A really interesting article.
Ill apologise now as i havent read the whole thread, so these comments may be repeated earlier.
I understand the need to expand, 18,000 waiting for a season ticket is both lost revenue, but far more importantly, its a huge group of potential lifelong Villa Park attendees not able to get into the ground, this cant be a situation that is longstanding, as it could mean a lost generation of match day supporters. Thats presuming we don’t go backwards and attendances fall.
I also understand that if we want to eventually compete with the Man City’s, Chelseas and Liverpools of this world, we need to develop on a number of fronts, not just the playing side, but the whole infra structure including the corporate side.
But saying all of that, on many threads on this site, many of us, including people commenting on this thread have bemoaned the souless corporate enterprises the likes of Man City have become. Ive been to the Etihad, lovely to look at once your inside, completely devoid of atsmophere, same as the Emirates and i could go on.
Villa Park may not be perfect and redevelopment may be fraught with the difficulties as laid out in the article. But Villa Park is our heart and sole.
I think the analogies of moving house are misplaced and similar to the Torys equating household budgets to managing the economy in their early days in power. People may be attached to their houses, but we’re talking about Villa Park that generations of us before we were born went to. I don’t care if i’m sentimental, sometimes we’re not sentimental enough. A club like Villa, our history distinguishes from the majority of clubs in the football league and Villa Park is integral to that.
Villa Park is one of the last iconic grounds in English football and i don’t know about anyone else i love the fact that its visible from the M6.
The area has changed, the public transport is shite at the moment, but those things are open to improvement and development with political change and will.
The thought of going down to an edge of city bowl leaves me frankly empty inside.