Villa Park redevelopment

[thabucks]

5 minutes ago, Deano & Dalian's Umbrella said:

 

I was wondering about this.

I found an old birmingham mail article yesterday where season ticket holders were understandably upset about being chucked out of their seats for this.

 

I get why season ticket holders will get angry but sadly for them the club need to earn more money to compete and some fans will need to be sacrificed in terms of relocation to aid this. Sad reality of modern football which isn’t the clubs fault. The system is against them. The club may be able to charge a minimum of x10 per seat per season for this lounge area. Football has long since been corrupted by money and is no longer about the everyday working fan predominantly. 

[OutByEaster?]

4 hours ago, thabucks said:

When delaying / shelving  the new north stand did any mention get made to the halfway line trinity road stand longue still going ahead ?  

It's not really been mentioned since Purslow left. Which may or may not mean anything - I think they'd like to do both the hospitality extension and seats around the dugouts, but it's gone a bit quiet of late.

[thabucks]

8 minutes ago, supermon said:

Have we stalled on the north stand because of FFP? Just reading up on Evertons latest FFP woes 

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/everton-transfer-news-live-ffp-28445538

Would make sense if that is the case and we have to operate within FFP.

I seem to recall stadium renovations but being part of FFP but I'm confused now

I think the issue with the stadium is the way they tried to write off the interest on the loans for it which the commission found weren’t deductible or over valued and then also the cancelling of the exorbitant naming rights deal with Usmanov left a £200 hole. 

[limpid]

FFP talk in the FFP thread please. We don't own the stadium and if we did, infrastructure spend is outside of FFP.

[thabucks]

One of those friend overheard a dog talking stories … I’ve just had catch up with a mate who regular attends games in the hospitality area of the trinity stand and he said he’d heard from someone that the plan is to reduce the number of boxes and develop the lounges, with a few large boxes leftover for big corporates and that as you cannot watch the game from inside these due to alcohol restrictions and views of the pitch. The club have looked at adding an additional couple of rows to the front of the trinity upper tier to create a slight overhang which will run the length and that the top 3/4 rows of the bottom tier will become further hospitality seating all the way along. The overhang will have TV’s and heaters. Also plan on re jigging the whole of the lower tier by removing the divide in the lower tier save for areas for disabled fans by laying new  pre- cast concrete over the existing terrace seating like at Elland road to form one continuance lower tier. This would tie into the development of the half way lounge and would require the lower tier to be reprofiled with the new singular tier perhaps fitting into what Heck said about aesthetics and increasing capacity …  

Edited January 15 by thabucks

[Captain_Townsend]

Thanks for sharing

[MrBlack]

1 hour ago, thabucks said:

One of those friend overheard a dog talking stories … I’ve just had catch up with a mate who regular attends games in the hospitality area of the trinity stand and he said he’d heard from someone that the plan is to reduce the number of boxes and develop the lounges, with a few large boxes leftover for big corporates and that as you cannot watch the game from inside these due to alcohol restrictions and views of the pitch. The club have looked at adding an additional couple of rows to the front of the trinity upper tier to create a slight overhang which will run the length and that the top 3/4 rows of the bottom tier will become further hospitality seating all the way along. The overhang will have TV’s and heaters. Also plan on re jigging the whole of the lower tier by removing the divide in the lower tier save for areas for disabled fans by laying new  pre- cast concrete over the existing terrace seating like at Elland road to form one continuance lower tier. This would tie into the development of the half way lounge and would require the lower tier to be reprofiled with the new singular tier perhaps fitting into what Heck said about aesthetics and increasing capacity …  

That possibly goes someway to explaining the extra 3k or so seats they're trying to squeeze in. Sounds feasible to my non-infrastructure- minded brain. Cheers for passing on.

 

[Captain_Townsend]

13 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

That possibly goes someway to explaining the extra 3k or so seats they're trying to squeeze in. Sounds feasible to my non-infrastructure- minded brain. Cheers for passing on.

 

Indeed but my OCD just can't stop staring at the North Stand in that photo and the massive empty space either side of it! Seems the obvious place to start but hey ho!

[thabucks]

Could just be heresay but they can add seats quite quickly this way without huge changes to the infrastructure and lounge aside be completed across a shorter period than the new north stand. Thing is the club haven’t said what % of the new seating will be for regular fans and not GA + or hospitality… looking at plans for the redesigned corner of the trinity that was to meet up with the north, this was to be reprofiled and had an extra 2 rows at the front and 4 in the middle be removing the corridor, add extra rows the the top tier that’s potentially 8 extra rows of seats the full width of the current stand. 
 They could also add an extra 2/3 rows to the front of the Holte upper which I’d expect would be for the Terrace View.  My assumption is that’s your 2-3k capacity increase with minimal disruption. Then you look at the New North Stand if we sell out a 45/46k Villa park regularly. With improvements  to the local infrastructure i can see them pushing for an even larger NS - for comparison plops new similarly designed  Anfield Road End seats over 16k which was think around 4K more seats. Then we’d be looking before doing anything to the Witton of around 56/57k stadium … 

[MrBlack]

Just now, Captain_Townsend said:

Indeed but my OCD just can't stop staring at the North Stand in that photo and the massive empty space either side of it! Seems the obvious place to start but hey ho!

As others with more knowledge than me have said, the way the roof is means those corners aren't really suitable for filling in.

The massive goal post frame of the north can't be removed, so would block the view for  a chunk of the corner, a section of the corner can't be used because the trinity stand sticks out in front of it, and it could only be one tier due to the rooves of the trinity and DE stands overlapping it. All in all, it would be a lot of money for not much gain. 

[Captain_Townsend]

6 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

As others with more knowledge than me have said, the way the roof is means those corners aren't really suitable for filling in.

The massive goal post frame of the north can't be removed, so would block the view for  a chunk of the corner, a section of the corner can't be used because the trinity stand sticks out in front of it, and it could only be one tier due to the rooves of the trinity and DE stands overlapping it. All in all, it would be a lot of money for not much gain. 

 Yes, I know that and actually wouldn't want them fmerely filling in the corners. Apologies.  I am referring to my disappointment they didn't proceed with the demolition and construction of the new Stand which would have utilised the space while retaining the single Stand aesthetic  (architecture is a side interest of mine).

[ferguson1]

On 15/01/2024 at 09:47, ferguson1 said:

Apologies for posting here and if there is better thread for my post, then I’m happy for it to be moved etc. 

I’m going with my son to Villa Park this Friday for a stadium tour. Never done one before and very much looking forward to it.

Was wondering whether you get much insight into the future redevelopment side of things? Anyone been on the tour recently? Hoping to find out some bits off the tour guide that perhaps isn’t in the public domain?

Had a great time doing the stadium tour this afternoon and my son (12 today) said it was his best day ever! I really need to take him to a game now. Anyway, I would thoroughly recommend it for anyone that hasn’t done it. Very good value. I don’t want to spoil some bits for anyone thinking of doing the tour, so will put some comments in a spoiler alert below: 

Spoiler

Firstly, our tour guide was called Diane who has been doing the role for 19 years and she was fantastic. Treated my son like royalty and nothing was too much trouble, ie photo opportunities for everyone. A credit to the club and clearly passionate about everything Villa. 

Anyway, she provided some really interesting insight and I asked her plenty of questions. There were some interesting points from today that I can remember: 

The North Stand redevelopment was all go for over 18 months until the Heck announcement and that announcement was the first Diane and other staff at the club knew about it. No advance warning to any staff etc. She mentioned the Euro bid and Villa Park hasn’t withdrawn it’s bid but capacity needs to increase in order to host games from 42,600 to basically 50,000. So we’re 8,000 short. It was very much suggested that Heck is now looking at the feasibility of filling the corners of all four sides but there are concerns over the differing levels and heights of each stand. Could be very messy. What was happening today whilst we sat in the Trinity was the away seats (Upper Tier Doug) were being replaced with safe standing seating and will all be in place for the Newcastle game. Holte upper I believe ready for next season, as being done over the summer.

Heck was showing four men from London around the ground during the week and they all did the tour with Diane, as wanted to see the fan experience for themselves. Asking Diane plenty of questions of what she likes and what she doesn’t like? Wasn’t explained who they were. Said Heck comes across as a really nice man so far and is very interested in what the staff think of the ground and what can be improved. Our previous CEO not so much.

One disappointing thing about Heck though mentioned today is that it was his decision to remove the replica trophies from the tunnel area and put them in the Directors suite. McGinn wasn’t happy and wanted at the very least the European Cup in the tunnel area, so a further replica was made and placed in the middle of the tunnel area, so we now have two replicas. Heck asked Diane this week what she thought of the tunnel area and she said it’s fantastic and Heck’s response was  “well it’s all changing over the summer and certainly won’t look like this”. Interesting. I personally think it’s great as it currently is but we’ll see what happens over the summer I suppose?

So much work going on today though and ongoing over the next week or so, from the seating replacement to painting inside the Trinity stand etc. Painters everywhere.

McGinn is very well thought off and is very much liked by everyone. Last to leave after a game, as having photos and signing for sometimes 90 minutes with fans.

Players don’t like not having a roof on the dugout and this is being reviewed in the summer (roof to return most likely). It was taken off last summer due to adding some extra seats for the Conference League requirements etc. 

Emery very well liked and one interesting point on a match day is that the players arrive at the ground individually very early (Sometimes 9am) and then Emery takes them away by coach to a local hotel for food and briefing. He is the first manager/coach to take the players away from Villa Park for their pre-match meal, and then he likes to coach them back in together closer to kick off. 

Dean Smith very well liked by everyone during his time at the club. Houllier, Lambert and Sherwood also, as they cared. Di Matteo, Garde and Gerrard not so much. Just none of them particularly invested in the club. 

As a final note, we’re in a really good place, as lots of very very good people at the club, who care. From top to bottom. Everyone wants success and are hungry for it. Going to be lots of decisions and changes made over the next 12-18 months, which will be popular and perhaps some not so much. I for one am excited though.   UTV

 

[Don_Simon]

11 minutes ago, ferguson1 said:

Had a great time doing the stadium tour this afternoon and my son (12 today) said it was his best day ever! I really need to take him to a game now. Anyway, I would thoroughly recommend it for anyone that hasn’t done it. Very good value. I don’t want to spoil some bits for anyone thinking of doing the tour, so will put some comments in a spoiler alert below: 

  Hide contents

Firstly, our tour guide was called Diane who has been doing the role for 19 years and she was fantastic. Treated my son like royalty and nothing was too much trouble, ie photo opportunities for everyone. A credit to the club and clearly passionate about everything Villa. 

Anyway, she provided some really interesting insight and I asked her plenty of questions. There were some interesting points from today that I can remember: 

The North Stand redevelopment was all go for over 18 months until the Heck announcement and that announcement was the first Diane and other staff at the club knew about it. No advance warning to any staff etc. She mentioned the Euro bid and Villa Park hasn’t withdrawn it’s bid but capacity needs to increase in order to host games from 42,600 to basically 50,000. So we’re 8,000 short. It was very much suggested that Heck is now looking at the feasibility of filling the corners of all four sides but there are concerns over the differing levels and heights of each stand. Could be very messy. What was happening today whilst we sat in the Trinity was the away seats (Upper Tier Doug) were being replaced with safe standing seating and will all be in place for the Newcastle game. Holte upper I believe ready for next season, as being done over the summer.

Heck was showing four men from London around the ground during the week and they all did the tour with Diane, as wanted to see the fan experience for themselves. Asking Diane plenty of questions of what she likes and what she doesn’t like? Wasn’t explained who they were. Said Heck comes across as a really nice man so far and is very interested in what the staff think of the ground and what can be improved. Our previous CEO not so much.

One disappointing thing about Heck though mentioned today is that it was his decision to remove the replica trophies from the tunnel area and put them in the Directors suite. McGinn wasn’t happy and wanted at the very least the European Cup in the tunnel area, so a further replica was made and placed in the middle of the tunnel area, so we now have two replicas. Heck asked Diane this week what she thought of the tunnel area and she said it’s fantastic and Heck’s response was  “well it’s all changing over the summer and certainly won’t look like this”. Interesting. I personally think it’s great as it currently is but we’ll see what happens over the summer I suppose?

So much work going on today though and ongoing over the next week or so, from the seating replacement to painting inside the Trinity stand etc. Painters everywhere.

McGinn is very well thought off and is very much liked by everyone. Last to leave after a game, as having photos and signing for sometimes 90 minutes with fans.

Players don’t like not having a roof on the dugout and this is being reviewed in the summer (roof to return most likely). It was taken off last summer due to adding some extra seats for the Conference League requirements etc. 

Emery very well liked and one interesting point on a match day is that the players arrive at the ground individually very early (Sometimes 9am) and then Emery takes them away by coach to a local hotel for food and briefing. He is the first manager/coach to take the players away from Villa Park for their pre-match meal, and then he likes to coach them back in together closer to kick off. 

Dean Smith very well liked by everyone during his time at the club. Houllier, Lambert and Sherwood also, as they cared. Di Matteo, Garde and Gerrard not so much. Just none of them particularly invested in the club. 

As a final note, we’re in a really good place, as lots of very very good people at the club, who care. From top to bottom. Everyone wants success and are hungry for it. Going to be lots of decisions and changes made over the next 12-18 months, which will be popular and perhaps some not so much. I for one am excited though.   UTV

 

Diane is clearly MysteryMan, HairyHands and Christian Purslow.

[ferguson1]

2 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

Diane is clearly MysteryMan, HairyHands and Christian Purslow.

Haha, great lady but wouldn’t comment on the leaked badge though today, which was disappointing

[OutByEaster?]

I think Diane might be wrong on the dugout seating and the roof, I think the Premier league want them open so that TV viewers can get a better look at everything.

[Captain_Townsend]

I have just read that.

Interesting, not surprising, and deflating all in equal measure. 

[meregreen]

Taking the tour with an ex player can be good too. My two Grandchildren were shown around by Alan Mcinally. He was brilliant, loads of good stories. The look on their faces when they later saw him on Sky Sports was a picture. As a side, I took the tour of Villa Park with my school in 1968, Alan Bennet the club secretary, was our guide, as I remember, a really nice guy. Obviously the “ old “ Villa Park was still in situ then. Villa Park oozed history and tradition, even if we were entering a difficult period for the club. Glad I saw a tour, that cannot be replicated now, has stayed with me all my life.

Edited January 20 by meregreen

[OutByEaster?]

So I'm guessing the tunnel club will have seats in the middle Trinity, so I'd imagine if you're sitting in B3 or B4 there's a chance you might be asked to nudge over a bit next season. I can't imagine them putting them anywhere else.

It'll be interesting to see if they're also going to put in the dugout experience hospitality seats (one of the reasons the roofs came off the dugouts) which might affect those who currently sit in C4 and C5.

Beyond that, I can't se anything happening this summer in terms of adding seats - it'll be interesting to know when the process of initially surveying for that happens, or if indeed it's already happened, or if indeed it's more of an 'aspiration' than a process the club is currently undertaking. We'll try to get that question in at the end of the month at the fan meeting.

[VillaJ100]

So away fans will have standing before home? Ffs

[paul514]

i expected an announcement saying that the transport issues had been agreed and it was all going ahead again.

Got to say I believe that it had been called off for real now and I'm a bit pissed off, got 30000 waiting plus casual fans wanting tickets to yet nah just just stay with the current ground, dumb for the long term future of the club.