Villa Park Redevelopment

[Villan82]

A lot of our supporters are entranced by the thought of something new and shiny, plus the belief that you 'have' to move to compete. It falls at the first bit of logical thinking behind the first question - where to?

I've never been overly keen on a move.  But if Blues stopped at the first hurdle of 'where to?' they wouldn't be announcing their mega-dome right now.  Which, as much as we will take the piss, will bring in income streams that will transform their club.

It's not our job to come up with the answer to 'where to?' but opportunities have come and gone.  The ideal solution would have been to secure land near the HS2 terminal, which would have made the club a viable destination for London tourists and the hospitality income that seems to be the only way to compete in the current football landscape, but that was too early in our recovery to be viable.  But the likes of the gas holder site etc could have worked.

I don't think 'where to?' was a hurdle that should have stopped us.

But perhaps 'should we?' was the more relevant question.     

I agree.  As much as it pains me you have to admire their ambition.
We should find a plot close enough to the city centre that’s walkable and build a 4 stand red brick ground with a massive single tier Holte.

I am not trying to be flippant as I am open to your argument. We already have, the original four stand ground with red brick. We have the warehouse almost ready to open.

Parking history, tradition, and the home advantage under Emery, how does dropping £1-2bn to basically build a remake of what we have become a game changer for us?

[TonyD]

A lot of our supporters are entranced by the thought of something new and shiny, plus the belief that you 'have' to move to compete. It falls at the first bit of logical thinking behind the first question - where to?

I've never been overly keen on a move.  But if Blues stopped at the first hurdle of 'where to?' they wouldn't be announcing their mega-dome right now.  Which, as much as we will take the piss, will bring in income streams that will transform their club.

It's not our job to come up with the answer to 'where to?' but opportunities have come and gone.  The ideal solution would have been to secure land near the HS2 terminal, which would have made the club a viable destination for London tourists and the hospitality income that seems to be the only way to compete in the current football landscape, but that was too early in our recovery to be viable.  But the likes of the gas holder site etc could have worked.

I don't think 'where to?' was a hurdle that should have stopped us.

But perhaps 'should we?' was the more relevant question.     

I agree.  As much as it pains me you have to admire their ambition.
We should find a plot close enough to the city centre that’s walkable and build a 4 stand red brick ground with a massive single tier Holte.

I am not trying to be flippant as I am open to your argument. We already have, the original four stand ground with red brick. We have the warehouse almost ready to open.

Parking history, tradition, and the home advantage under Emery, how does dropping £1-2bn to basically build a remake of what we have become a game changer for us?

A new ground with better fan facilities, close to the centre and the travel links, 60k capacity with increased revenue and a bigger Holte. 

[Beard82]

I think were very lucky to have a stadium with some form of history to it.  It feels like a football ground- not an areana, not a bowl

[TonyD]

It doesn’t need to be a bowl. 

[Dante Lavelli]

Birmingham needs one venue like that. I don’t think there’s capacity for two, in particular the non football revenue (NFL etc). 

There’s little point us building a similar venue just because they are.  If they do, we need to make Villa Park as good as it can be.

[Mister E]

Birmingham needs one venue like that. I don’t think there’s capacity for two, in particular the non football revenue (NFL etc). 
There’s little point us building a similar venue just because they are.  If they do, we need to make Villa Park as good as it can be.

That's how I see it. What Their owners are doing is building a multi-purpose stadium for year-round utility which will also house their football games; at whatever level that might be. The challenge for us is not in 'matching' their football stadium: our challenge is to ensure we continue to get the lion's share of the non-footballing revenue that is on offer to the region and the City of Birmingham. With their retractable pitch, roof and other features, they may well be able to get regular NFL games, etc, but we should have a facility that can pitch for other events.
All of which means that we DO have to increase the capacity, access (public transport and parking) and overall visitor-experience; stylishly and whilst maintaining our ground's personality as a 'proper football ground'. So far, we've been doing things in a limited fashion - upping the number of seats, winning some summer concert gigs: the club hopefully has plans to accelerate and quality-improve the next development-stages.

[London Villan]

Post 2028 will be interesting for Villa Park. 3 more years of Unai who knows where we will be and what we need.

[Walmley_Villa]

As unpopular as the Trinity is (outside although I personally like it internally), a mirror image to replace the Witton Lane would imo look amazing 

[TonyD]

Birmingham needs one venue like that. I don’t think there’s capacity for two, in particular the non football revenue (NFL etc). 

There’s little point us building a similar venue just because they are.  If they do, we need to make Villa Park as good as it can be.

We wouldn’t be copying their plans. More just building a better 60k ground in a better location. 

[Villan82]

As unpopular as the Trinity is (outside although I personally like it internally), a mirror image to replace the Witton Lane would imo look amazing

The main reason I liked Purslow's North stand was that I imagined the Witton lane would eventually be done in the same style thus ticking off what you are angling for here and what Tony D is angling for above (a red bricked colossal Villa Park).

Maybe that will happen in time- we do like to keep things close to our chest.