Villa Park redevelopment

[thabucks]

I love villa park and i have so many fond memories as kid about standing in the Holte and the old trinity road. However those days are gone and are just memories. Aston (well technically Witton) is basically either residential or a shit hole. Moving (actually) into Aston  nearer the city centre with two mainline train stations plus HS2 nearby, and with the chance of using the stadium for more than 18-20 days a year does make certain amount of sense in many ways to me.

Spurs new stadium will raise the bar to a whole new level, Villa Park has lots of charm  and tradition in the sense that it has fours separate & individually designed stands, which I like. But when I see something like this I think wow! 

I could give up Villa Park if Dr X built something as unique as this place will be. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

Unfortunately alot of Villa fans are too stubborn and/or old school, sentimental etc to move into a new era.

To be honest this is one of the things which has affected alot of board decisions throughout the years.

Also partly why we have such a shite badge!

[OutByEaster?]

In terms of what's out there and blends the modern and traditional brick, the Lucas Oil Stadium is fantastic. That Mercedes one is completely soulless - it's a shopping mall with 60,000 seats. Villa Park is a brick building, we're a club with a Victorian history, it's a special one - we can't jettison that, it would be a dreadful mistake. Architecturally I think we need to take our cues from the local area, from our history and from our values - all of those say brick to me.

 

[Stratvillan]

The Victorians weren't afraid to look to the past, the town hall with its columns etc, but also look to the future in terms of size scale etc. we need to take the spirit of avfc as founding fathers, forward. Brick, glass I'm not bothered -it has to be a football stadium - not a multipurpose event stadium. 

[ferguson1]

I do like the look of some modern stadia, but I have to agree with OBE here. Brick rather than sheets of metal every time.  I mentioned in an earlier post that we have Aston Hall on our doorstep and you only have to look at that to realise that we could have something quite unique in football stadia ourselves.  A Victorian/traditional look from the outside, but with a complete state of the art interior.  I still wonder if we can have a closer link with Aston Hall in some way? A beautiful walk way perhaps between the two?  The mosaic and some of the brick work around the Holte is the starting point for me in any future design consideration. 

Edited November 8, 2016 by ferguson1

[TheStagMan]

16 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Unfortunately alot of Villa fans are too stubborn and/or old school, sentimental etc to move into a new era.

To be honest this is one of the things which has affected alot of board decisions throughout the years.

Also partly why we have such a shite badge!

I don't know how I feel about this one. A new stadium like Tottenham's, the Emirates or even the Olympic Stadium would be awesome, BUT Villa park is one of the bastions of English football, it is one of the oldest traditional grounds in the country so much history and tradition there. I would hate to lose that. 

Most of all though, Villa park is still a very good stadium, with a decent capacity that can be extended reasonably easily to somewhere between 50,000-60,000. That said, we have enough land, and the area around is derelict and open enough to rebuild the stadium on the same spot into something awesome (e.g. not like Stamford Bridge). A lot of the stadiums where the club has physically moved are because the space around the stadium did not allow expansion, that is not really a problem for us. 

I get the point about the train and transfer links, and have myself been in the crush on the trains from New Street to Witton station for matches (hence the reason I now stay or park nearby and walk). Some improvement to public transport would be great (branch line into a Villa park station with match-day trains into New Street????  )

The North stand can go, no great loss, the Trinity and the Doug are fairly soul-less, but the Holte has to stay. Perhaps demolish three sides and put in a new, wrap-around bowl connecting to a free-standing Holte, with the corners filled in, but not actually connecting to the Holte - so overall a bowl, but with the Holte still separate, and the overall design somehow accentuating the Holte end (maybe if the bowl was higher overall, have a swooping roofline from about the halfway line down to the Holte roof).

In this way, it would still retain the things that make it Villa Park (location, Holte, the pitch) but could become a massive new superstadium. 

Overall though, anything we do needs to be as part of an overall vision for the whole area. I'm sure that Dr X is the man for that. Brimingham has had a lot of investment in the 20 years since I left, hopefully the regeneration of the area, led by Villa can be the next phase. 

[villa89]

1 hour ago, thabucks said:

 

I could give up Villa Park if Dr X built something as unique as this place will be. 

I'd be quite sure that Dr.X doesn't have the 2 billion pounds needed to build a stadium like that.

Get rid of the cheap plastic looking tat and replace with vintage redbrick or visages like randy did with the Holte and rename the Witton lane stand and the job's a good'un.

Edited November 8, 2016 by villa89

[TheStagMan]

8 minutes ago, villa89 said:

I'd be quite sure that Dr.X doesn't have the 2 billion pounds needed to build a stadium like that.

Get rid of the cheap plastic looking tat and replace with vintage redbrick or visages like randy did with the Holte and rename the Witton lane stand and the job's a good'un.

Don't see why it would cost that much, the Emirates was a little under £400m IIRC and even the massively over-budget Wembley stadium was "only" around £750m

 

*edit* Just watched the video. OK, that's why.

Edited November 8, 2016 by TheStagMan

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

3 minutes ago, villa89 said:

I'd be quite sure that Dr.X doesn't have the 2 billion pounds needed to build a stadium like that.

Get rid of the cheap plastic looking tat and replace with vintage redbrick or visages like randy did with the Holte and rename the Witton lane stand and the job's a good'un.

It only cost $1.4b, the fact that the city has about 10000 people sleeping homeless doesn't matter when they can have a stadium as obscene as that.

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, Stratvillan said:

I'd move. It'd be nice to be trendsetters again, by building a really amazing modern stadium. We could really set the standard. Where could it be? Star City, near Curzon Street? stratford - I could walk to games like I did when I grew up in Erdington. 

It would be wherever the commonwealth games committee put it...

thats the reality, I don't see us paying for a brand new stadium if the city builds one for the games and then it sits idle, brum council will be assholes over planning permission, plus the doc wants to redevelop VP now, which whilst we're 12k seats down makes perfect sense, I don't think he can afford to wait 2 years to see if brum gets the commonwealth games followed by 4 years of negotiations followed by another 6 years till it will be ours

so IMO a brand new stadium is off the table, that said what he also has to do is set the wheels in motion before the commonwealth decision is made, if he's pulling in investors to come build hotels, conference centres and shops etc next to a stadium how many of them will be enticed to go over to the commonwealth project rather than VP? Needs to pick up speed

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

47 minutes ago, villa89 said:

I'd be quite sure that Dr.X doesn't have the 2 billion pounds needed to build a stadium like that.

You realise that owners/boards etc. don't just literally pull out billions to fund stadia construction right?

Banks, governments, sponsors, investors etc are almost always involved.

[thabucks]

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

In terms of what's out there and blends the modern and traditional brick, the Lucas Oil Stadium is fantastic. That Mercedes one is completely soulless - it's a shopping mall with 60,000 seats. Villa Park is a brick building, we're a club with a Victorian history, it's a special one - we can't jettison that, it would be a dreadful mistake. Architecturally I think we need to take our cues from the local area, from our history and from our values - all of those say brick to me.

 

Good call regarding Lucas Oil stadium and its aesthetics being better suited. I just used the Atlanta stadium as an example of the cutting edge designs now being built. 

 

Edited November 8, 2016 by thabucks

[TRO]

12 hours ago, thabucks said:

Good call regarding Lucas Oil stadium and its aesthetics being better suited. I just used the Atlanta stadium as an example of the cutting edge designs now being built. 

 

......thats magnificent.

[dnmacf]

The redevelopment of Stamford Bridge (http://www.dezeen.com/2015/12/02/herzog-de-meuron-submits-plans-chelsea-football-stadium-redesign-london/) is leading the way for me in terms of current football stadia. It's respectful of the architecture within the surrounding area. It's grand and iconic yet simplistic and attractive. Overall, reflects the character of the area very well. 

I'd love to see redevelopment of the North Stand, capturing some of character of the Holte End. Not mimicking it in scale, but just in terms of design and materials. A sort of smaller, modern interpretation of the Holte with some top class facilities. It's at the right end to build in additional functions such as a redesigned club shop, museum and add hospitality. Think it would be a real draw for fans.

I work in development and planning (in Bristol, rather than Brum) and would love to see what Tony has in mind. Was very impressed one of his first visits was to Birmingham City Council. Always good to have the authorities on side in this business. There's lots going on at the minute in Birmingham so will be interested to see what he can get involved with.

[sidcow]

6 hours ago, dnmacf said:

I work in development and planning (in Bristol, rather than Brum) and would love to see what Tony has in mind. Was very impressed one of his first visits was to Birmingham City Council. Always good to have the authorities on side in this business. There's lots going on at the minute in Birmingham so will be interested to see what he can get involved with.

Good point. Not only will he want their favour for whatever he is planning around Villa Park,  if he can use his influence to ensure Chinese Investment gets many of the other myriad of Birmingham Developments in the pipeline off the ground there may be a bit of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. 

An obvious one would be if he could find investors to fund planned Metro Extensions to Edgbaston and The Airport which the City aspire to,  but don't currently have funding for,  they might also fastrack another line to Star City via Villa Park as parts of the overall expansion. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

11 hours ago, TRO said:

......thats magnificent.

Agreed, that's actually a beautiful stadium!

[villa4europe]

There's every danger that Chelsea stadium will age very quickly and badly 

[sharkyvilla]

Here's how Dortmund's ground developed over the years into one that has the highest average attendance in Europe.  I think we could easily develop Villa Park into something similar to the third picture.  Then turn it into the 80,000 ground once we are up there with Barca and Real.

[Phumfeinz]

That 1998 stadium is sexy af

[The Fun Factory]

On 08/11/2016 at 21:36, TheStagMan said:

I don't know how I feel about this one. A new stadium like Tottenham's, the Emirates or even the Olympic Stadium would be awesome, BUT Villa park is one of the bastions of English football, it is one of the oldest traditional grounds in the country so much history and tradition there. I would hate to lose that. 

Most of all though, Villa park is still a very good stadium, with a decent capacity that can be extended reasonably easily to somewhere between 50,000-60,000. That said, we have enough land, and the area around is derelict and open enough to rebuild the stadium on the same spot into something awesome (e.g. not like Stamford Bridge). A lot of the stadiums where the club has physically moved are because the space around the stadium did not allow expansion, that is not really a problem for us. 

I get the point about the train and transfer links, and have myself been in the crush on the trains from New Street to Witton station for matches (hence the reason I now stay or park nearby and walk). Some improvement to public transport would be great (branch line into a Villa park station with match-day trains into New Street????  )

The North stand can go, no great loss, the Trinity and the Doug are fairly soul-less, but the Holte has to stay. Perhaps demolish three sides and put in a new, wrap-around bowl connecting to a free-standing Holte, with the corners filled in, but not actually connecting to the Holte - so overall a bowl, but with the Holte still separate, and the overall design somehow accentuating the Holte end (maybe if the bowl was higher overall, have a swooping roofline from about the halfway line down to the Holte roof).

In this way, it would still retain the things that make it Villa Park (location, Holte, the pitch) but could become a massive new superstadium. 

Overall though, anything we do needs to be as part of an overall vision for the whole area. I'm sure that Dr X is the man for that. Brimingham has had a lot of investment in the 20 years since I left, hopefully the regeneration of the area, led by Villa can be the next phase. 

Yes- I think that is Villa Park's 'USP'- a traditional ground but updated for the 21st century. At the moment it has been updated for the late 90s.  It just needs a bit more development around the North Stand and it would be lovely. It would be horrible going to a plastic identikit stadium (insert Hull/Swansea/Southampton/Leicester/Reading etc) to watch Villa. In fact going to the ground has been far more enjoyable than actually watching any of the football for years.