Villa Park redevelopment

[tinker]

1 minute ago, AshVilla said:

I'm against the idea of a new stadium tbh.

I'd rather have VP any day of the week over that council crowdfunded stadium West Ham have.

I agree, Spurs have a lovely ground though and we could build one that's even better, stick the Holte on it, brick by brick. I'm even more confused 

[ender4]

4 minutes ago, AshVilla said:

Heck said his 1st priority was the local fanbase you don't appease the local fans by uprooting and moving the stadium to a more affluent part of town.

I'd say he's lying. The local fanbase want to attend the games in person, tens of thousands of them want a season ticket to be able to attend every game.

[BG_Villa_Fan]

2 minutes ago, ender4 said:

Doubling the size of the club shop, building the warehouse for 3,000 fans to have drinks/food in hospitality areas... but not increasing the size of the stadium as we have enough seats.

WTF. 

Unfortunately it makes sense. They’re operating on a revenue-generated-per-visitor vs cost basis, which is what they’re looking to improve.

[AshVilla]

1 minute ago, tinker said:

I'm sure Emery will have had a say in all this, why would you risk our home form.

I agree he probably wants us to move to his recently acquired Real Union stadium venture.

It's only a 5 minute walk from his basque analytics bunker and local titty bar. 

 

[Rugeley Villa]

Had a feeling this wouldn’t  go through.

[DJBOB]

They would probably get a lot more ROI value out of modernizing VP as is (with the Warehouse and expanding the store for the commercial side of it) until the council get it sorted with transportation.

Investing in the North Stand but not upgrading the rails and buses might have a very low ROI for the next 5-10 years even if we're competing at the UCL level.

[DaveAV1]

16 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Another possibility is there have been a few games we haven't sold out as is, and they'll know damn well that that 30k waiting list isn't actually 30,000 people willing to put their money where their mouth is. Plenty of them will have already passed up on a chance to buy a ticket.

I wonder if the takeup to the terrace view and holte suite has given them pause for thought on the likely takeup of extended hospitality in a new stand too.

Perhaps they could be considering closing the Illthoughtthrough and poorly located Tefface View and planning to build a better version within the new Stand, where the gentrified can view the mighty Holte End without getting in the way of genuine Holte Enders and leave the HolteEnd for proper lower income supporters as it has always been and should always be. 

[AshVilla]

I don't know about you guys but i can't wait to spend my matchdays at the warehouse!

[Lochheads twin]

16 minutes ago, AshVilla said:

I didn't think we could do that because the building surveyors said something about the need for all the utilities underneath to be redone and all that.

I think you are right about that AshVilla

The current Villa Park is definitely similar to Triggers broom. Other than the pitchside terracing from the old Witton End everything else has been replaced.

like most things, it maybe when all the other alternatives have been exhausted you come back to your initial thought and find a way to make it work.

 

[Demitri_C]

31 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

I doubt the issue is demand related but is more likely the lack of parking and transport to get people to and/from the game. 

A difficult decision for Heck but getting that in place first or 100% agreed is understandable although frustrating.

Yeah i think you might be right. Guess publicly criticising the transport companies wouldnt be best thing to do if we trying to work with them

[ellebonnie]

Our owners want and can afford the best stadium in England, unfortunately this can’t be achieved at our beloved villa park in Aston and it’s location.

I see this as a positive not a negative. To become one of the biggest clubs in the world in the future you are not going to do this in Aston with the multiple issues it brings UNFORTUNATELY .

If a piece of land can be purchased for them to build the best stadium in the uk with hotels car parking for 10s of thousands with a huge train station nearby and scope to keep adding then that’s what there long term planning will be.

All being built whilst we still get 42k at villa park and people/ sponsors/ investors seeing where we going.

my take

[sidcow]

31 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Not only have they 'not even hinted about moving', they've specifically ruled it out, again today. If they're not willing to spend to upgrade one stand over two or three seasons, they sure as shit aren't going to be willing to spend ten times more* over a decade to build a whole new stadium. 

*rhetorical, not an actual estimate

One thing I know about American businessmen having worked for a few is not to trust a word they say. 

He could be personally digging the foundations of a new stadium whilst telling you there's no thoughts of a move if that's what he thinks you want to hear. 

Then later present you with the new stadium like it's all you ever wanted and totally ignore that he said there wouldn't be one. 

Edited December 19, 2023 by sidcow

[The Fun Factory]

So basically we have gone in a massive circle. If people remember the club put an application to replace the club shop I think before the pandemic, and had no intention of stadium redevelopment. Then because of the waiting list surge and Purslow getting on board they seemed to change their minds. And now 2 odd years later back to square one. And in the meantime, bugger all has happened.

[HanoiVillan]

6 minutes ago, sidcow said:

One thing I know about American businessmen having worked for a few is not to trust a word they say. 

He could be personally digging the foundations of a new stadium whilst telling you there's no thoughts of a move if that's what he thinks you want to hear. 

Then later present you with the new stadium like it's all you ever wanted and totally ignore that he said there wouldn't be one. 

Okay, fair enough, but there's also no evidence that we're interested in building a new stadium either. 

[Follyfoot]

59 minutes ago, tinker said:

I love villa Park from a nostalgic point of view, it holds some pretty special memories for us all.

Imagine the commercial scope for a new stadium located at the NEC, HS2 terminal, resort world, the nec, direct trains into Birmingham, the airport. The potential would be huge, It would be the most accessible premier league stadium in the league. 

I'm confused.

I doubt we will see 50k at VP again in my lifetime which is a trifle sad really 

[Farlz]

Saves me the hassle of having to move out of the north stand for a couple years. Certain there’s going to be another price hike next season though which isn’t ideal. 

Gotta say, the last 10 pages have been completely ott. It’s a shame but **** me calm down some of ya. 

[ender4]

49 minutes ago, BG_Villa_Fan said:

Unfortunately it makes sense. They’re operating on a revenue-generated-per-visitor vs cost basis, which is what they’re looking to improve.

If they want to do that, I can increase revenue by £4.5m a year just by serving drinks and food faster in the stadium.

Yes, the numbers do stack up, we all did the calcs on VT a 100 pages back in the revenue thread.

I bet Heck hasn’t even realised that hardly anyone can get served food and drink in the stadium. 

[Teale's 'tache]

Although there are many obvious benefits to a new stadium, I don't believe that's the plan going forward, I'd imagine it's a last-case scenario option. You don't spend millions on an inner-city academy down the road, add loads of corporate areas to the stadium, double the size of the club shop, and develop the Warehouse stuff to then immediately uproot and move elsewhere. It just wouldn't make sense. That is not what we are looking at right now.

But transport is very much a big issue, you can spend as much as you want on the stadium and its facilities, but there's a finite amount of people you can reasonably get in and out of the area in a sensible amount of time, adding 10k more people to that has a big impact and would detract from the matchday experience for everyone. Transport into the area simply has to be improved if we want to grow, and that's where the bottleneck is. I don't think it's a lack of demand, it's a logistical problem that is not easily fixed. The landscape has changed regarding the council since Purslow originally drew up these plans, and how the situation evolves depends on how or what we can do to improve transport under this new landscape.

The new North Stand was going to add loads more corporate areas, which Heck absolutely wants, but there's no point adding more corporate if it's incredibly inconvenient to get to and from, it's hard to sell an 'experience' if you have to tell people to allow for multiple hours travel and waiting around.

Throw in that we are way ahead of schedule on the pitch, and now have more investment joining us, and it begins to make a bit more sense as to why we are having a pause and rethinking how we can best move forward. It may well still go ahead, we just have to be sure logistically it will work as intended so that the considerable investment has appropriate returns. 

If there really is no way forward in terms of improving the transport links, and we continue on our current trajectory, then somewhere down the line the new stadium idea would become a more viable option to break the impasse. The owners, up until now, have shown no interest in going against our traditions as a club, moving away from our home would be a huge breakaway from that, but if it stunts our growth and their investment, then it is only natural a move would at least come under consideration.

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by Teale's 'tache
typo in my typo

[Risso]

1 hour ago, AndyM3000 said:

I don't know why they are delaying it, could be a new stadium, could be other reasons but for sure it's not what Heck has said about Villa Park being a fortress and caring about the fans.

This is a quote from the report on his meeting with the fans in Sept..

"He then explained that his job is “to make more money to put on the pitch in order to help us beat FFP” simple as that."

 

Imagine what 10,000 extra fans could do to help with that, plus massively improved hospitality offerings in the North Stand. 

[ender4]

2 minutes ago, Farlz said:

Saves me the hassle of having to move out of the north stand for a couple years. Certain there’s going to be another price hike next season though which isn’t ideal. 

Gotta say, the last 10 pages have been completely ott. It’s a shame but **** me calm down some of ya. 

The thing is that a new North stand completely makes sense in the long-term by any metric. 
 

However, Heck is here for 2-4 years, he has no interest in the long-term but just wants to quickly maximise revenue in the short term.  Typical American corporate (sorry to other non-corporate Americans here on VT).