Aston Villa faces a significant hurdle in its plans to expand its venue. The club received permission for a complete redevelopment of the North Stand in 2022, but last year abandoned the idea.

Poor transport network

Chris Heck, Aston Villa's President of Business Operations, argues that now is not the right time for redevelopment. Earlier reports highlighted concerns about the lack of infrastructure around the stadium and how local communities would cope with the increased capacity. Now, former Chief Executive Keith Wyness has revealed that transport links are the sticking point and blockade preventing the expansion.

In the Insider Track podcast on Football Insider, Wyness explained: It’s about the size of the train stations around the stadium. If you expand the stadium, you need to increase transport capacity. There are great plans, and I had them when I was at the club—but there’s a transport bottleneck. I don’t see 10,000 fans suddenly arriving by bike—that’s for sure. Some planners would love that, but it’s not going to happen.

© Chris Homer

Making cosmetic changes

Aston Villa plans to expand Villa Park by 10,000 seats, raising total capacity to 52,000. However, to do this, the club would need to operate at reduced capacity during construction. For now, the club has made some changes during the recent offseason. These include installing new seats in existing sections and adding extra seating to increase capacity, as well as new hospitality areas across various price tiers. As a result, around 900 season ticket holders from the North, Doug Ellis, and Trinity Road stands have been relocated to other areas.

© Peter Moore (cc: by-nc-sa)