Villa Park Redevelopment

[Des Little]

 An we leave this until After Eight?

[nigel]

The people that want us to leave to go to somewhere with better transport links clearly live in a different West Midlands to the one that I've lived in all my life.

The biggest problem is transport. Greater Birmingham (see what I did there) is the biggest city in Western Europe not to have a fully integrated underground or tram network. Central government has a blind spot when it comes to Birmingham. There's simply nowhere in this city where there's suitable transport links for a big arena. We can't even make our current stadium any bigger for the same reason. I'm not trying to restart the moving/staying debate god knows we've done that one to death I'm just reiterating the constraints they are working under to advance the development of our club to compete at the highest level. I went to Marseille for an England game and the Orange Velodrome is the best stadium I've ever been to. Marseille France's second city just like Birmingham is the UK's but the difference is the French government recognises this and has ploughed money into the infrastructure. It's a similar distance from the centre as we are and they have built a complete underground tunnel system for traffic to get to and from the stadium which links up to the city centre and to the main national road network. It's light years ahead of what we are stuck with.

Sorry to be picky, mate, but Lyon is France’s second city.

Edit:
Just had a quick google, apparently Marseille is France’s second largest city, but Lyon is classed as it’s second city

[cdbearsfan]

It's debatable. But there is no way that Birmingham is Britain's second city.

Unless that was just intended as another chocolate pun (Lyon/Lion).

[nigel]

It's debatable. But there is no way that Birmingham is Britain's second city.

Unless that was just intended as another chocolate pun (Lyon/Lyon).

Missed an open goal with an unintentional pun 😂

[The Edge]

The people that want us to leave to go to somewhere with better transport links clearly live in a different West Midlands to the one that I've lived in all my life.

The biggest problem is transport. Greater Birmingham (see what I did there) is the biggest city in Western Europe not to have a fully integrated underground or tram network. Central government has a blind spot when it comes to Birmingham. There's simply nowhere in this city where there's suitable transport links for a big arena. We can't even make our current stadium any bigger for the same reason. I'm not trying to restart the moving/staying debate god knows we've done that one to death I'm just reiterating the constraints they are working under to advance the development of our club to compete at the highest level. I went to Marseille for an England game and the Orange Velodrome is the best stadium I've ever been to. Marseille France's second city just like Birmingham is the UK's but the difference is the French government recognises this and has ploughed money into the infrastructure. It's a similar distance from the centre as we are and they have built a complete underground tunnel system for traffic to get to and from the stadium which links up to the city centre and to the main national road network. It's light years ahead of what we are stuck with.

Sorry to be picky, mate, but Lyon is France’s second city.

I should have said second biggest not second city but my point stands that Birmingham is the largest city in Europe not to have a fully integrated underground or tram network which is appalling when you consider the UK is the 5th biggest economy in the world. At least it was last time I checked.

[astonvilla82]

FFS, can we get back to discussing the club please?

Got to agree, they a few smarties on here

[Drummond]

Transport links could be improved with a fleet of double deckers.

[algy]

FFS, can we get back to discussing the club please?

Got to agree, they a few smarties on here

Drifters, more like

[The Edge]

It's debatable. But there is no way that Birmingham is Britain's second city.

Unless that was just intended as another chocolate pun (Lyon/Lion).

It's not debatable though. Birmingham is the UK's second city.

[cdbearsfan]

No it isn't. We have the biggest population by far.

[Sexual Ealing]

It's debatable. But there is no way that Birmingham is Britain's second city.

Unless that was just intended as another chocolate pun (Lyon/Lion).

It's not debatable though. Birmingham is the UK's second city.

Birmingham is England's second city. Glasgow was 'second city of the empire'. Penguins.

[cdbearsfan]

Which city has a bigger population than Birmingham? We aren't the second city.

[Sexual Ealing]

I don't understand the question.

[RamboandBruno]

Which city has a bigger population than Birmingham? We aren't the second city.

Not sure if Im missing something here? London 7 million plus, Brum just under a million, Liverpool just over a hundred thousand less than Birmingham is 3rd.

[cdbearsfan]

The City of London has a population of 11,000.