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.

[john e]

The problem with a new ground is everyone thinks they will build it exactly how they want it

It’s gonna have a bigger Holte end, not gonna be a generic bowl, it’s gonna have a load of history attached to it that we can bring over from the original,

You don’t know what they’re gonna design, look at what the blue noses have come up with, it’s out of our hands what the design will be like
and once Villa Parks knocked down that’s it there’s no going back
It will be on par with the 60s and 70s demolition of lovely old buildings that could have been referbed to build eye-sors which are now been knocked down again because they were so shocking

I seriously doubt whether we’ll be able to knock Villa Park down anyway
They’d be an outcry from the world of Football not just our lot as it’s probably the most loved football stadium in the country, mainly because it still looks like a football stadium and all the FA cup semis memories

[not3bad]

We're extending Villa Park and upgrading the Aston and Witton train stations. I don't think a move is needed or wanted from our current historic location. I appreciate the views of Villa Park more and more as each year passes and I don't care what other teams do.

[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.

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

We can do that at Villa Park though, no need to move.  A 60k stadium is probably achievable where we are and will come without a £2bn bill.  Remember their guys aren't doing this for free, they'll want a return on their money.   

Leave the Shopping Centre/NFL to them, we must concentrate on being a football club and optimizing what we have.  Summer gigs will be a critical area of competition, so we need to use the time we have to create memories and develop a 'music' brand around the stadium and warehouse.

Going further back in this thread, I was keen to move and do what they're planning, however they're ahead of us now, so we have to adjust the plan.

[Sexual Ealing]

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. 

We can do that at Villa Park though, no need to move.  A 60k stadium is probably achievable where we are and will come without a £2bn bill.  Remember their guys aren't doing this for free, they'll want a return on their money.   

Leave the Shopping Centre/NFL to them, we must concentrate on being a football club and optimizing what we have.  Summer gigs will be a critical area of competition, so we need to use the time we have to create memories and develop a 'music' brand around the stadium and warehouse.

Going further back in this thread, I was keen to move and do what they're planning, however they're ahead of us now, so we have to adjust the plan.

Why? They're not ahead of us in any regard, and if we were competing with them on any basis, ever, well, we won. The contest was declared over, they're out for the count, and we're not looking at rematches with bums.

[kippaxvilla2]

I promise you this.  For every one of their fans that are crowing at this there will be an equal amount still sceptical.  Not least about what the final construction ends up like.  Many of their fans still love stans as much as we do villa park.  Once their ground has gone it’s gone as someone else said.  With that they lose a lot of their advantages potentially.