Villa Park Redevelopment

[Clampy]

I can feel my arteries furring up just reading that. What in the name of Wigan is a bacon cheeseburger pie?

It's a pie with a bacon cheeseburger in it. I think.

[Villatillidie25]

I must admit I have never heard of a single song by the Foo Fighters, and do not know anything about them - so was surprised to just read that 50,000 fans turned up for one of their concerts at Villa park.

They are obviously very popular.

You maybe showing your age then given they're probably the biggest rock band on the planet

If the club decides to charge a £2.00 deposit for a plastic glass next season, i can just imagine the queue by fans trying to get there money back before and after the game!

They do a similar scheme at Twickenham, there are usually loads of kids picking up the glasses that have been dropped on the floor to collect the refund money.

[eamonn]

How much do we make from these gigs, anyone know?

[ender4]

How much do we make from these gigs, anyone know?

Spurs made £15million from 5 night of Beyonce concerts - £1 million per night to hire the venue and then £2million per night from food and drink (which was agreed that they keep that revenue).

But that's middle of London, bigger stadium, many more bars and food outlets serving fast, lots of VIP and hospitality, etc.

Villa probably made £500k from hiring out the venue and £12.50 from food and drink lol.

[Ads]

Gate receipts for the Foos would have been £3.75m.

[cdbearsfan]

Leeds would have spent more.

[ChicagoLion]

How much do we make from these gigs, anyone know?

Spurs made £15million from 5 night of Beyonce concerts - £1 million per night to hire the venue and then £2million per night from food and drink (which was agreed that they keep that revenue).

But that's middle of London, bigger stadium, many more bars and food outlets serving fast, lots of VIP and hospitality, etc.

Villa probably made £500k from hiring out the venue and £12.50 from food and drink lol.

Its no where near the middle of London.

[nick harper]

We were in the Witton Lane Upper.  The view was great, the gig was great, but fuck me the bar service and access to the toilets was awful.  I expected this, but people in the concourse looked utterly bemused.  I reckon there's tens of thousands of pounds left in the beer pumps just because they cannot organise a piss-up in a brewery.

Pay people double time, pay them £40 an hour if you have to, but for the love of God just get a decent number of quality staff and give them the equipment they need to serve the thousands of people who literally just want to hand over their money.

That is how it is 25 odd times a season for season ticket holders. The lack of space can feel very claustrophobic at times and the poor service is probably for the better as it reduces the numbers trying to move about on the concourse. The biggest queues by far are for the toilets, which generally takes most of half time.

It won’t change until it’s demolished given they can’t change the fundamental layout, but it was built at a time when the tickets were a tenner and the fan ‘experience’ wasn’t even considered.

[Duncan Shaw]

I was there last night with my best mate, who is football agnostic, and his brother who is a Blues ST holder, but otherwise a totally sound guy. 

As we were walking up from Aston Station he quipped "this will be one of the last gigs at VP" cue we had a bit of bantz about my skepticism that they will never build it, and his belief that they will.  But we had a really good chat about things for both of us, and from his POV their new owners have got everything right off the pitch (apparently have spent millions on the shit-tip) but are a car crash on it, and ours recently are the other way round.  We both agreed concluded that VP is a great "arena" when you are sitting watching the game, but so much of the rest of the experience is really not fit for purpose now for a major sporting establishment, and if they actually ever do build it (I said IF!!) , we will lose any "leisure" stuff like last night to a more modern arena. Even he was peddling the line that it will be a "city centre" venue though, which I just don't have any truck with at all.

I've been to 2 of the Foos gigs on this tour and I would imagine plenty others would have been at London, or Cardiff and many of the concert goers would have found our facilities wanting.

[chrisw1]

We were in the Witton Lane Upper.  The view was great, the gig was great, but fuck me the bar service and access to the toilets was awful.  I expected this, but people in the concourse looked utterly bemused.  I reckon there's tens of thousands of pounds left in the beer pumps just because they cannot organise a piss-up in a brewery.

Pay people double time, pay them £40 an hour if you have to, but for the love of God just get a decent number of quality staff and give them the equipment they need to serve the thousands of people who literally just want to hand over their money.

That is how it is 25 odd times a season for season ticket holders. The lack of space can feel very claustrophobic at times and the poor service is probably for the better as it reduces the numbers trying to move about on the concourse. The biggest queues by far are for the toilets, which generally takes most of half time.

It won’t change until it’s demolished given they can’t change the fundamental layout, but it was built at a time when the tickets were a tenner and the fan ‘experience’ wasn’t even considered.

It was a lot worse than typical queues on game days tbh (which I agree are awful).

The space is hugely limiting, but I don't accept that the service cannot be dramatically improved with faster beer pumps and better-trained staff in sufficient numbers.  You could also have staff serving from tanks on their back or plastic bottles, which you often see at events.

[Drummond]

That sounds great.

Eh? You do realise t's not deep-fried?

[cdbearsfan]

That sounds great.

Eh? You do realise t's not deep-fried?

Not yet, it isn't.

[Dick Edwards]

I was there last night too. It’s galling enough being charged £9.50 for a pint (£7.50 + £2 for the cup) and nearly £4 for a bottle of water, without having to wait 30 minutes to get it, and especially as the beers are already pre poured! It’s not even as if the staff have to give cash change or give credit card receipts, nor is there a huge selection of drinks to pick from (it was a simple choice of moretti lager, strongbow cider or plain water). Shocking service at the prices charged. At least the gig was great. Geezer Butler joining on stage to play on Paranoid was a highlight.

[London Villan]

At the Springsteen gig last year we had hospitality tickets. It was one of the worst "food and beverage" experiences I've ever had in a sporting venue.

Sterile/dead atmosphere in the Holte pub. After trying to switch the TV on to get some music playing (it was broken and couldn't be fixed) in the poky little room we were sat in, we resorted to using a phone to create a playlist with the other guests.

Inedible food from the "hot/luke warm buffet" I had a "chicken" burger and limp chips.

Slow service at the bar, as it was taking that long to order our drinks to our table we restored to going up to the bar.

Inside the ground was marginally better, as we had use of the Holte Suite bar and toliets, but the queues for the regular punters were far longer than home matches.

Then getting home was a pain - we got back to town 90 minutes after the gig - we waited for the free buses - but would have been quicker to walk.

Bruce was brilliant though.

[The Edge]

Disruption to Lichfield and Rugeley Trent Valley lines
 
⚠ Due to a shortage of train crew, services on these lines have been impacted.

‼Travelling from Aston/Villa Park? Shuttle bus has been put in place to help mitigate the impact of these cancellations.

https://x.com/WestMidRailway/status/1806441424755318935

Oh good god, just want you want after a gig.

There was a line of buses on the same side as the station heading towards Spaghetti Junction. There were none on the other side. At around 11pm when I left with my daughter it looked like carnage at the station and the city bound queue stretched as far as I could see towards the old Eddie's pub. I stood outside the Swan and Mitre from about 10.15 to 11pm and  not a single train or bus left there towards the city apart from a freight train. How do they put trains on from Wembley every minute towards central London after a match when they're only every 15 minutes the rest of the time?

Yes, its not good but like Dave said, the train company have to more than play their part as well, its their service. It sounds like you just want to blame the club.

I'm not blaming the club. I'm specifically blaming WMPT and therefore central government for our woeful transport system in Britain's second biggest metropolis.