Would moving from villa park help our long term ambitions ?

[Papillon]

I live in Norway and I have been to Villa Park.... around 7 times I think. The last game I went there was when I lived in London for a year and we played Wolverhampton and lost. I saw Villa once in London as well, away to Fulham at Craven Cottage and we played 2-2 after Brede Hangeland equalized in the last minute. In all of my 8 games I have never seen us win a single time, so I should probably stay away just to make it safe. The first time I went to Villa Park was magical, sitting in a taxi and then seeing the enormous building rising up from nowhere and then you see the lion and logo getting even closer. I will never forget that moment, but I have been back several times and now I also kind of remember the dodgy car-park outside the North Stand, the concrete facade and the general 70's/80's design to it. The areas inside the ground are rusty and tight, it's not very pleasant to get some food or go to the toilets, even though the view from the seats are always spectacular. Villa Park is pretty beautiful when you watch all the people leave and you just see the empty seats after the game, as was the level of sound from the Holte when we lost to Wolves and McLeish was getting to hear what everyone felt about him. I have been around many of the stadiums, from the Emirates, Craven Cottage, Selhurst Park, White Hart Lane, Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford etc, and most of them are pretty similar. Old Trafford was incredible, the history is in the walls so to speak. Craven Cottage is a shithole, I was afraid the deck was going to collapse any minute and the ball was actually cleared into the Thames on one occasion. Emirates looks like an arena for concerts, it's just very cold and big, too clean and American. I guess the ghost of history will take part of the place eventually, but now it just feels like a place where they want x amounts of people to buy a shitload of food and gear before they go home.

 

Would I want a new stadium? Of course, if we could build a brand new, spectacular place with all the benefits coming along that would be great. Better infrastructure and logistics, better accommodation, seats, space, shops, restaurants etc. I'm always a tourist when I visit the ground, and it's kind of a hell to get out of the area if you're not incredibly lucky with the taxis, and the trains are a disaster. I would miss Villa Park of course, but it's not like we are known for big crowds and huge atmosphere, the ground is seldom at its capacity and we seldom win at home do we. However, a new stadium is not going to happen. We don't have the financial backing, the city of Birmingham wouldn't be very interested I would presume, we don't fill the stadium as it is and we are a middle of the road club these days. That doesn't look like it's going to change without a new owner coming in tomorrow, so why would anyone care to build a new place when Villa Park is a pretty solid place? If we sold out every game and had huge amounts of people waiting to buy a ST, then it would be very viable, but I don't expect us to move from Villa Park in my lifetime.

[Davkaus]

I could never imagine watching Villa play home matches anywhere else, other than our 2nd home (Wembley Stadium )

 

That sounds about right. We never **** win there, either.

[suttonpaul]

Well now you mention it I wouldn't mind ground sharing at all it doesn't make a difference!!

[thabucks]

It's just a hypothetical question as it isn't likely to ever happen I just wanted to see what the general concensus would be and peoples views on the pros and cons . As i said i lost my personal attachment to villa park as a ground when the trinity came down. I will always have treasured memories of epic games . The games against tranmere and inter spring to mind as well as the unfortunate game with Santa falling from the roof. Since the trinity went Sheffield utd is probabally the best game I've been to for atmosphere.

But even if we were to move I would still have those memories. You don't lose those when the pitch is replaced or stands.

I would only accept moving if it meant the long term prospects if the club were enhanced and this would be the deal breaker it couldnt be another generic soulless emirates rip off. The holte as the central focus then 3 other stand alone stands. Capacity say 61,874 with like Bayern Munich a good proportion of cheap seats. A wild dream I know. I just wanted to change things up on here and start a different debate from the norm.

[AndyM3000]

Football is losing all meaning. All the clubs are slowly losing what they used to be and its going to happen eventually. City & Chelsea have new owners who totally changed them or the stadiums so aren't what they used to be. Liverpool and Tottenham are planning to move and probably will do in the next 5-7 years and if Liverpool can move from Anfield then anyone can move on. Everton had plans to move to a new stadium too. Cardiff changed everything and they seem to be better for it at the moment. There are tons of new dome stadiums that are around now. Southampton, Sunderland, Swansea, Hull, Leicester, Derby etc etc. Forgot about WHU, add them to the list! (Note: If we did move I wouldn't want that type of stadium, four brand new but individual and unique stands Id be happy with)

 

Times are changing, in 40 years time I could be sitting at Villa Park having seen us won nothing and having it depress me for 10 months of the year. As long as we are called Aston Villa and play in claret and blue and our stadium is still in Birmingham or the area I dont care anymore because apart from them everything else is ever changing anyway. Players, managers and owners are going to come and go.

 

Move stadium, get a rich owner I am on board if it improves us and gets us somewhere. Maybe challenge for cups and get into europe again, we aren't ever going to get anywhere now on these budgets/build a team bullshit. Money is power and dictates everything, im all for it.

[PaulC]

Nah Villa Park is still a great stadium. We rarely fill it so now is not the time for talk of moving.

[Stevo985]

the current owner can't even be bothered to give the North Stand a much needed lick of paint

Yeah, Lerner's never done anything to improve the current stadium/surroundings has he? 

 

Edited December 12, 2013 by Stevo985

[NIVillan]

A thing to remember is that we moved from Perry Barr to Villa Park in the first place to help the progress of the club.  If moving gives us a new lease of life then is it such a bad thing?

 

Also I think I saw recently Barca were considering building a new stadium which would also be their third. 

 

Hell even Walsall moved from Fellows Park to Bescot to host our reserves

[The_Rev]

We have planning permission to expand to 50,000 seats. If we expand and sell out the ground every week for ten years then maybe it is time to move to a bigger site. Until that happens?  What's the point? 

[PaulC]

A thing to remember is that we moved from Perry Barr to Villa Park in the first place to help the progress of the club.  If moving gives us a new lease of life then is it such a bad thing?

 

Also I think I saw recently Barca were considering building a new stadium which would also be their third. 

 

Hell even Walsall moved from Fellows Park to Bescot to host our reserves

 

Yes but their attendances didn't go up and there's nothing to suggest ours would if we moved.

[John]

"Also I think I saw recently Barca were considering building a new stadium which would also be their third." If so, could we have their present one NIVillan? It would make a nice ground for the odd friendly and for our reserves!

 

"That sounds about right. We never **** win there, either". We used to albeit up until the end of the last century Davkaus (which is not as long ago as it sounds). Wembley was loss free for us from our Spurs defeat in 1971 until that 2000 FA Cup Final (although it would have been nice to have played there more than 5 times during that period).

 

"Well now you mention it I wouldn't mind ground sharing at all it doesn't make a difference!!" - Agreed happy to share with local teams like South Africa and Australia in the RWC Sutton Paul...

 

We are not Manchester City or West Ham who have a new stadium built for them and take it over for peanuts. New stadiums cost a lot of money and that is something that is in short supply at our football club. We would make next to nothing for the land in Aston if we did want to move and given how Birmingham City Council have made such hard work planning wise of anything we have looked to do in B6 in the past I very much doubt they would make the way clear for us to move so near to the city centre, a now student area and to the club that they have seemed to favour over recent years. We are Villa we know where we are and where we belong!  

 

  

[Cliffy Biro]

VP just needs a revamp, would be horrible to lose vp the holte steps and everything. New stadiums are usually atmosphereless and very dull. They don't make them like VP, Highbury, Goodison etc anymore.

[Isa]

VP just needs a revamp, would be horrible to lose vp the holte steps and everything. New stadiums are usually atmosphereless and very dull. They don't make them like VP, Highbury, Goodison etc anymore.

The same could be said for our current stadium...

[srsmithusa]

Yes, it's a great idea.  Build it here, in the wrong Birmingham, I'll be able to buy season tickets, then.  See, season ticket sales are up already.

[thabucks]

We have planning permission to expand to 50,000 seats. If we expand and sell out the ground every week for ten years then maybe it is time to move to a bigger site. Until that happens? What's the point?

I was more referring to the ability to develop the surrounding areas, and having improved infrastructure which would increase revenue streams. As QPR have just announced it could hypothetically be built around a HS2 terminal and be part of a catalyst for the city's redevelopment. Families could shop then wander to a game then easily get a train home.

Having bars & restaurants and say gyms a cinema hotels and appartments in a more central location would help increase our revenue in the long term. A gleaming new & more desirable city centre location with fantastic transport links could help with luring a new generation of fans & would also help with corporate sales & sponsorship as would having a stadium that can be used for say 50 odd events a year rather than just 18 home games.

The hairdresser down the road won't be around for much longer and the sty is a dump. I would be worried if they got taken over by an ambitious owner and took advantage of what could be a once in a lifetime opportunity rather than us.

Edited December 13, 2013 by thabucks

[AndyM3000]

Yeh we are in no position to move at the moment but I would love to know how many fans we could get in if we were closer to city center or at least a decent area.

 

There is nothing around Aston to do at all and I know a lot of grounds are like this. I haven't been to Man City for a few years but they had plans to build stuff round the ground so its more of a day out.

 

Apart from my ST I dont spend any money at Villa Park during the season, get there just before kick off and leave straight after.

[The Fun Factory]

A totally ridiculous argument. Villa Park is still one of the best grounds in the country, and over 75% of the ground is 20 years or less old. The access is good, close to the motorway and 2 train stations. Its about a 30 -40 min walk from the city centre as well. There is room for redevelopment if in the small chance that we start to sell out the ground, thanks to Doug buying up land around the stadium. It has tradition and history, but has the mod cons of new stadiums. The best of both worlds, so no I can't see us moving to the MBNA superdome in Birmingham city centre.