brommy

Following the 'now available' notification from Villa, I've tried to get away sections tickets and for some reason, there's very, very few even single seats available. The even fewer with two seats together said 'sorry no longer available' when I selected them. Very frustrating! Anyone got a clue how get two seats together?

Off to PSG unfortunately.

There's enough time between to go twice.

I've never resold through the club. Tried once a few years ago but it didn't sell so I got nothing. I think you get 80% of your pro-rata season ticket value, not 80% of the match day price as that would typically be a profit on the season ticket value!

Do the club permit transfer to others on a game by game basis? I thought the reason this is currently being discussed is because the club have very recently emphasised that they don't. As for the club reselling a seat for 60% more than they give a fan that had financially committed the thick end of a thousand pounds before a ball is kicked, I think fair would be for the club to make a 35% profit whilst the ST holder gets their pro-rata refund (say £40 with the club reselling for the match day rate of £54). It would be easy to allow say 3 games at 100% pro-rata refund to account for untypical circumstance such as illness, before triggering an 80% rate to avoid the concern you raised.

I've seen 'GA+' a few times now but have no idea what it means. GA used to mean goals against but what is 'GA+'?

...and how far away is it?

Or even A.P.!

It's great that BHX have their standard approach to include low level views of Villa Park and Bodymoor Heath training ground. It can only help our appeal. Imagine Torres' delight when he realises Unai Emery is our manager too!

I wouldn't go that far. They desire our money and Premier League football is partly dependent upon us creating a hyped atmosphere to make the product appear more desirable worldwide.

You'll be delighted to read his flight has gone past BHX and just flown at 5000 feet above the training ground at Bodymoor Heath and then 2000 feet between Pipe Hayes and Villa Park. I'm assuming that wasn't a coincidence and was to give Torres a great view of his new work places.

Especially annoying that the club give you 80% of 1/19th of your season ticket price but only if they've resold the same ticket for the 'match day' rate. As an example for a 19 game season ticket cost of £760 which is £40 per game, the club sell it for the match day price of around £54 but then only give the season ticket holder £32. Whilst the club need to cover the small administrative cost, surely they can give an ST holder who can't make an occasional game, the lower of 80% of the resold price or 100% of 1/19th of the ST cost! In my example, the season ticket holder would get £40 (exactly the pro-rata value) and the club still makes another £14.

There's no flight scheduled to arrive at BHX at 12:15pm today so is it a private flight?

After less than one thousand of the thirty thousand were not renewed, it's hardly newsworthy that the newly available STs were all sold. The publicising could be seen as sharing a good news story but I strongly suspect it's main purpose is to emphasise the demand is still high and therefore the hike in prices was justified. Just no more, please Villa!

I really hope the board don't use this as a chance to hike the prices again, knowing that they'll still sell out.

I'm assuming that digging the ground away at the back of the current stand (it's weirdly higher than the pitch level so removing it will give a lot more space to the concourse area of the new stand) and the associated disconnection of the electrical power of water/drainage services, would prevent the use of the North Stand even before it's demolished.

As there is extensive ground work including power, water and drainage outages, I think the later date of ground work starting in July 24, a fairly quick demolishion in early 25 and then construction from Spring 25 through to early summer 26.

Building the new North Stand and redeveloping the existing academy building will still cost most of the anticipated £100m budget (factoring not building Villa Live but also the large increase in construction costs and the academy redevelopment). I'm not sure why Heck would agree to announce the project commencement date of 1st July 2024 if he didn't intend for the expansion to proceed. Also, surely he wouldn't agree to spend circa £100m replacing one stand and extensively updating the hospitality in another, if he thought we should soon build another stadium.

60k is currently unlikely to happen, in my opinion. If it were to happen at the current site and assuming the new North Stand will remain the same 13074 capacity, I think it would require several very significant things to happen. Demolishion of the houses on the west sides of McGregor Close and Holte Road. Diversion of Witton Lane to the position where the houses have been demolished or actually along McGregor Close and Holte Road. Building a new stand to occupy the space currently taken by Witton Lane and the small park alongside it. Diverting Trinity Road approximately 15m towards,(through) the playground and tree area at bottom of the slope leading up to Aston Hall. Extending the currently much 'clipped' sides of both Trinity Road and Holte End stands so they properly meet where the Trinity Road currently is. Final capacities, totalling 60074 North 13074 (unchanged) Totally new Witton 16000 Expanded Trinity 16000 (up 2235) Expanded Holte 15000 (up 1439). It's physically possible without increasing the approved capacity for the new North and without an imbalanced look to the size of the stands, but there's too many reasons (primarily housing residents and the protection of Aston Hall ground and trees) and expense why a 60k Villa Park is unlikely.

There will always be reasons for STs not being renewed - death, ill health, finance, change of family circumstances and moving away from the area, among many. It wouldn't surprise me if around one thousand of the thirty thousand sold are given up, year after year. Indeed it was unofficially 'leaked' this summer, probably to help justify the high price increases, that 'under' one thousand hadn't renewed. That doesn't rule out it being very close to one thousand though. With that in mind, the club could reduce the available season tickets by that number, especially as they'll need to reseat a few thousand North Stand STs.

I agree, unless they reduce the amount of season ticket holders by not offering those who don't renew next May.

From a photo of the North Stand, it appears that there are two levels, each with 20 boxes. As each box tends to seat around 8 people, I'm assuming the hospitality of the current stand is approximately 2 x 20 x 8 = 320.

6537 currently sit in the North Stand (it still seems an incredible coincidence that the new stand will exactly double the capacity of the current stand 6537 + 6537 = 13074). So for two seasons, capacity will be reduced from 42657 to 36120, although after segregation it'll probably be around 35500. Before anyone thinks adding 6537 to our current 42657 doesn't give us a 50k capacity, a further 871 is being added to the Trinity Road and D.E. stands, presumably in the lower tier corners that wraparound to the new North Stand.

A quick look at Google maps and it seems there are approximately 30 houses and flats on the west side of Holte Road that would be severely affected and another 20 further along but backing on to the Holte End and Holte End car park that could argue they were affected (blocking natural light etc.). Zoopla has the average selling price in the past 12 months as £145k. Supposing that was rounded to £150k with a further £100k to cover expenses and good will. 50 houses at £250k each is £12.5m. Not an insurmountable cost, but if just one resident campaigned against, it wouldn't be a good look for the club.

I don't think the projects are comparable. I expect the facilities in the new Stand will be more extensive, especially compared to the Holte End. Also, many people complain that the Trinity Road stand looks like it was thrown together in a hurry, so perhaps the new stand should take more time. Plus, there was no change in ground level, which there significantly is for the new North.