Villa Park redevelopment

[NeilS]

11 hours ago, thabucks said:

As I mentioned in the last page you can expand (at a guess by 4-5k) the Trinity by squaring the corner by the exec lounge tower the of the Trinity - Reconfigure at an angle the other corner towards the pitch  but leaving a clear gap to the New (sponsor?) North Stand ... This would then offset lost seats whilst they then then demolish the boxes and upper tier, roof. Then build a huge monster stand, similar in capacity to the Spuds end of 17.5k would take us to 56/57k.

10-15 Years on . You then look at the Hotle lower/witton Corner, again reconfigure the tier so it continues around not straight and rebuild the whole witton keeping the separation from. The North stand... And **** it go crazy with a retractable pitch like the new Bernabéu that slides underneath. Add a lightweight retractable roof, curtain walls. 360 projector 64k video screens ... welcome to VP 2045 -65k + mega stadium 

 

1 hour ago, The Fun Factory said:

Ambitious!

The corner between NS and DE  though looks tighter than the Trinity one and would be constrained somewhat by the road frontage.

In 10-15 years time we will all get to Villa Park on our hovercars and self drying Villa shirts.

Looking on Google Maps. We could buy up the houses on both sides of Nelson Road, then along with utilising the area we already own behind the North Stand, we would have lots of space to make our new 65K mega stadium along with docking ports for quite a few of our spaceships (by spaceships i just want to clarify that I am thinking X Wing / Tie Fighter size, not a Star Destroyer as that would be ridiculous).

[hippo]

21 hours ago, Dave-R said:

I think you will find that we as a fan base in the past have had some brutal wars in the hooligan days, that rep never goes away for any club especially when our influence and hooligans stretched as far as Europe and fighting over there..

It's all underground now, we don't hear about it anywhere near as much as what it were back then, Hooligans have gotten smarter with it all. You may hear of the odd reports nowadays at match days but I'm pretty sure the use of the darkweb allows them to communicate and make a location known easy enough. Police won't care one bit it's out the way of the public eye and isn't causing a media storm, so it won't even be classed as crime..

Just because we don't see it, hear about it, doesn't mean they still ain't still giving each other a good roughing up or worse.

 

Covered all bases there though haven't you. (We have a hooligan rep - but no one knows about it !!!!!)

As clubs go villa only a hooligan rep in the mid 80s. My point was that the crime stats are boosted on matchdays by car crime. That's my experience and the view of west Midlands police.

Edited April 14, 2021 by hippo

[OutByEaster?]

I guess the first bit of redevelopment will be the stuff that's being done this summer in order to finally address our shortcomings on disabled seating. We've been lagging behind our peers and operating in (agreed) breach of legislative guidelines for a little while on the number of seating positions available to disabled supporters and we'll be getting that sorted imminently.

The provision of some additional seats in the away end will mean that disabled away supporters will get to be with the rest of the away support and release some additional seats in the Trinity Road that they'll leave behind. I believe this will slightly reduce the capacity in the away end with a small remodelling.

That will also be repeated in the Lower Doug Ellis, in M5, where I believe some of the seating at the front of the stand will be remodelled to allow for additional places - the access from the road through the gap between Holte and DE and the facilities in the stand make this the ideal spot for disabled seating, but there may be some season ticket holders asked to move and capacity will be reduced by about 80 seats.

Overall, this summer I think we'll lose about 100 seats across the ground - possibly a few less, so our first movement on capacity will be downwards, albeit for all the right reasons and to finally give disabled supporters a better chance of seeing games,

 

[turvontour]

4 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I guess the first bit of redevelopment will be the stuff that's being done this summer in order to finally address our shortcomings on disabled seating. We've been lagging behind our peers and operating in (agreed) breach of legislative guidelines for a little while on the number of seating positions available to disabled supporters and we'll be getting that sorted imminently.

The provision of some additional seats in the away end will mean that disabled away supporters will get to be with the rest of the away support and release some additional seats in the Trinity Road that they'll leave behind. I believe this will slightly reduce the capacity in the away end with a small remodelling.

That will also be repeated in the Lower Doug Ellis, in M5, where I believe some of the seating at the front of the stand will be remodelled to allow for additional places - the access from the road through the gap between Holte and DE and the facilities in the stand make this the ideal spot for disabled seating, but there may be some season ticket holders asked to move and capacity will be reduced by about 80 seats.

Overall, this summer I think we'll lose about 100 seats across the ground - possibly a few less, so our first movement on capacity will be downwards, albeit for all the right reasons and to finally give disabled supporters a better chance of seeing games,

 

Will be interesting to see where they would position disabled supporters in the away end. 

[thabucks]

Here is an article on the new Bernabéu retractable pitch ... https://www.nssmag.com/en/sports/25109/etractable-pitch-santiago-bernabeu/image:316599

Quote

The most interesting aspect of the new Bernabéu will be the retractable pitch and roof. One of the loose knots with the new plan is precisely the grass on which Benzema and Ramos will be able to return to play no earlier than the end of the year. As for the Tottenham stadium, the Bernabéu will become a multifunctional arena thanks to this new technology. To preserve / hide the lawn, the engineering team opted for the construction of an underground cave located about 30 meters below the main grandstand of the stadium

Long term they could choose to transform Villa Park into a multi-use arena available to use more than 19 times a year for concerts, expos, other sporting events etc. The Spurs’ ground l is in a deprived and crime ridden part of N.LDN yet that did not stop their ambitions to have a multi use stadium. 

One can buy dream as the costs involved would be frightening and no doubt cost prohibitive. 

[The Fun Factory]

Yes the disabled access has been rumbling on for a few years. I remember probably under Xia there was talk to partially reduce the North Lower for more disabled seats  however nothing ever happened. It would also be fairly stupid now if we did this only to flatten the entire stand a few years later.

[OutByEaster?]

37 minutes ago, turvontour said:

Will be interesting to see where they would position disabled supporters in the away end. 

I imagine they'll remove the front one or two rows of seats and place them at the front. I'm completely guessing on that, but it would seem sensible.

 

[OutByEaster?]

29 minutes ago, thabucks said:

The Spurs’ ground l is in a deprived and crime ridden part of N.LDN yet that did not stop their ambitions to have a multi use stadium. 

I think the financial model for Spurs though is based around having an NFL franchise - that was the big driver for them having a retractable pitch.

[turvontour]

51 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I imagine they'll remove the front one or two rows of seats and place them at the front. I'm completely guessing on that, but it would seem sensible.

 

It doesnt sound the best idea, given that away fans often surge down to the front area when they score. That Lower Doug Ellis is badly designed for that. I suppose if they were up towards the half way line that would be better, away from the corner where theres goading between the away fans and lower north.

That's why I thought they were in the trinity, as its accessible and less hostile.

[OutByEaster?]

6 minutes ago, turvontour said:

That's why I thought they were in the trinity, as its accessible and less hostile.

If you're an away fan in a home area, and you want to take up your natural right to call one of ours a cotton headed ninny muggins, things can get pretty hostile. As an away fan would you want to have sit quietly in a home area or would you rather be with the rest of the away support?

 

[HolteExile]

If they're talking about renovating rather than rebuilding at this stage, one thing they could possibly look at is removing the boxes at the North Stand and increasing the seating capacity from the lower North beyond there. 

Whilst also going a bit higher in that corner between the Trinity and North Stand. Not sure how much extra capacity that would give us,  3-4000 at a push maybe. But it might be seen as a reasonable short term option until even higher demand/costs etc are justified. 

Yes, we'd lose the commercial revenue from that end.  But that stand was built at the time when we had very little corporate facilities at VP.  Since then, we've had the Witton Lane stand renovated, executive boxes across the length of the Trinity and the super box in the corner of the Holte and Trinity. With those two stands alone we still have more corporates than most grounds in the UK. 

That sort of renovation shouldn't impact on the structural integrity or goal post structure of the North Stand either. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by HolteExile

[thabucks]

2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think the financial model for Spurs though is based around having an NFL franchise - that was the big driver for them having a retractable pitch.

True but that was only a 10 year deal and they want boxing and concerts ... In LDN they are also competing against Wembley, O2, Excel, Twickenham, Emirates, Olympic Stadium and other venues for these events. Being centrally located a multiuse Villa Park only has NEC & NIA to compete against to lure these types of events. I’m sure a compelling argument can be made to have an NFL team located in the heart of England when that deal expires also. All conjecture based on a pipe dream .... 

[hippo]

11 minutes ago, thabucks said:

True but that was only a 10 year deal and they want boxing and concerts ... In LDN they are also competing against Wembley, O2, Excel, Twickenham, Emirates, Olympic Stadium and other venues for these events. Being centrally located a multiuse Villa Park only has NEC & NIA to compete against to lure these types of events. I’m sure a compelling argument can be made to have an NFL team located in the heart of England when that deal expires also. All conjecture based on a pipe dream .... 

The Heart of England ergo Aston !!! 

Not happening the area is a busted flush. Mobile phone shops, wheel refurbers, tinted windows shops is about the only investment going on in Aston.

There have been "plans"  for many years. I was involved in some of them. 

[The Fun Factory]

16 minutes ago, HolteExile said:

If they're not talking about renovating rather than rebuilding at this stage, one thing they could possibly look at is removing the boxes at the North Stand and increasing the seating capacity from the lower North beyond there. 

Whilst also going a bit higher in that corner between the Trinity and North Stand. Not sure how much extra capacity that would give us,  3-4000 at a push maybe. But it might be seen as a reasonable short term option until even higher demand/costs etc are justified. 

Yes, we'd lose the commercial revenue from that end.  But that stand was built at the time when we had very little corporate facilities at VP.  Since then, we've had the Witton Lane stand renovated, executive boxes across the length of the Trinity and the super box in the corner of the Holte and Trinity. With those two stands alone we still have more corporates than most grounds in the UK. 

That sort of renovation shouldn't impact on the structural integrity or goal post structure of the North Stand either. 

I think they have given the North Stand facilities a spruce up last season so I don't think they would rip that up for a short term solution tbh. I believe in the championship years the entire corporate facilities in the North Stand were mothballed.

William Dugdale (Call me Dave I don't lobby at all Cameron's uncle) suggested to have the 2 boxes set up when the North Stand was built. A true tory idea.

[OutByEaster?]

14 minutes ago, hippo said:

Not happening the area is a busted flush. Mobile phone shops, wheel refurbers, tinted windows shops is about the only investment going on in Aston.

Yep, much like Tottenham, or Wembley or Stratford or Trafford or Moss Side or Liverpool or indeed huge swathes of the UK. It doesn't seem to have prevented other developments.

That said, I can't see there ever being an NFL franchise here!

[thabucks]

25 minutes ago, hippo said:

The Heart of England ergo Aston !!! 

Not happening the area is a busted flush. Mobile phone shops, wheel refurbers, tinted windows shops is about the only investment going on in Aston.

There have been "plans"  for many years. I was involved in some of them. 

So is the area of Spurs stadium - N17 is gang ridden shit hole .. But this is just wild speculation on my part out of boredom and being a stadium geek... 

[hippo]

3 hours ago, thabucks said:

So is the area of Spurs stadium - N17 is gang ridden shit hole .. But this is just wild speculation on my part out of boredom and being a stadium geek... 

N17 - london - worlds apart in terms of pull. 

In any case the spurs stadium is built. I've been I have to say I was very impressed - a massive step from Wembley.

But the suggestion here was we could re develop villa park which would kick off a regeneration in Aston. 2nd part is pretty much a non starter. There have been lots of regeneration initiatives in Aston - proposals, plans, even some minor development. Most were scaled back or pulled complete ly . Right now investment in Aston is a dead idea.

 

[thabucks]

The LDN factor will always be there sadly... if we were to rebuild as multi-use stadia then I’m not sure what the wider area has to do with it as I’m only referring to Villa Park and the area surrounding its immediate vicinity. With public transport, local parking getting people to and from the ground for whatever event then the wider area doesn’t factor into the equation as much. It is about making Villa park the attraction more than 18 days a year. It would be beneficial for Brum as a hole to have a state of the art Multi-use stadium to attract events and keep the reputation as England’s second city which I feel it is  losing to Manchester. 

Though regeneration of the wider area would be nice, it is a predominantly residential area next to a major transport exchange . Well served for getting to and from. 
Plop want to host concerts at anfield which is also in a shit hole, not served nearly as well as VP for transport and is full of scallys. Same at the Etihad in some respects. 

Edited April 14, 2021 by thabucks

[villan-scott]

10 hours ago, hippo said:

N17 - london - worlds apart in terms of pull. 

In any case the spurs stadium is built. I've been I have to say I was very impressed - a massive step from Wembley.

But the suggestion here was we could re develop villa park which would kick off a regeneration in Aston. 2nd part is pretty much a non starter. There have been lots of regeneration initiatives in Aston - proposals, plans, even some minor development. Most were scaled back or pulled complete ly . Right now investment in Aston is a dead idea.

 

I propose a name change too. Birmingham Villa. Amirite?!?!

[S-Platt]

44 minutes ago, villan-scott said:

I propose a name change too. Birmingham Villa. Amirite?!?!