Villa Park Redevelopment

[paul_e]

There's a good point made on that forum Percy linked to - for its size, Villa Park doesn't hold as many as it should. It's badly configured and you should be able to do a lot more both in terms of capacity and facilities.

Which is what Heck meant by 'bowl optimisation'. I think the talk at the time was that there could be as many as 1500-2000 extra seats without reducing spacing or any major structural changes, and then another 1000 or so by converting the trinity to 2 tiers. Some of that work has been done already but I reckon it'll all happen by the time the north is finished.

[algy]

Well it sounds like by the end of the improvements we’ll have a 52.5k capacity ground, which is closer to what they were saying on that forum should be the right capacity for the size of the stadium.

[Crown Hill]

Villa Park’s issue has always been it is constrained by Trinity Road and Witton Lane like a pair of tweezers. Until that’s addressed expansion is very difficult. And I love my view there but the Witton Lane Stand really isn’t fit for purpose.

[Percy McCarthy]

Villa Park’s issue has always been it is constrained by Trinity Road and Witton Lane like a pair of tweezers. Until that’s addressed expansion is very difficult. And I love my view there but the Witton Lane Stand really isn’t fit for purpose.

Yes. Our number one (avoidable) problem was, for the room we’ve got there, the North Stand capacity was pathetic. That’s solved. The unavoidable problem we’ve got is Witton Lane. I suppose we should plan for it, but let’s see if 52k is enough before we do it.

[Gareth]

Villa Park’s issue has always been it is constrained by Trinity Road and Witton Lane like a pair of tweezers. Until that’s addressed expansion is very difficult. And I love my view there but the Witton Lane Stand really isn’t fit for purpose.

I agree, the view, 2nd row Upper Tier is fantastic but it is the only thing going for that stand…concourse space is awful, food & drink service is garbage but could be fixed if they wanted to and the toilet numbers and quality are woeful, particularly for the ladies who have 5 cubicles in the whole tier

[Chris Harte]

Villa Park’s issue has always been it is constrained by Trinity Road and Witton Lane like a pair of tweezers. Until that’s addressed expansion is very difficult. And I love my view there but the Witton Lane Stand really isn’t fit for purpose.

I'm sure Witton Lane was moved when they built the upper tier in the nineties, so it could be moved again. There are bigger obstacles to expanding that side of the ground.

[Crown Hill]

Villa Park’s issue has always been it is constrained by Trinity Road and Witton Lane like a pair of tweezers. Until that’s addressed expansion is very difficult. And I love my view there but the Witton Lane Stand really isn’t fit for purpose.

I'm sure Witton Lane was moved when they built the upper tier in the nineties, so it could be moved again. There are bigger obstacles to expanding that side of the ground.

Only slightly. Just enough for a narrow upper tier built at Jewson. The road was moved very slightly and a garden built where the council houses had stood.

As I say Villa park's biggest problem  - still - is that Trinity Road and Witton Lane grip it like a pair of tweezers and that's caused the issues with the two corners of the Holte End. It was why the terraced Holte End and 1920s Trinity Road Stand were built in the way and the shape they were.

Pedestrianise Trinity Road might be one solution but the bigger issue remains Witton Lane and to even basically make it fit for purpose will require purchases of the houses across from the garden and a major transport plan.

[Somniloquism]

They would need to do something with Witton island before they could think about pedestrianising Trinity full time.

[chrisw1]

Villa Park’s issue has always been it is constrained by Trinity Road and Witton Lane like a pair of tweezers. Until that’s addressed expansion is very difficult. And I love my view there but the Witton Lane Stand really isn’t fit for purpose.

Yes. Our number one (avoidable) problem was, for the room we’ve got there, the North Stand capacity was pathetic. That’s solved. The unavoidable problem we’ve got is Witton Lane. I suppose we should plan for it, but let’s see if 52k is enough before we do it.

It's being improved but not really solved.  We had one opportunity to rebuild a stand unfettered by land constraints, but have chosen to extend it instead.  If we wanted to maximise capacity, we'd be building something equivalent to the Anfield Road stand, which would have added an extra 4-5k more than the current plan.

Our capacity will be topping out at 50k + a bit of bowl optimisation for the next decade at least.  It just feels like a wasted opportunity to me.  And even following completion of the refurb, a rebuild of that stand will still be the most viable route for any further ground expansion if required.