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Villa Park redevelopment


Phumfeinz

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If it's really a transport issue and we can somehow force the council's / government's hand to get the station / transportation sorted then we still have another year or maybe even two to build the stadium in time for the Euros, but it doesn't really sound like that.

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Only the other day Street was talking about plans for Witton station. This is a cost/benefit analysis. They have decided it is safer to screw us with high ticket prices rather  than invest in the grounds. 

Shame on you NWSE. Golden chance missed to move Villa Park to the 21st Century. Over 18 months of work now cancelled.  We will never close the gap to the top teams.

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1 minute ago, Demitri_C said:

There must be more to it. I suspect the ST waiting list as either dropped or been exaggerated and hecks concerned about the demand not being there anymore

I don't think it's anything to do with the waiting list which I believe is accurate, it's more likely due to cost. They are probably seeing how much it's going to cost to do this north stand (and villa village) redevelopment and thinking that it's half the cost of a brand new stadium. Getting the cranes needed to build it, access to the site etc. all hugely problematic. All that increases costs probably to an amount where it's not a feasible project. 

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Is there a way to tart up the current North Stand and fill in the corners without having to close the stand?  I have to say I'm disappointed as the plans look amazing and I'm worried that we may end up like Old Trafford with the ground becoming shabbier while we just chase the commercial dollar so much.

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3 minutes ago, MattVillaPortsmouth said:

It makes sense - we have a good season this year, closing a stand and losing both revenue and as he said fortress VP makes no sense - we can add 10k seats but we aren’t doing transport, car park etc.  So we lose fans during 2 years, then it’s a pot mess when it’s open - I agree with this

It has to be done ar some point. It has been let fester for too long as it is.

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I can see the logic behind it. We're having an amazing season so far, and if the next few years do bring Champions League football and the real possibility of trophy contention, it'd be a shame to have a reduced capacity - with would have a detrimental effect on the atmosphere and also a loss in matchday revenue. It's still frustrating, as the North Stand redevelopment has been a can that's been seemingly kicked down the road for years now, and it's in dire need of improvement.

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1 minute ago, nick76 said:

This guy keeps making poor decisions and two fails this morning already.

You can be sure he hasn't made this decision on his own. It's probably a £100M+ project to rebuild the north stand. One person doesn't just come along and decide I don't like this, scrap it. There are obviously other reasons for this change that won't be shared with fans. Transport, merch etc. are just all a facade.  

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5 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

Is there a way to tart up the current North Stand and fill in the corners without having to close the stand?  I have to say I'm disappointed as the plans look amazing and I'm worried that we may end up like Old Trafford with the ground becoming shabbier while we just chase the commercial dollar so much.

This is my concern. Heck's mindset seems to be to chase every opportunity to extract cash from the fans. What you end up with is a stadium full of people who can afford £60 cheapest seats or £190 match day experiences, expensive food and drink, etc. and absolutely terrible atmosphere.

I'm no businessman but I'm not convinced that there isn't an alternative approach where you go all in on making the match day experience for your average fans the best possible -- well priced and easily available food and drink from quality vendors, reasonably priced tickets, working toilets, etc. and in return you get a stadium full of happy, buoyant fans that turn the it into a fortress. The Heck approach just feels like an unimaginative, short-termist dead end to me.

Edited by jayEm
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2 minutes ago, JoshVilla said:

I can see the logic behind it. We're having an amazing season so far, and if the next few years do bring Champions League football and the real possibility of trophy contention, it'd be a shame to have a reduced capacity - with would have a detrimental effect on the atmosphere and also a loss in matchday revenue. It's still frustrating, as the North Stand redevelopment has been a can that's been seemingly kicked down the road for years now, and it's in dire need of improvement.

In theory the bonus CL revenue would more than make up for the reduced capacity. One season in the CL would pay most of the cost of the north stand re-development even if we did only have 36K in the stadium. 

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2 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

No Euros then I assume

I’m not sure how this works, surely for the Euro’s we would’ve had to commit to  increasing by then as it was formally documented in the bid.  Can we legally withdraw that now?

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Not surprised at all about this. Been well discussed on here/social media about how hard it was going to be for non season-ticket holders to get tickets for the next couple of years with the reduced capacity and with there being a chance of Champions League football next season it makes sense for the club to try and make sure they get as much match day income as possible.

Looking at what his said I don't have much confidence that the North Stand will be redeveloped any time soon. 

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None of it reads to me like they're delaying because of travel, or even potential CL football next season. It reads to me like it ain't happening. 

To be fair it feels like it's been coming, there has been a feeling for a while that something is amiss with it being knocked down next summer. 

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