Villa Park redevelopment

[Stephen_Evans]

2 hours ago, sidcow said:

Yes. We had to buy all of the houses on Witton Lane and move the road over to build existing Stand. The walkway and basketball court adjacent to Witton Lane would have been their back garden. Would probably have to buy the next row of houses on Holte Rd to go bigger and move the road and parkland walkway back again. 

Would cost a lot more now with the price of housing. 

Mind you, could the cost be offset somewhat by building some new homes with existing light access on the remaining space? 

The major issue with the stand is the lack of space in the upper concourse.  That’s because the council permitted us to extend outwards by 8 metres rather than the requested 10 metres.

[Mic09]

57 minutes ago, Stephen_Evans said:

The major issue with the stand is the lack of space in the upper concourse.  That’s because the council permitted us to extend outwards by 8 metres rather than the requested 10 metres.

I went to upper Witton during the play offs for the first time. 

Disaster of a stand. No space at all, not only was it uncomfortable and unappealing, it was definitely dangerous considering the overcrowding. 

[bannedfromHandV]

1 hour ago, Mic09 said:

I went to upper Witton during the play offs for the first time. 

Disaster of a stand. No space at all, not only was it uncomfortable and unappealing, it was definitely dangerous considering the overcrowding. 

Eh? It's an all seater stadium.......how can it be overcrowded?

[TrentVilla]

4 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Eh? It's an all seater stadium.......how can it be overcrowded?

Fat people

[Davkaus]

It's fine in the seating area but it is really uncomfortable in the concourses at half time or full time, I'm not usually one for feeling claustrophobic, but it doesn't feel safe to me either. If there was ever the need to evacuate that stand, it could be horrendous.

Edited June 26, 2019 by Davkaus

[Mic09]

2 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

It's fine in the seating area but it is really uncomfortable in the concourses at half time or full time, I'm not usually one for feeling claustrophobic, but it doesn't feel safe to me either. If there was ever the need to evacuate that stand, it could be horrendous.

@bannedfromHandV

Exactly this. If there ever was to be an evacuation within the upper stand I can see it going badly. It's very cramped in there.

[Paddywhack]

Yeah, I sat in the upper doug last season and you can forget about a pie or a piddle at half time, you can barely make it down the stairs to the concourse.

[Rugeley Villa]

I’ve sat there once for a friendly and it was shite in terms of facilities. 

[AvfcRigo82]

3 hours ago, Rugeley Villa said:

I’ve sat there once for a friendly and it was shite in terms of facilities. 

I sat there once in a league game vs Fulham and it was shite altogether.

[Lichfield Dean]

9 hours ago, Paddywhack said:

Yeah, I sat in the upper doug last season and you can forget about a pie or a piddle at half time, you can barely make it down the stairs to the concourse.

They don't even serve chips there for some weird reason , it's just rubbish in terms of its facilities. The lower Trinity is like another world in comparison.

[The Fun Factory]

On 26/06/2019 at 01:44, AvfcRigo82 said:

I remember it looking alright back in May '95 as it was the 2nd newest stand at VP at that time, New Holte had not been long finished.

However, it's now the 2nd oldest behind the North stand and does need redeveloped.

They managed to keep the road under the Trinity after it's redevelopment.. surely they could do the same across at Witton.

I think if the stand is flattened and a new build done then the name being changed wouldn't look so drastic or be frowned upon as much.

Besides, bollocks to Ellis anyway, he only held the club back during his ownership anyway. 

 

Witton Lane will be very difficult to do anything with given the road and neighbouring houses. It was going to be bigger when planned in the early 90's but had to be lowered in height because of it. The weird angle of seats to the Holte End was a cock up though and shows the lack of joined up thinking Villa have bumbled around with when compared to say Old Trafford's huge redevelopments.

Until we actually win a FA Cup or get into the top four I won't slate Doug that much. The two owners after Herbert did not exactly push the club forward did they.

[blandy]

12 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

The weird angle of seats to the Holte End was a cock up though and shows the lack of joined up thinking

It was due to the initial lower tier seating cramming more people in, then they all complained about lack of leg room, so the club re-profiled it (fewer rows) and that changed the angle of the slope so it no longer matched with the Holte, and thus obscured the view from some of the Holte seats.

[sidcow]

14 hours ago, Lichfield Dean said:

They don't even serve chips there for some weird reason 

Hey, lets go arrest those guys Ponch, they wouldn't even serve me

 

[AvfcRigo82]

2 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Until we actually win a FA Cup or get into the top four I won't slate Doug that much. The two owners after Herbert did not exactly push the club forward did they.

True, but the little absence in his ownership around '82 seen the club's most illustrious history to this day.

He could have signed players during his tenure but wouldn't cough up.. or strengthen squad.. again, wouldn't cough up.

Equally.. Lerner had the chance to do the same with MO'N and looked to have bottled it.. 

The only silverware Two tricks Tony had us near was the canteen cutlery.

Hopefully now, these owners take the lion by the scruff of the neck and actually do something with us and not be afraid to let us move onto "that next level" of top 4 and silverware. I have a feeling they are up for it.

[villa4europe]

7 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

True, but the little absence in his ownership around '82 seen the club's most illustrious history to this day.

He could have signed players during his tenure but wouldn't cough up.. or strengthen squad.. again, wouldn't cough up.

Equally.. Lerner had the chance to do the same with MO'N and looked to have bottled it.. 

The only silverware Two tricks Tony had us near was the canteen cutlery.

Hopefully now, these owners take the lion by the scruff of the neck and actually do something with us and not be afraid to let us move onto "that next level" of top 4 and silverware. I have a feeling they are up for it.

I do defend lerner from time to time...to be fair to him the goalposts moved (excuse the pun) when he bought us man city weren't owned by the middle east, FFP didn't exist, when FFP came in he voted against it, we had a childrens charity on our shirts, I think randy saw this bollocks coming from a long way off, what he is guilty of is not screaming from the rooftops about it, should have slaughtered it for what it is and what it would do, instead he threw his toys out of the pram and let us rot and putting far far too much trust in MON / milner / young etc maybe not understanding our game to an extent and the lack of loyalty therein 

I certainly don't think he's a bastard in the same way I do with doug or a conman like xia, he was naive and out of his depth but ultimately he ended up buying something different to what he was sold and didn't want it anymore

Edited June 27, 2019 by villa4europe

[brommy]

23 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

I do defend lerner from time to time...to be fair to him the goalposts moved (excuse the pun) when he bought us man city weren't owned by the middle east, FFP didn't exist, when FFP came in he voted against it, we had a childrens charity on our shirts, I think randy saw this bollocks coming from a long way off, what he is guilty of is not screaming from the rooftops about it, should have slaughtered it for what it is and what it would do, instead he threw his toys out of the pram and let us rot and putting far far too much trust in MON / milner / young etc maybe not understanding our game to an extent and the lack of loyalty therein 

I certainly don't think he's a bastard in the same way I do with doug or a conman like xia, he was naive and out of his depth but ultimately he ended up buying something different to what he was sold and didn't want it anymore

... and Randy’s ‘money to play with’ all but disappeared when around half of his fortune was lost to divorce.

[Vive_La_Villa]

5 hours ago, villa4europe said:

I do defend lerner from time to time...to be fair to him the goalposts moved (excuse the pun) when he bought us man city weren't owned by the middle east, FFP didn't exist, when FFP came in he voted against it, we had a childrens charity on our shirts, I think randy saw this bollocks coming from a long way off, what he is guilty of is not screaming from the rooftops about it, should have slaughtered it for what it is and what it would do, instead he threw his toys out of the pram and let us rot and putting far far too much trust in MON / milner / young etc maybe not understanding our game to an extent and the lack of loyalty therein 

I certainly don't think he's a bastard in the same way I do with doug or a conman like xia, he was naive and out of his depth but ultimately he ended up buying something different to what he was sold and didn't want it anymore

With the money that Lerner was prepared to spend we really should have got closer to top 4. So much money was wasted.

However saying that when I looked at the squad that managed 6th 3 seasons in a row it makes me realise how much stronger the league is now and how much we over achieved.

I think the squad MON assembled would be a midtable table team these day and be nowhere near top 4. 

[DaveAV1]

Lerner just threw money at the club without putting any sort of proper structure in place to make sure it was spent properly. Graham Taylor set up a meeting with him to offer his advice and Lerner sent someone else instead and never did meet Taylor. He also made a crucial error in letting Steve Stride go, who knew everything The was to know about running Villa. 

He finally realised that it wasn’t going to work and with his money disappearing quickly without progress, he more or less pulled the plug. As @villa4europe said above, he was naive more than anything else. He trusted MON with the cheque book and he turned out to be a Clough wannabe, who matched Cloughie only in his arrogance and cared only about himself. 

As many have said, it’s not enough to have loads of money anymore, you have to know what to do with it,  both on and off the pitch. Hopefully we’ve now got owners who have both and we can look forward to moving forward in every way. Including developing Villa Park, he added realising which thread we’re on!

[OutByEaster?]

https://www.avfc.co.uk/club/villa-park/virtual-tours

Quote

Explore Villa Park with our virtual tour experience!

Is this new? 

I like it. Imagine kicking off with that view from the centre circle. 

I think you can see the difference in the hospitality facilities between the stands pretty clearly -the North Stand isn't up to the standard of the rest of the ground.

 

[The Fun Factory]

I don't even think the North Stand hospitality has been open the entire time we have been in the championship. Cutting edge at the time, not so much today.