Villa Park | Page 82 | Vital Football

Villa Park

Melon Donkey said:
Anyone wanting a soulless bowl new stadium presumably haven’t been to the London Stadium.You need to go there to experience how truly bad it is. I’m not exaggerating. It’s truly awful.

Spuds is marginally better but still crap. Mark my words it may be shiny and new but believe me the club atmosphere would die never to return.

Careful what you wish for.
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A phased gut renovation of Villa Park would be ideal. What the club probably needs is Birmingham City Council to be open to selling surrounding land. The club could potentially agree to renovate Witton Station and rename it Villa Park in exchange for land in the area or at a certain price too.

Its probably all being explored.

The key to making Villa Park more financially successful lies with making the surrounding area a destination in itself. Spurs have a lot of levers they can pull on we have one.
 
It’s long overdue but missing the mark with the pricing for such a short journey. It’s £4 for a day saver apparently and I can get a return train from Bournville to Aston for £3.90. £5 return only gets me to town on that.
 
If they need to sort the stations out, it's the roads that need some looking at. The Lichfield road to spag bol is a mess and caused by the bus lane. The odd bus get right of way there then has to veer right to join the only open lane to the island, of course queuing for 30 mins to travel 200 yards most drivers are reluctant to let the bus in so, it all comes to a stop! It would be much easier to open the bus lane for traffic joining the M6 and let the bus use the right lane. You see, you have to add all the other traffic joing the already stationary traffic from Cookoo bridge. I know, I do it every bloody night....MESS
 
I’m not convinced the bus solution is the magic bullet, won’t they just get stuck in all the traffic with 100 people on board? I don’t know how many buses there are, but people aren’t going to wait an hour for the next one if they’ve all just departed.

It needs more trains, or even a tram system on a much bigger scale, which I believe will be running to the other two nearby stadiums of lesser clubs linking the city and NEC. I know the council are bankrupt to make this happen in reality but buses are a bit of a token gesture.
 
Agreed, buses or more of them will just add to the problem, congestion especially the way some of locals park, if you can call it that. Mote frequent trains to New Street!!
 
BigBadDave said:
Agreed, buses or more of them will just add to the problem, congestion especially the way some of locals park, if you can call it that. Mote frequent trains to New Street!!
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I think they’re a good idea as there’s a bus lane that goes from Aston station all the way to town so skips the traffic mostly. They have something similar up in Liverpool for Liverpool and Everton which works well. My only gripe is £5 return is a bit steep given regular public transport is cheaper and can get you home.
 
The problem with Villa Park is location, nobody wants to hang around and disperse gently, they all want to get out of there ASAP.
Years ago Villa Park would host 60k + regularly, and hardly any of the fans owned a car, yet crowd dispersal was never a problem. But Aston then, wasn't Aston now.
Newcastle is much more enclosed than Villa Park, with 10k more fans every game, but because of it's central location with countless bars and restaurants, crowd dispersal is not an issue.

To truly solve the problem Villa have two options.
1. Move to a better site
2. Invest in gentrifying the area, residential builds, a decent hotel, pubs, shops etc... as well as improved transport.

Now whilst option 2 seems most favourable and could happen gently and more naturally, and would be roundly beneficial beyond Aston Villa and into the wider community. The problem is that for decades the opposite has been happening to fight against this. The Addies and The King Edward have been lost to industrial units, the local demographic has changed to becoming predominantly muslim, therefore unlikely to be about to support the venues outside of matchdays. I think the opportunity to turn Aston into the new Moseley has been missed.

So what we have now is a modern out of town stadium in an industrial estate, even thought he stadium never moved, just the surroundings changed.

I really do think if we are going to compete at the very highest level, then moving to a new stadium is the only option. I await with interest what the owners decide, but at the moment Villa Park is at risk of becoming like Old Trafford has: neglected.
 
Solihull Council mooted as suggesting an ideal site would suit a move from Villa park. This is the site abandoned by the HS2 failed project! Long term, I think we will have to move.....next thing you know Small Heath, will move to a purpose built 40k stadium on the site of the old karting wheels club!
 
BigBadDave said:
Solihull Council mooted as suggesting an ideal site would suit a move from Villa park. This is the site abandoned by the HS2 failed project! Long term, I think we will have to move.....next thing you know Small Heath, will move to a purpose built 40k stadium on the site of the old karting wheels club!
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I'm not sure a move that far out of our home would be welcomed.
For me the area currently occupied by Matalan (and others) near Dartmouth Circus should be where we go for. Between the A38 and Newtown Row.

It's within the middle ring road, and in the all important B6 postcode. The area is currently occupied by lots of small industrial units which is not ideal for the city, the council, or the WMCA as far as attractiveness goes, or scope for future investment and gentrification.

This area is easily walkable (10 mins) from Snow Hill station and the city centre. It could be incorporated into the Aston Uni campus. The scope for non matchday revenue is massive. It would bring back to life the Barton Arms (for one) and give the gun quarter a focus attraction.

Would not be easy to purchase land on the site though, would require CPO's and full coopoeration and commitment from BCC, which in the current climate they should be all for.
 
James06 said:
I'm not sure a move that far out of our home would be welcomed.
For me the area currently occupied by Matalan (and others) near Dartmouth Circus should be where we go for. Between the A38 and Newtown Row.

It's within the middle ring road, and in the all important B6 postcode. The area is currently occupied by lots of small industrial units which is not ideal for the city, the council, or the WMCA as far as attractiveness goes, or scope for future investment and gentrification.

This area is easily walkable (10 mins) from Snow Hill station and the city centre. It could be incorporated into the Aston Uni campus. The scope for non matchday revenue is massive. It would bring back to life the Barton Arms (for one) and give the gun quarter a focus attraction.

Would not be easy to purchase land on the site though, would require CPO's and full coopoeration and commitment from BCC, which in the current climate they should be all for.
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I cannot see this happening, it's not going to be any better there, your further back up the Lichfield road or the Motorway link. I work in Aston, the whole area is bursting at the seams! Blues are planning ahead, they need to as the Sty is falling down but in our case, we need a next Gen stadium to take us to the top.....we have to aim high. Villa park looks fantastic when full, the only issue is that crappy North stand and now that's been shelved, are we really going to be stuck at 42k and in Europe most seasons? Chris Heck cancelled a 100million pound enhancement for a reason and was not FFP, either he's seen better plans or, We are moving. The rail links mean you head for New Street Station and 10 mins later, your at the New Villa Park Solihul, sounds horrible I know but you have to look at the bigger picture and football today is about Money, a club is gauged on this and not trophies!
 
Solihull Villa . Pmsl .

Fuck me . Talk about the heart and soul being ripped from the club. Not only a soulless bowl , devoid of atmosphere like the Emptyhad, Hotspur stadium, Emirates and Spam. But miles away from ….errrrr……the area where we have been founded and ingrained in the dna of that location .

We are Aston Villa and not Solihull Villa.

Looking at Blues and what they are doing is pointless, we are a million miles from them in every way including direction. Why would any Villa fan be worried about them currently.

I know people will twist things to suit what they want or believe. We all do it. But Heck has said why the NS was cancelled and has said there are no plans to move yet things are said to suit what is wanted . It’s not FPP? . Where is the evidence that he has seen better plans or we are moving when he has said exactly the opposite. Oh yeah he is lying isn’t he? Of course he is.

A club is not gauged on trophies?

Fuck me . Game is gone then . Huge stadium but fuck all trophies . Great. I’ll leave that to the gentrification generation.

But, actually . I’m not worried because I’m nearly 50 and imho , and I firmly believe this , we are as far as ever from moving stadium and that is based on evidence we have currently from Heck and the club and not making things up to suit what a particular agenda is prevalent in the mind.
 
I fully understand the emotion, I'm 59, I've been going to VP since I was 11 years old. I love the stadium but moving does not mean you have to copy or build a bowl. Look at Evertons new ground, looks fantastic...
 
What about the current site of the Alexander stadium? I was against moving till I saw the benefits a modern site re Ajax offers.

Birmingham City Council will sell you anything you want at the moment.
 
I think Perry Park could be a sensible move. Not to take Alexander Stadium, but build a football stadium on land beside it, creating a sports village (football, athletics, cricket and bmx track and potentially more, all on one site). The Women's team and under 23's could play at the athletics stadium, making it a Villa campus..
Only problem there would be public transport links. A metro line from Bham to Walsall would solve this, and was initially part of the plan for the Commonwealth games. There are also plenty of pubs nearby.

I could foresee a lot of local anger at this though. It's a considerably more affluent area than Witton and I can't see locals being happy about a football stadium being built there.
 
Guys, all sounds good but it's the whole area, your moving from the fire to the frying pan. The area is just a bog, of traffic. I do it every day. On average 1hour 20mins to get home to sunny bromsgrove with no match in sight, it's getting worse. I wish Heck would crack has face and tell us what the 'Heck' is going on. You do two things by cancelling an investment, you move or you sell up!! Just saying, please, don't shoot me.
 
BigBadDave said:
I fully understand the emotion, I'm 59, I've been going to VP since I was 11 years old. I love the stadium but moving does not mean you have to copy or build a bowl. Look at Evertons new ground, looks fantastic...
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I just wholly disagree with everything you say about the new stadium tbh. And always will I suspect!

You use two strange examples in Blues and Everton. Everton’s new ground looks fantastic?. It’s a millstone around their neck . You can’t tell me that the burden of their new stadium isn’t a contributing factor to their situation . Apart from having an awful team, awful manager, perennial relegation battles, in the shit financially with another points deduction incoming and a real possibility of relegation this season what is the attraction of this new ground . It’s a millstone.

Arsenal, Spurs have both suffered from the new stadium burden. Neither have won the big ones since moving . The stay at home and build within the confines of the area Liverpool meanwhile have won champions leagues and a League title. Chelsea won leagues and champions leagues and have a less capacity than us.Your argument about needing to move just doesn’t stack up.

You talk about us not necessarily needing to copy or build a bowl. There is absolutely no precedence or example of a club in the premier league doing any different than just that. Even those that have departed the Premier league in recent times have done the same generic bowls. Southampton, Reading, Bolton …….
Forget the snazzy designs done by someone on an iPad app and posted on twatter. Pure guesswork.

I don’t know why you keep pushing that Heck is looking at a new stadium scenario when it’s been said he isn’t. And it’s been widely documented what he has said in that the North Stand was shelved because of not wanting to go too far too quickly at the stage we are.
 
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