Villa Park redevelopment

[HanoiVillan]

8 hours ago, Villa_Vids said:

Don't know but that is a fair point. Depends who owns it? I remember Arsenal relocating a rubbish processing plant to a site nearby to build the emirates. Arsenal are very similar to us -  as their re-development of Highbury didn't go ahead and they moved to a site close to Highbury. Arsenal had to tackle with transport issues and upgrading stations.

Surely you would get more community support for flattening tired industrial buildings, rather than bull dozing rows of houses. I don't think we would need all that land for a stadium too, we may need more land for Atairos/Comcast for their possible ventures within any new or existing site.

I think you're right that there would be more community support for it, but as I say the price is surely prohibitive. It's not just paying to relocate the businesses, it's also that demolition and ground remediation would presumably be much more expensive and complicated than building on former housing (not that I'm keen to do that either, necessarily). 

If we do move I imagine it would make more sense to choose a more 'out of town' location with wider streets and better access than anywhere we could get in Aston. 

[OutByEaster?]

14 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

If we do move I imagine it would make more sense to choose a more 'out of town' location with wider streets and better access than anywhere we could get in Aston. 

The difficult with Birmingham is that the geography of the place, both physically and in terms of its footballing geography makes that out of town location pretty difficult unless you're going right out of town. With the West and North West covered with Sandwell and the Black Country and the inner part of the South West where small heath are, we're left with the North East of the city of something a long way out on the South West like Frankly. The kind of place where we could find the room would require us to build those wider streets (and some sort of life around them) or completely take over a little town like Kingsbury or Shenstone.

[sidcow]

19 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I think you're right that there would be more community support for it, but as I say the price is surely prohibitive. It's not just paying to relocate the businesses, it's also that demolition and ground remediation would presumably be much more expensive and complicated than building on former housing (not that I'm keen to do that either, necessarily). 

If we do move I imagine it would make more sense to choose a more 'out of town' location with wider streets and better access than anywhere we could get in Aston. 

Building on Green Belt is hugely unpopular as well. 

[S-Platt]

10 hours ago, Villa_Vids said:

Somewhere in the highlighted area. In between two stations (Aston & Witton). If the club and partners acquired all the land. This site is around 80 acres so you could build a new Men's and Women's stadium plus other assets. Perhaps adding another train stop near the spaghetti junction in the right corner.

I do believe we owned quite a bit of land in that area highlighted it's just Deadly Doug flogged it in the 90s!

[HanoiVillan]

13 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Building on Green Belt is hugely unpopular as well. 

For sure, that's why somewhere like 'the wheels site' was ideal for the noses. There's not many sites like that around.

To be clear, I am confident we won't be moving, though I do agree with those who think the recent board appointments might presage some bigger work on VP. 

[kidlewis]

12 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

JLR ?

They’d have the cash, for it.

 

Gym Shark is/was Solihull?

Edited April 16 by kidlewis

[one_ian_taylor]

9 hours ago, brommy said:

If the previous Villa crest/badge consultations and subsequent result are anything to go by, I'm expecting the new stadium location to be an average of our fans' home position. Unfortunately our sizeable support in New York and the rest of the US is likely to skew the result to somewhere just off the coast of Cornwall.

Don't  be Scilly

[Stevo985]

18 minutes ago, kidlewis said:

They’d have the cash, for it.

 

Gym Shark is/was Solihull?

It won't be JLR. They don't sponsor football at all. It's an explicit part of their strategy.

I wish I could pin this to the top of the forum because they get mentioned as potential sponsors every time we have a new kit sponsor.

 

The Gym Shark guy however is a villa fan. And a billionaire. And he shares two thirds of my name. So that's a done deal

[PeterSw]

IF we do move, I wonder if Villa Park would be renovated into apartments etc. like Highbury was.

 

[Teale's 'tache]

9 minutes ago, PeterSw said:

IF we do move, I wonder if Villa Park would be renovated into apartments etc. like Highbury was.

 

This crossed my mind as well, I can't remember exactly what happened with the Emirates, but I think there was something about some of those Highbury apartments being used to sweeten the deal for residents who needed moving for the new stadium to be built, I may be misremembering, but if we were looking at buying say everything in the area between Witton Lane and the railway, then temporarily rehousing many of those people somewhere with the promise of eventual apartments built on the current site could make it more of a possibility.

This would also allow us to use Villa Park whilst building a new stadium 'next door' on a bigger site essentially, and then the old ground gets converted into apartments like Highbury and the old residents move back into shiny new apartments. It's a more morally acceptable way of moving some people than the way Liverpool handled it, but not perfect for everyone I'd imagine

I'm just spitballing obviously, no idea what the plans are going to be, but it's good fun guessing.

 

[tinker]

2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

The difficult with Birmingham is that the geography of the place, both physically and in terms of its footballing geography makes that out of town location pretty difficult unless you're going right out of town. With the West and North West covered with Sandwell and the Black Country and the inner part of the South West where small heath are, we're left with the North East of the city of something a long way out on the South West like Frankly. The kind of place where we could find the room would require us to build those wider streets (and some sort of life around them) or completely take over a little town like Kingsbury or Shenstone.

The NEC is the perfect location for this type of stadium. It has everything you need already there and the HS2 arriving within 5 years. The airport is in Birmingham, despite really being in solihull.  Its a big move but anyone that knows that area understands the potential for it, there's not a better site in country let alone Birmingham. 

[Nicho]

12 hours ago, Villa_Vids said:

Somewhere in the highlighted area. In between two stations (Aston & Witton). If the club and partners acquired all the land. This site is around 80 acres so you could build a new Men's and Women's stadium plus other assets. Perhaps adding another train stop near the spaghetti junction in the right corner.

The houses next to villa are the ideal location for me, a major upgrade to Witton Station and the train time table capable of delivering fans. You could then turn villa park into a fan park and even keep the holte facade as a hotel/corporate entity. 

The NEC is just too far. 

Edited April 16 by Nicho

[Mic09]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

 

The Gym Shark guy however is a villa fan. And a billionaire. And he shares two thirds of my name. So that's a done deal

Markvo985? 

[thabucks]

CPO’s should only ever be used for the greater good and to serve more people than they harm and though unfortunate for those involved they will be compensated accordingly. I’ve no issue with that. But only to facilitate a ground move if the area surrounding the stadium benefits locals just as much as fans. I don’t think it’s necessarily appropriate though to use them just to expand the Witton without. 

[mrchnry]

30 minutes ago, tinker said:

The NEC is the perfect location for this type of stadium. It has everything you need already there and the HS2 arriving within 5 years. The airport is in Birmingham, despite really being in solihull.  Its a big move but anyone that knows that area understands the potential for it, there's not a better site in country let alone Birmingham. 

Until you have a sold out arena show and a packed conference on the same day as a home game. Not to mention NEC won't want a load of drunk football fans around whilst they're hosting a big business conference. 

[PeterSw]

1 hour ago, Teale's 'tache said:

This crossed my mind as well, I can't remember exactly what happened with the Emirates, but I think there was something about some of those Highbury apartments being used to sweeten the deal for residents who needed moving for the new stadium to be built, I may be misremembering, but if we were looking at buying say everything in the area between Witton Lane and the railway, then temporarily rehousing many of those people somewhere with the promise of eventual apartments built on the current site could make it more of a possibility.

This would also allow us to use Villa Park whilst building a new stadium 'next door' on a bigger site essentially, and then the old ground gets converted into apartments like Highbury and the old residents move back into shiny new apartments. It's a more morally acceptable way of moving some people than the way Liverpool handled it, but not perfect for everyone I'd imagine

I'm just spitballing obviously, no idea what the plans are going to be, but it's good fun guessing.

 

Yeah I agree that would be the moral way of doing things. 

Personally, i'd be all for knocking down houses in and around Villa park in order to redevelop it or rebuild it (a la Spurs) with the intention of building the previous residents new houses/apartments on a new site purchased by the club (ideally close by to their previous residence).

I'd also love the club to take over the rebuild of the Witton station - given the new investors seem to be global experts in that area

[Mazrim]

My thoughts on all this:

A patch up job on VP seems like a limited project that doesn't seem like value for money. It also leaves us with reduced seating capacity / disruption for the duration of work.
However I can see some limited reworking of the existing VP to accommodate extra seating and corporate hospitality while a new site is built. Whether that's nearby or further out remains to be seen.

The council are broke AF, and it seems a good time for a private venture to get a good deal on prime land.
Maybe the area inside Witton Rd, Witton Lane, the River Tame and the Aston Distressway is just about suitable, with a new VP being erected while the current one remains in use.

[thabucks]

Often see posts relating to land sales from the broke ass council. You can search all the properties for sale / let currently from the council and they’ve currently 42 listed with only one being a suitable size is , Peddimore Lane, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, B76 9AA. Worth noting not that far from the belfry & Bodymoor Heath and motorways but not near a train station.
 

Not sure what other property they own which would be suitable size and location. 

[tinker]

2 hours ago, mrchnry said:

Until you have a sold out arena show and a packed conference on the same day as a home game. Not to mention NEC won't want a load of drunk football fans around whilst they're hosting a big business conference. 

1 game a week on average at times that normally won't clash with business events. Huge car parks, 2 motorways within 2 miles, a45, a452 dual carriageways,   an airport, a station that goes straight into Birmingham, within 10 minutes, new HS2 terminal 500m away,  Into London within 35 minutes, a new light railway going in to further increase capacity into Birmingham, entertainment center pre built with more space to around to develop. Hotels right there on its doorstep,  casino, cinema, its all there already. Its a staggering opportunity. 

As for worrying about drunk fans staggering around, I have been one of those and the lack of pubs around villa Park tell you a story, there's not many staggering fans left, their not our future audience. 

The premier league is a international competition,  its watched all over the world, we stand on the edge of being in the elite group of teams, we need a ground and facilities that can attract world wide fans for their holy grail visit and make the most of them while they are there.

[Mazrim]

6 minutes ago, thabucks said:

Often see posts relating to land sales from the broke ass council. You can search all the properties for sale / let currently from the council and they’ve currently 42 listed with only one being a suitable size is , Peddimore Lane, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, B76 9AA. Worth noting not that far from the belfry & Bodymoor Heath and motorways but not near a train station.
 

Not sure what other property they own which would be suitable size and location. 

That could work.