Villa Park redevelopment

[VillaJ100]

**** let's go for the Corinthian columns and solid marble cladding put the 'Villa' back Aston Villa! Put a centurions helmet on Hercules and we're sorted. 

(Yeah I know how we got our name before I get quoted) 

[villarule123]

Will be interesting to see what happens whilst the new stand is being built. You'd expect it to last up to a year? Could be season ticket holders only for the whole period. 

How quickly could things progress once we get planning permission? 23/24 season start or maybe sooner? 

[villa4europe]

On 22/01/2022 at 12:35, DaveAV1 said:

If we make the new North Stand with filled on corners and a capacity of 17.5k, with the option of the lower being set up to be easily converted to  safe standing giving us a possible 55k ground capacity.
 

Then the long term view is that safe standing becomes the accepted norm over the next year or two and we redo the Holte into a huge all standing single tier to take us over 60k and scare the living bejesus out of away teams and properly suck the ball into the net when in full cry. We want our proper Holte End back!! The greatest end in world football. 

Just seen this, as I allured to in my other post we can't do that because of infrastructure problems, if safe standing came in and was allowed to be more than 1:1 which in theory allowed us to increase the capacity of the holte we still wouldn't be able to because the increased number of people would lead to an increase in the number of fire exits required, toilets, signage, disabled access, various other things, on top of that the steps that form the rows of the holte aren't wide enough to cope with 2:1 safely and then finally the load would increase due to the weight of the additional people and who knows if the structure could handle it

If ever it was allowed to go to 2:1 or any kind of increased capacity its not happening in an already existing converted stand, it's happening in a new purpose built completely future proofed stand 

And I hope the club allow for it and then push for it but getting 1:1 is going slow enough

[Tony]

Would love a box park style venue at the back of the north stand. Create a space for people to go pre and post match. 

[spiezels]

13 minutes ago, Tony said:

Would love a box park style venue at the back of the north stand. Create a space for people to go pre and post match. 

That be class. 
 

Keep chants going after the game. 
 

Show the later kick offs, have food stalls, benches and stuff. 
 

Really easy to do that 

[DaveAV1]

2 hours ago, wedge said:

Preach brother!!

Pass me my lecturn. 

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

Just seen this, as I allured to in my other post we can't do that because of infrastructure problems, if safe standing came in and was allowed to be more than 1:1 which in theory allowed us to increase the capacity of the holte we still wouldn't be able to because the increased number of people would lead to an increase in the number of fire exits required, toilets, signage, disabled access, various other things, on top of that the steps that form the rows of the holte aren't wide enough to cope with 2:1 safely and then finally the load would increase due to the weight of the additional people and who knows if the structure could handle it

If ever it was allowed to go to 2:1 or any kind of increased capacity its not happening in an already existing converted stand, it's happening in a new purpose built completely future proofed stand 

And I hope the club allow for it and then push for it but getting 1:1 is going slow enough

Well let’s just build a new huge Holte that is so big it casts a shadow over Small Heath all the way from Aston. If we build it they will come!

[HanoiVillan]

1 hour ago, DaveAV1 said:

Well let’s just build a new huge Holte that is so big it casts a shadow over Small Heath all the way from Aston. If we build it they will come!

Frankly, I'd rather nobody came from Small Heath to Aston.

[sidcow]

6 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Frankly, I'd rather nobody came from Small Heath to Aston.

Someone needs to clean the bogs. 

[sidcow]

We should shortly be hearing something on this soon. It was on 27 November when Purslow said they hope to apply for outline planning consent in "a month or two"

It was a deliberate statement in a pre prepared interview, he had no need to put it out there so if we're going to have to wait a lot longer I would have much preferred that they hadn't said anything. 

[OutByEaster?]

On 04/11/2016 at 18:47, OutByEaster? said:

I'd like us to buy the land between the ground and the railway station, so that you can get off a train and walk down the steps off the platform into Villa Park via the impressive rear of a massive new Witton Lane stand.

I'd like the area from the back of the North stand to Witton Island redeveloped with underground parking; a new office, shop and ticket office building, a museum and properly structured landscaping right across the North Stand car park with a pre-match (outdoor) pub and German market feel.

I'd like the car park between the Holte Pub and the Holte End made level, with cars moved underneath and a fan garden area with another outdoor bar and food market on top. 

I'd like a ground that looks from the outside like some giant, dark satanic mill, like Tim Burton drew it, a Gaudi-esque masterpiece of Victorian brickwork, St Pancras station as a sporting edifice, the kind of place that has young children wondering what goes on inside, the kind of building that causes chaos on the M6 as people stare in awe, the kind of building that kids in Spain dream of visiting, that becomes the building that people associate with this city, our Eiffel Tower. From the outside, I want an ornate brick castle for a Victorian adventurer, on the inside I want a shiny explosion of light and chrome and colour and modernity. I want the spaceship from Close Encounters, crashed into the Albert Hall with a lush green pitch in the middle.

I think I may have covered off the "being ambitious enough" thing. I think about this way too often.

Still this. 

[Follyfoot]

On 22/01/2022 at 11:35, DaveAV1 said:

If we make the new North Stand with filled on corners and a capacity of 17.5k, with the option of the lower being set up to be easily converted to  safe standing giving us a possible 55k ground capacity.
 

Then the long term view is that safe standing becomes the accepted norm over the next year or two and we redo the Holte into a huge all standing single tier to take us over 60k and scare the living bejesus out of away teams and properly suck the ball into the net when in full cry. We want our proper Holte End back!! The greatest end in world football. 

I still have a couple of lumps of bricks  from the original Holte which I am prepared to throw in the mix should they want to rebuild it

 

THE RIGHT SIDE

Left side left side gives us a song

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Edited January 25, 2022 by Follyfoot

[DaveAV1]

24 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

I still have a couple of lumps of bricks  from the original Holte which I am prepared to throw in the mix should they want to rebuild it

 

THE RIGHT SIDE

Left side left side gives us a song

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Perhaps we could mate them and produce enough bricks to build an entire new stand. 

[Jbvilla909]

On 23/01/2022 at 22:28, Tony said:

Would love a box park style venue at the back of the north stand. Create a space for people to go pre and post match. 

Yeah that would be ace tbf

[MaVilla]

when are expecting any plans to be visible to the public? (if there are to be any).

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, MaVilla said:

when are expecting any plans to be visible to the public? (if there are to be any).

As soon as they go in for planning 

Planning is a public domain, it has to be so that locals can raise concerns / complaints 

[The Fun Factory]

On 24/01/2022 at 21:31, sidcow said:

We should shortly be hearing something on this soon. It was on 27 November when Purslow said they hope to apply for outline planning consent in "a month or two"

It was a deliberate statement in a pre prepared interview, he had no need to put it out there so if we're going to have to wait a lot longer I would have much preferred that they hadn't said anything. 

They must be waiting on something. Probably to do with a travel plan. Trying to talk to the train operator will be like herding cats. 

[Kingman]

1 hour ago, The Fun Factory said:

They must be waiting on something. Probably to do with a travel plan. Trying to talk to the train operator will be like herding cats. 

There must be a significant improvement on the infrastructure before raising capacity. 
 

The current infrastructure is not fit for purpose with existing capacity so the infrastructure must there before we can expand 

[sidcow]

I'm not sure there's too much wrong with the infrastructure.

I mean the capacity of Villa Park in the 80's was 48,000 and we did get crowds of that size down there at least occasionally.

There was probably actually more reliance on Public Transport then as well as car ownership would have certainly been lower.

The problem seem to be with organisation and  e.g. numbers of trains and carriages.  Number of buses.

Sure both stations could do with improvements, probably platform lengthening and widening.    There needs to be more emphasis on spreading people down the platforms for certain.  Maybe a second entrance to Aston Station at the other end of the platform would help with that?

More matchday buses and police controlling the junctions again like they used to.

I know things have changed but I've been in a crowd of 48,000 at VP and it was all deemed OK back then.

I was looking at Twickenham recently.  In terms of setting it's not a million miles away from where we are and has a 75,000 capacity.  The underground is a pretty long distance away, 40 minutes walk or more (longer than the walk from VP to town) so they are mainly relying on buses and 2 mainline railway station - same as VP....and they are not right on the junction of a motorway either.

I think a few improvements at the railway stations are needed but overall it's about organisation and more buses/carriages.   We don't need complete revolution here.

Edited January 26, 2022 by sidcow

[blandy]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

I think a few improvements at the railway stations are needed but overall it's about organisation and more buses/carriages.   We don't need complete revolution here.

Very much this. The problem is basically that there is not enough public transport immediately after the game, coupled with everyone leaving at the same time.

The thing about the big crowds at the start of the 80s is that it was just as bad then, tbh, if not worse, in my hazy recollection. Traffic snarled up, queues for trains, buses etc.

There's not a solution which will see everyone able to immediately be whisked away from the ground with no hassle, but it does need much better co-ordination between public transport, traffic management and the game days, plus more people lingering instead of racing for the station etc. I just gave up on catching the train back into town and walk it, but it's not ideal in winter, at all.