thabucks Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Just browsing a rival site and stumbled across a thread on the pros & cons of leaving villa park for a more central location near Aston Science Park. Initially I was against the idea but sort of came round after reading the argument for. Link to thread here . http://www.astonvilla.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=7513646 I'm not saying we should at all just thought its worth discussing as we have no real transfer speculation to argue over. The potential pros are that the economic benefits could be huge. A multi use stadium for example like Schalkes Veltins Arena or the friends arena in Sweden with retractable pitch and roof could open up use for a multiple of other uses like exhibitions & concerts throughout the year whilst protecting the hallowed turf. I think a lot of fans would accept naming rights for a new ground as long as it wasn't tacky. The money from Redeveloping the old villa park site into housing or a supermarket would help offset the costs. Plus with extra revenue from the additional events and surrounding amenities like bars, restaurants gyms and a club museum and potential housing on site would help our long term growth which I don't believe villa park can. With the new FFP bullshit rules in place we need to think bold. Debt for stadiums aren't included in It. Villa park lost its soul when Doug stupidly ripped down the old trinity road stand rather than refurbish it and replace the north stand, he should never been allowed to do that do. Since then I have personally lost a lot of attachment to it as a ground. A new proposed location is still within the Aston boundaries whereas villa park is actually located in Witton. It could provide Birmingham with an iconic addition to its skyline. I'm prepared for the abuse that will probably come my way for starting this thread just thought its worth discussing the pros and cons. ( puts tin hat on) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YLN Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 It either would or it wouldn't. I'm going to flip a coin. Heads it would, tails it wouldn't The heads have it! We're moving to Aston Science Park! I'll meet you all there 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smetrov Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Yes it would - its a dog rough area - your frightened to leave youre car - the other day I got charged £10 to park - the local community aren't particularly engaged with the club. Strategically it would make sense to move to a safer \ more affluent area. It won't happen of course - the current owner can't even be bothered to give the North Stand a much needed lick of paint .....so he ain't going to uproot the staduim.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 I can't imagine we will ever have the finanaces to even consider moving from VP. Also didn't Randy already comission some company to design a remodelling of Villa Park? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smetrov Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 I can't imagine we will ever have the finanaces to even consider moving from VP. Also didn't Randy already comission some company to design a remodelling of Villa Park? Pretty much no. In the early days of his reign there was a model of villa park of the future on display at the club. Randy wasn't impressed and had it removed - a few were quite excited as they felt Randy would unveil bigger and better plans......which he never did.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supermon Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 NO, JUST NO!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Nah, getting mugged as you make your way through Aston park for a late evening kick off is all park of the experience. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islingtonclaret Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Salford is a complete dump and a team called Manchester United seem to have shaken off that problem. Moving from Villa Park would achieve one thing: pissing off lots of Villa fans. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Salford is a complete dump and a team called Manchester United seem to have shaken off that problem. Moving from Villa Park would achieve one thing: pissing off lots of Villa fans. We probably shouldn't rule it out then. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suttonpaul Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Yes if we had an owner like Chelsea or City to self finance it.... No, we don't fill our ground, we don't have an owner to finance it. The best idea for the situation we find our selves in my opinion is to redevelop the north stand, fill the corners and sell naming rights to fund it. We can then charge less so the 50 odd thousand capacity sells out, more fans getting hooked on going down for home games, and easier to sell the idea of naming rights as it is cheaper. Just my two pence. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Condimentalist Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 (edited) Should probably just move to London, then we'd have a wealthier fan base that would pay £70 a ticket and we could attract the world's best talent with the extra revenue and the promise of a house in Kensington. And the journalists would be nice to us. Edited December 11, 2013 by PatrickCousens 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AValon Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 What next..........horror of horrors, groundsharing? BEGONE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islingtonclaret Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Salford is a complete dump and a team called Manchester United seem to have shaken off that problem. Moving from Villa Park would achieve one thing: pissing off lots of Villa fans. We probably shouldn't rule it out then. What? Lerner would never do anything to piss the whole fanbase. Oh, wait....ah. Right. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post villa-revolution Posted December 11, 2013 Popular Post Share Posted December 11, 2013 I hope every single football club in English League football moves to a new stadium in the very near future. All except one that is. Us. Villa Park is the greatest stadium on earth, steeped in history & tradition. If other clubs want to change, let them. I could never imagine watching Villa play home matches anywhere else, other than our 2nd home (Wembley Stadium ) Bottom Line: If it ain't broke, don't fix it 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 (edited) Just to fill in on the new Swedish national stadium "Friends Arena" mentioned in the OP It ended up costing almost twice as much as first projected to build, it says 2,3 billion kronor on the wiki, but it was actually closer to 2,8 billion kronor. About £255m. It also runs at a heavy loss wich is why some of the owners among them the Swedish Football association are trying to sell their shares. A funny (or sad) sidenote is that they have not been able to get the pitch at a respectable level despite countless tries, so now they are planning to install "plastic" turf or fake grass wich will be replaced with real grass everytime the national side is to play True story! Edited December 11, 2013 by sne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliffy Biro Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 No, villa park is our home plus it would make no sense to move when we cant even fill it now anyway, also chuckled at the "long term ambitions" bit like we have any. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supermon Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 I hope every single football club in English League football moves to a new stadium in the very near future. All except one that is. Us. Villa Park is the greatest stadium on earth, steeped in history & tradition. If other clubs want to change, let them. I could never imagine watching Villa play home matches anywhere else, other than our 2nd home (Wembley Stadium ) Bottom Line: If it ain't broke, don't fix it deep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electric Avenue Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 (edited) The only positive would be near to The Sack of Potatoes Public House. Edited December 11, 2013 by Electric Avenue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isa Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 I remember that article when it came out. Thought it makes some good points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 The article does actually make some good points. What I will say though is that I think the author underestimates the amount of supporters who travel from the communities surrounding Birmingham. As a former West Country Villan, now a Sheep herding one, I wouldn't particularly appreciate Villa re-locating to the city centre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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