FFP

[PeterWithe]

I heard today that 13 acres of land will soon be coming into the market in Birmingham. In the city centre as its land connected to the aborted HS2.

Wonder where this is as HS2 into Bham hasn’t changed?

[Villan82]

Now these are the ideas I can get fully behind. Use the existing site, we can fulfill our potential there. if we could handle 70k in the 1940s why not in the future?

Because

1. Cars
2. No trams.
3. Changing demographics.

I know, that wasn't really my point. I doubt there were facilities in the 1940s to keep thousands of people in or around the ground so they arrived and departed in a more staggered fashion. A rebuilt Villa Park would have bars, cafes, restaurants, WareHouse/Villa Live etc.

[Somniloquism]

I heard today that 13 acres of land will soon be coming into the market in Birmingham. In the city centre as its land connected to the aborted HS2.

Wonder where this is as HS2 into Bham hasn’t changed?

I would have thought the only HS2 land not needed in Birmingham would be down to the Northern lines and as the same line for North and South went out to about Minworth before splitting I would be interested to. Obviously less tracks now needed but would that be 13 acres on one patch?

[Dante Lavelli]

I heard today that 13 acres of land will soon be coming into the market in Birmingham. In the city centre as its land connected to the aborted HS2.

Wonder where this is as HS2 into Bham hasn’t changed?

I would have thought the only HS2 land not needed in Birmingham would be down to the Northern lines and as the same line for North and South went out to about Minworth before splitting I would be interested to. Obviously less tracks now needed but would that be 13 acres on one patch?

Don’t know.  They described a significant development of resi towers and offices* so these could be subdivided by existing roads (or wherever) rather than one single plot. 

*entirely hypothetical development used to work out the value of the land.

[DB]

At the match y-day, another stadium announcement stating there is still hospitality available for the remainder of the season...I wonder how much. Not great if Heck wants to expand our revenues.

[tomd2103]

I heard today that 13 acres of land will soon be coming into the market in Birmingham. In the city centre as its land connected to the aborted HS2.

The plot thickens! 

If you think where the astroturf pitch is on Aston Park, then there is quite a bit of land there that could be used for redevelopment, especially if the pitch was turned round. 

I don't know if you can just close roads, but if Witton Lane remained as it is and Trinity Road remained as it is up to Nelson Road on one side and to the road that goes up to Aston Hall on the other, you're only talking about a short section of road that I doubt sees much traffic during the week and is closed on matchdays anyway. 

[itbrvilla]

Now these are the ideas I can get fully behind. Use the existing site, we can fulfill our potential there. if we could handle 70k in the 1940s why not in the future?

Because

1. Cars
2. No trams.
3. Changing demographics.

I know, that wasn't really my point. I doubt there were facilities in the 1940s to keep thousands of people in or around the ground so they arrived and departed in a more staggered fashion. A rebuilt Villa Park would have bars, cafes, restaurants, WareHouse/Villa Live etc.

Wouldn't make money on none matchdays. That's part of the problem.

[rob_bridge]

Now these are the ideas I can get fully behind. Use the existing site, we can fulfill our potential there. if we could handle 70k in the 1940s why not in the future?

Because

1. Cars
2. No trams.
3. Changing demographics.

I know, that wasn't really my point. I doubt there were facilities in the 1940s to keep thousands of people in or around the ground so they arrived and departed in a more staggered fashion. A rebuilt Villa Park would have bars, cafes, restaurants, WareHouse/Villa Live etc.

Wouldn't make money on none matchdays. That's part of the problem.

Simply not a good location for those types of activities outside of matchday. We went to Villa restaurant a couple of time in the summer 8 or 9 years ago, it was nice especially walking through Trinity Corporate area. Not sure it would have the same feel on a dark November evening.

Edgbaston makes money on conference events and Asian Weddings and there is ample space around and near the ground to facilitate stuff. It is also a mile from city centre in a much nicer part of the city.

[oldhill_avfc]

BCC are skint, do they have any land (or offices we can flatten) they can flog to us?

Buying up a chunk of land in Aston Park and buying Trinity Rd itself would enable us to shift the ground sideways like Spurs did. The council are broke so it could be worth a try.

The club should really trying to leverage its position with BCC.  We need land around VP, including changes to trinity road and witton lane’s road layout, and those houses between VP and the train stations.

They need money and investment into the area.

If that means helping the council with compulsory purchases and rehousing, then so be it.

[pauliewalnuts]

Now these are the ideas I can get fully behind. Use the existing site, we can fulfill our potential there. if we could handle 70k in the 1940s why not in the future?

Because

1. Cars
2. No trams.
3. Changing demographics.

I know, that wasn't really my point. I doubt there were facilities in the 1940s to keep thousands of people in or around the ground so they arrived and departed in a more staggered fashion. A rebuilt Villa Park would have bars, cafes, restaurants, WareHouse/Villa Live etc.

Wouldn't make money on none matchdays. That's part of the problem.

Simply not a good location for those types of activities outside of matchday. We went to Villa restaurant a couple of time in the summer 8 or 9 years ago, it was nice especially walking through Trinity Corporate area. Not sure it would have the same feel on a dark November evening.

Edgbaston makes money on conference events and Asian Weddings and there is ample space around and near the ground to facilitate stuff. It is also a mile from city centre in a much nicer part of the city.

That's exactly it, and part of the reason I think they will move us us, no matter how good they make the ground and the facilities there, even if they rebuilt it, it's still going to be in a rough, deprived area well out of the city centre which nobody is going to want to go to outside matchdays.

Facilities like restaurants and bars will never survive to make enough money on that basis, either - look how many closed down pubs there are in a 1 mile radius of the ground.

Someone will doubtlessly point out that Tottenham's ground is in a shit hole, but it's at least a shit hole in London and has access to a demographic no other UK city has.

[pauliewalnuts]

BCC are skint, do they have any land (or offices we can flatten) they can flog to us?

Buying up a chunk of land in Aston Park and buying Trinity Rd itself would enable us to shift the ground sideways like Spurs did. The council are broke so it could be worth a try.

The club should really trying to leverage its position with BCC.  We need land around VP, including changes to trinity road and witton lane’s road layout, and those houses between VP and the train stations.

They need money and investment into the area.

If that means helping the council with compulsory purchases and rehousing, then so be it.

Most of those homes are privately owned, how is the council going to get involved in 'rehousing' the owners?

And I don't like the tone of this at all (not having a go at you, I mean the general concept) - we're talking about people here, taking their homes off them and shifting them elsewhere as if they were unwanted pets or something, that's not the way we should be acting.

[LeeB]

Now these are the ideas I can get fully behind. Use the existing site, we can fulfill our potential there. if we could handle 70k in the 1940s why not in the future?

Because

1. Cars
2. No trams.
3. Changing demographics.

I know, that wasn't really my point. I doubt there were facilities in the 1940s to keep thousands of people in or around the ground so they arrived and departed in a more staggered fashion. A rebuilt Villa Park would have bars, cafes, restaurants, WareHouse/Villa Live etc.

Wouldn't make money on none matchdays. That's part of the problem.

Simply not a good location for those types of activities outside of matchday. We went to Villa restaurant a couple of time in the summer 8 or 9 years ago, it was nice especially walking through Trinity Corporate area. Not sure it would have the same feel on a dark November evening.

Edgbaston makes money on conference events and Asian Weddings and there is ample space around and near the ground to facilitate stuff. It is also a mile from city centre in a much nicer part of the city.

That's exactly it, and part of the reason I think they will move us us, no matter how good they make the ground and the facilities there, even if they rebuilt it, it's still going to be in a rough, deprived area well out of the city centre which nobody is going to want to go to outside matchdays.

Facilities like restaurants and bars will never survive to make enough money on that basis, either - look how many closed down pubs there are in a 1 mile radius of the ground.

Someone will doubtlessly point out that Tottenham's ground is in a shit hole, but it's at least a shit hole in London and has access to a demographic no other UK city has.

It doesn't matter which shithole part of London you build in as everyone can walk down a hole and be transported to any other part of the city in next to no time.

Every part of Birmingham has exactly the opposite problem.

[pablo_picasso]

Couldn't Villa Park be built up over Witton Lane?

Cantilevered or more sensibly priced, have posts across the road to hold up the structure & have the Witton Lane just go "through" the stadium...

The Estadio Vicente Calderón has a dual carriageway running through theirs in a similar way.

[LeeB]

Couldn't the stadium be built up over the road?

Cantilevered or more sensibly priced. have posts across the road to hold up the structure & have the Witton Lane just go "through" the stadium...

The Estadio Vicente Calderón has a dual carriageway running through theirs in a similar way.

Proper shithole that stadium was though, like St Andrews in the sun.

[PeterWithe]

We wouldn't be moving people from their houses, the council would be doing that dirty work for us, and their stock is pretty low anyroad.