of a good few thousand to show net gain of 2500 ?
Very wide ranging, random blocks affected according to those received letters today inc, lots of upper north at front of blocks, R1 and 2 lower north and M1 and2 lower DE, so either side of away fans, bizarre

I reckon he was so focused on hospitality (where the big money comes in) that he meant a few thousand extra hospitality seats, or maybe it was a bit of slight of hand.

I think plenty doubted in here, and rightly so, how we'd get to a few thousand extra seats without planning permissions.

[chrisw1]

Everton had a blank piece of paper and decided 52,900 was enough.

With the in-built ability to expand to 62,000

That’s not correct.  They can only get to 60k if legislation changes on safe standing ratios.
There’s no built in ability to enlarge the stadium

[UK Redsox]

Pravda still has a feature on a new North Stand

https://www.avfc.co.uk/villa-park/future

[Tuscans]

[luke95]

So they are completely re-seating the whole of Upper North & reconfigurating some seats & steps ... about 40 seats lost there with those new steps.