Villa Park Redevelopment

[Nii Lamptey]

I think part of the problem is that there is no long term plan.... or at least not one that they've communicated to us.

Nassef and Wes were brilliant at sharing their plans and aims with us through Purslow, but since this Heck fella has come in, he has pretty much discounted the fanbase and our opinion from literally everything, and that is the core of the problem.

We were all excited by the thought of a new North Stand replacing that concrete monstrosity, along with adding a new box park type fan zone behind it.... then Heck came in and put a stop to it pretty much just before they were about to break ground, with little to no explanation of any alternative long term plan.

His alternative has been to shove lifelong fans out of their seats and away from their friends/family, and upcycle these areas of the ground, with a view to charging a fortune to 'customers' who don't actually exist yet!

Personally, I think the best course of action would have been to pause on the North Stand replacement for THIS season, purely down to it being our anniversary season and our first in the European Cup for decades, but emphasise that people WOULD be displaced next season when the work recommences.

Instead, we have nothing. No communication of mid/long term plans, and we have season ticket holders not happy at being displaced, being charged a fortune for sub standard services, all the while there are empty seats where season ticket holders used to sit - A blatantly obvious reminder every home game that Heck has dropped an absolute clanger with his GA+ masterplan.

[Sexual Ealing]

Is there a reason we can't build behind the old stand like Liverpool did?

[amfy]

Claret members would be really pissed off if there were only a handful available

There’s barely any more tickets that that for claret members anyway as so many are now GA+

[PeterWithe]

On top of the suggestions above can you imagine the outcry if there were only 30,000 home tickets available for the Bayern game due to building work, the club would be getting just as much stick but for very different reasons.

I don't think that's at all accurate, it would have been seen as short term pain for long term gain. Its never going to be easy to make the changes needed, so crack on now. If that's the plan.

You really think that current long term season ticket holders would happily accept missing our biggest season in decades?

If you believe that we are staying at VP (and I'm not sure we are) and you think that every season under UE will be the biggest one in decades then there isn't ever going to be a good time to do it, so do it now as it wont get cheaper or easier.

[PeterWithe]

Is there a reason we can't build behind the old stand like Liverpool did?

It was said that all the services come in at that end of the ground, I never did quite understand why that made a difference.

[DB]

Is there a reason we can't build behind the old stand like Liverpool did?

It was said that all the services come in at that end of the ground, I never did quite understand why that made a difference.

Also, they just built a huge 2nd tier on the back of the existing stand. We would need to start from scratch.

[Sexual Ealing]

Thanks both.

[PeterWithesShin]

The whole stand would have to come down, and capacity would be down to most likely 32-33k. Capacity would depend just how much of TRS and WL couldn't be used.

[London Villan]

The plan was to remove all the current changing rooms, treatment rooms, tunnel etc from the Trinity and move all that into the new stand.

[Sexual Ealing]

I'm no architect, and I'm certainly no builder, but it takes me around six hours to put an Ikea desk together on my own. I'm also no mathematician, but I reckon a team of 300 builders ought to be able to get a stand together over the course of a summer. Why don't they ever try anything new?

[olaftab]

You are asking some very good questions. The sort that I wanted an answer for but was too afraid to put my hand up. Thank you.

[Sexual Ealing]

Thanks Olaftab. About time some of these so-called experts had a candle held to their feet.

[PeterWithe]

I'm no architect, and I'm certainly no builder, but it takes me around six hours to put an Ikea desk together on my own. I'm also no mathematician, but I reckon a team of 300 builders ought to be able to get a stand together over the course of a summer. Why don't they ever try anything new?

You didn't cost out the HS2 job by any chance?

[dalians umbrella]

I'm no architect, and I'm certainly no builder, but it takes me around six hours to put an Ikea desk together on my own. I'm also no mathematician, but I reckon a team of 300 builders ought to be able to get a stand together over the course of a summer. Why don't they ever try anything new?

They couldn’t even get the new hospitality areas in the DE ready over a summer. I’m not even sure they are ready now.

[Ads]

Is there a reason we can't build behind the old stand like Liverpool did?

It was said that all the services come in at that end of the ground, I never did quite understand why that made a difference.

Also, they just built a huge 2nd tier on the back of the existing stand. We would need to start from scratch.

The Main Stand at Anfield was built behind it. The new Anfield Rosd has significantly added from the ground up, even if the lower tier remains.
.
Anything is possible, just comes at a price.