Villa Park redevelopment

[CarryOnVilla]

41 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Then why are they consistently, persistently and recently telling us in meetings that it's not on the table in the short term and not in their planning in the mid-term either?

The club is currently pressing ahead with plans to use the existing space in the stadium and add capacity, plans that stretch over the next few years, at which point if it goes well, we'll have expanded by another few thousand seats, dependent on the people they have working on it finding a way. 

If a larger development is something they're thinking about behind the scenes, then they don't have to tell supporters groups anything - instead, they are telling us that there are no plans to build a new stadium, move from our existing site or replace a stand, and they're telling us this in order to manage expectation.

Of course, it could be that they just don't want to tell us, they've done that before, but that being the case, they wouldn't have to tell us anything, instead, they've gone out of their way at meetings to tell us it isn't happening.

i have no idea why they say that at fan meetings. Why wouldn’t they want to develop a bigger better stadium? Something more fit for this hospitality multipurpose era of stadiums. The owners have more property and value for the club, Heck gets more retail and hospitality space. The club gets more use than football out of the stadium and fans might get a better experience to spend more money when there.

it’s just a win all round. The only reason I can imagine that could stop the club is technical issues, rather than desire issues. Planning is always a nightmare, probably more so with stadium building. 
 

I have no idea really. I just can’t imagine the club having no desires to improve our stadium in any way. 

[MrBlack]

23 minutes ago, CarryOnVilla said:

i have no idea why they say that at fan meetings. Why wouldn’t they want to develop a bigger better stadium? Something more fit for this hospitality multipurpose era of stadiums. The owners have more property and value for the club, Heck gets more retail and hospitality space. The club gets more use than football out of the stadium and fans might get a better experience to spend more money when there.

it’s just a win all round. The only reason I can imagine that could stop the club is technical issues, rather than desire issues. Planning is always a nightmare, probably more so with stadium building. 
 

I have no idea really. I just can’t imagine the club having no desires to improve our stadium in any way. 

They're hiding something...They're moving us to a new city. It's the Springfield Isotopes all over again.

Or maybe we're planning to ground share with Blue (a la Celtic/Rangers) so technically we're not building a new stadium (they are) and we're not expanding Villa Park...

[TDR V2]

45 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

Quite clear from what @OutByEaster?has posted that things have dramatically changed in the last 12 months.

It doesn't align with thd scale of NSWE's ambitions in other aspects of Villa since becoming owners, and I would love to know what changed, really, but it all looks like they are making do with what they inherited on Villa Park.

I've decided to accept that things have moved on and I'm not gonna let it effect the current positives.

My take, is they need short term quick wins to cover PSR, or whatever it's called now. Heck is delivering that (apparently), what Heck needs to do is deliver the next stage, bigger and multiple sponsorships as that is where the big revenue gains are..... All he has done so far is rinse the fans of every penny he can get.... that is a short term temporary strategy. 

Once he gets bigger and better sponsorships then they can afford to have a partially closed stadium for a bit whilst they build whatever they want to build. 

I personally don't think Heck can deliver the next stage, and before anyone @s me it is my personal opinion. I aint wet around the ears and I know plenty of commercial and marketing people... the sooner he moves on the quicker we will get to the next stage 

 

 

[Pongo Waring]

2 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

I can't see a new stadium because no matter what people say we wouldn't sell 50,000 seats every week even at our most successful.

Bigger seated stadium could mean cheaper tickets tho for the working class people. 
Also better facilities for hospitality and the rich
Better parking for the disabled


Seems a win a win

Edited Wednesday at 17:58 by Pongo Waring

[CarryOnVilla]

6 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

They're hiding something...They're moving us to a new city. It's the Springfield Isotopes all over again.

Or maybe we're planning to ground share with Blue (a la Celtic/Rangers) so technically we're not building a new stadium (they are) and we're not expanding Villa Park...

[OutByEaster?]

38 minutes ago, CarryOnVilla said:

I have no idea really. I just can’t imagine the club having no desires to improve our stadium in any way. 

And I absolutely share your feeling on it - it seems to me like a simple win - both in terms of the increase in revenue and in terms of what it says about our stature and reputation and all the long term benefits that brings - but while they're absolutely committed to spending a small fortune getting more out of what we have, the club don't seem to have any desire to do a big redevelopment.

[blunther]

39 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

And I absolutely share your feeling on it - it seems to me like a simple win - both in terms of the increase in revenue and in terms of what it says about our stature and reputation and all the long term benefits that brings - but while they're absolutely committed to spending a small fortune getting more out of what we have, the club don't seem to have any desire to do a big redevelopment.

Smells to me like an exit in the next two years while the club is near what they see as its peak. Get the revenues up at minimum cost while keeping the club competing and get top dollar for it by selling at the right time. A new stadium is a ten year timeline, a new stand probably three or four minimum now. If you aren’t planning to be around that long then why bother. 

Edited Wednesday at 18:48 by blunther

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

46 minutes ago, CarryOnVilla said:

" Fortress Villa Park.... The pride of Stourbridge "

[Rob182]

3 hours ago, CarryOnVilla said:

We probably could sell that on season tickets alone. If I’m correct, there’s a 30k waiting list to be a STH

I don’t think that number is accurate anymore. That was when we had just been promoted, season tickets were <£400 and we had a great buzz from having Smith, Grealish etc. Obviously the buzz is there now, but people aren’t as willing to fork out £750, and plenty of people from that original 30k will no longer want the ticket.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

5 minutes ago, blunther said:

Smells to me like an exit in the next two years while the club is near what they see as its peak. Get the revenues up at minimum cost while keeping the club competing and get top dollar for it by selling at the right time. 

You wonder if Aitoros/Comcast would take us over and kick us onto the " next phase " of development if this is the case?

Maybe as another poster suggested, they aren't confident we can yet fill a bigger stadium, but are building us up on the field to get to that stage, THEN progress on expanding, rebuilding or redeveloping etc.

Whichever way it goes, our value will be very high and we shouldn't have a shortage of interested, high value parties!

Scenes when Todd Boehly finally sells his shares at Chelsea and make us his new FIFA project.

Edited Wednesday at 18:53 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[kidlewis]

1 hour ago, TDR V2 said:

I've decided to accept that things have moved on and I'm not gonna let it effect the current positives.

My take, is they need short term quick wins to cover PSR, or whatever it's called now. Heck is delivering that (apparently), what Heck needs to do is deliver the next stage, bigger and multiple sponsorships as that is where the big revenue gains are..... All he has done so far is rinse the fans of every penny he can get.... that is a short term temporary strategy. 

Once he gets bigger and better sponsorships then they can afford to have a partially closed stadium for a bit whilst they build whatever they want to build. 

I personally don't think Heck can deliver the next stage, and before anyone @s me it is my personal opinion. I aint wet around the ears and I know plenty of commercial and marketing people... the sooner he moves on the quicker we will get to the next stage 

 

 

The task would be enormous but knockout champions league and retaining fourth or an FA cup would see a rise in sponsorship again for us no doubt. 
 

we need a decent principle sponsor that isn’t a betting company. Finance or insurance would be ideal as they have huge pockets. 

[nepal_villan]

11 minutes ago, blunther said:

Smells to me like an exit in the next two years while the club is near what they see as its peak. Get the revenues up at minimum cost while keeping the club competing and get top dollar for it by selling at the right time. A new stadium is a ten year timeline, a new stand probably three or four minimum now. If you aren’t planning to be around that long then why bother. 

Sawiris was at an away game in Wycombe that mostly featured our bench and youth players.  No way he is selling anytime soon. Maybe Edens, but from his interviews, it seems like he is enjoying the ride too.

[Captain_Townsend]

1 hour ago, CarryOnVilla said:

i have no idea why they say that at fan meetings. Why wouldn’t they want to develop a bigger better stadium? Something more fit for this hospitality multipurpose era of stadiums. The owners have more property and value for the club, Heck gets more retail and hospitality space. The club gets more use than football out of the stadium and fans might get a better experience to spend more money when there.

it’s just a win all round. The only reason I can imagine that could stop the club is technical issues, rather than desire issues. Planning is always a nightmare, probably more so with stadium building. 
 

I have no idea really. I just can’t imagine the club having no desires to improve our stadium in any way. 

We have had planning permission on and off for 25 years to do the North. This time 10 months ago we were gearing up to do it. We even did an update about August 2023 saying there were some revisions to the stand, and the shop was going in it! And something drastically changed, we even decided to renovate the old shop instead in a u-turn.

There's a reason I have been very publicly scratching my head about it all given the current  arms race in English football to expand the stadium to maximise the revenue you can generate! It is all a bit odd like.

[ender4]

1 hour ago, blunther said:

Smells to me like an exit in the next two years while the club is near what they see as its peak. Get the revenues up at minimum cost while keeping the club competing and get top dollar for it by selling at the right time. A new stadium is a ten year timeline, a new stand probably three or four minimum now. If you aren’t planning to be around that long then why bother. 

Nah, if that was the case why have they reshuffled the board and added 3 people - 2 of who are very influential in major development projects and one who is part of a company that specialises in funding major development projects. 

[Villa_Vids]

I think the focus is outside the stadium atm. I wonder if Villa Live will return in another form?

[OutByEaster?]

43 minutes ago, Villa_Vids said:

I think the focus is outside the stadium atm. I wonder if Villa Live will return in another form?

It already is in the form of the warehouse isn't it?

[Villa_Vids]

28 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

It already is in the form of the warehouse isn't it?

The club stated (when the warehouse was announced) that it still remains in the plans. Club could be thinking about a larger fan complex integrated into Witton regeneration.

[matteyp]

Personally, I think the expanded stadium will come back into focus within 5 years.  Whilst it is frustrating, I do see the logic in improving the infrastructure and expanding the offerings around the stadium first before we attempt to pull in an extra 10K fans on game days.  

[sidcow]

14 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

Then why are they consistently, persistently and recently telling us in meetings that it's not on the table in the short term and not in their planning in the mid-term either?

The club is currently pressing ahead with plans to use the existing space in the stadium and add capacity, plans that stretch over the next few years, at which point if it goes well, we'll have expanded by another few thousand seats, dependent on the people they have working on it finding a way. 

If a larger development is something they're thinking about behind the scenes, then they don't have to tell supporters groups anything - instead, they are telling us that there are no plans to build a new stadium, move from our existing site or replace a stand, and they're telling us this in order to manage expectation.

Of course, it could be that they just don't want to tell us, they've done that before, but that being the case, they wouldn't have to tell us anything, instead, they've gone out of their way at meetings to tell us it isn't happening.

Pretty sure they were saying that just before Purslow announced his North Stand plans. 

[Hank Scorpio]

13 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

And I absolutely share your feeling on it - it seems to me like a simple win - both in terms of the increase in revenue and in terms of what it says about our stature and reputation and all the long term benefits that brings - but while they're absolutely committed to spending a small fortune getting more out of what we have, the club don't seem to have any desire to do a big redevelopment.

This is what it looks like to me overall.  Maximise bottom line profit as best they can with minimal spend. Otherwise it's very short-sighted to not at least rebuild the north stand. The pay back obviously doesn't match with their time frame for owning the club.