Matt Maher: £100m Villa Park U-turn poses questions and highlights uncomfortable truths
Gut-wrenching though this week’s second-half collapse at Manchester United was for Villa, it was a rare blip in what has been an excellent season so far for Unai Emery’s team.
The same might not be said for the club’s off-field operations, which are again under scrutiny after it emerged the much trumpeted £100million redevelopment of Villa Park is effectively no more.
Plans to completely rebuild the North Stand, first confirmed as on hold last week by Villa’s president of business of operations Chris Heck, now appear off the table completely.
A meeting of the club’s fan advisory board (FAB) was told Villa will instead aim to add up to 3,000 extra seats – some way short of the 7,500 in the original plan – simply by changing the existing seating layout. While the proposed expansion and revamp of the club shop and academy building will proceed, there will be no demolition of the 46-year-old North Stand. Any increase in capacity from the existing 42,600 will be much steadier than expected. The meeting was told a “bowl structure mechanic” is being explored.
It marks a drastic change in strategy but though elements of Villa’s reasoning make sense from a business perspective, the way in which it has been communicated has been cause for frustration. Heck revealed plans were on hold in the middle of a 10-minute video interview with club media, with the most important details then filtered out through the FAB meeting minutes.
The redevelopment, which would have pushed the stadium’s capacity above 50,000, was never going to be a smooth ride. There have been concerns, right from the outset, over whether an already strained (to put it politely) transport infrastructure could handle an increase in numbers, though it was notable Heck’s announcement was followed two days later by news the expansion of Witton railway station had been given the initial green light.
That development alone is likely to cost £30m and it is believed spiralling prices was a major factor in Villa’s decision to scrap the larger North Stand project. They now believe the money would be better spent elsewhere.
