Sun: Villa will spend at least £100 million to upgrade Villa Park Stadium

June 26, according to the British media Sun, Villa is advancing plans to renovate the stadium, aiming to increase capacity to compete with Premier League elites, while creating a giant beer hall and possibly hosting another sport.

Villa Park Stadium opened in 1897 and has been their home court since Villa moved from the uneven Wellington Road Stadium. The stadium is built on the grounds of Aston Manor, which once belonged to Thomas Holt, and its name was used in the famous stands at one end of the stadium. The

court is now located as the site of a decorative pond. The original stadium took three years to build, cost 16,733 pounds (about 1.8 million pounds at the current value), and can accommodate 40,000 people.

In the early years, there was a bicycle track outside the stadium for cycling and track events. Various renovations have been carried out over the years, including the £887 stand ceiling.

In 1914, it was planned to expand to accommodate 120,000 fans, but it never came true. After Doug Ellis became president in the 1970s, a double-decker design was adopted and subsequent updates were made, inspired by Everton Goodison Park.

In 1994, the capacity of Villa Park Stadium reached 46,000 people, but at the end of the same year, the capacity was reduced to 40,310 people. The most recent renovation was the reconstruction of the Trinitian stands in 2000, officially unveiled by King Charles III of England, while his grandfather George VI unveiled the previous version 77 years ago. The current capacity is 42,918 people, making Villa Park the 10th largest football stadium in England.

For many years, there has been a long-term desire to expand the scale of Villa Park Stadium. When Wei Sports' new owner officially took over the club from Tony Xia in 2019 and the team successfully promoted back to the Premier League, these wishes became tangible plans.

In December 2022, Vera received planning approval from Birmingham City Council for its new development, prompting the expansion concept to be made public. However, the following year, Business Operations President Chris Heck put aside the proposal to demolish and completely rebuild the North Stand, believing it was a "bad idea" because it would reduce the stadium's capacity to 36,000 in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.

But in December 2024, Villa announced a new grand design and released a new rendering of the Modern North Stands in the Villa Park Stadium, which coincides with the club's year to celebrate its 150th anniversary.

First and most prominent plan is to rebuild the North Stand. Villa confirmed in April 2025 that the stand will be renovated and expanded from 5,000 seats to more than 12,000 seats. The other three stands will also be slightly upgraded, which means that the overall capacity of Villa Park will initially increase to about 50,000 people, with 7,000 seats added. However, the ultimate goal is to increase that total capacity to 52,000 people in the next few years.

Even with increased capacity, Villa's ranking in the Premier League will decline as Everton is about to move to the 53,000-seat New Hills Dickinson Stadium at Bramley Moore Pier.

Vera is also developing an area outside the stadium, planning to build a complex containing a new "plaza" on the site of the existing parking lot in front of the North Stand. This will include a giant beer hall called "Warehouse", which will be the largest beer hall in the Premier League and a fan zone space for fans to gather before the game. A brand new two-story club store is also under construction where fans can buy all the merchandise in Villa.

In addition, as one of the conditions approved by the City Council, the Witton Railway Station, located just a few hundred meters north of the stadium, will also be rebuilt, including a new pedestrian bridge, a larger and safer queue system, an improved waiting shed and the ability to accommodate larger trains. This is to double the number of passengers to accommodate on matchdays to 10,000 fans.

Vera expects the construction work to take about 24 months to complete and hopes to be completed by the end of 2027. However, the "warehouse" is expected to be ready to open before Christmas 2025.

The key is that Vera plans to not reduce the capacity of Vera Park during the construction of the North Stand, which is a rare practice. Clubs such as Liverpool and Fulham have suffered a decline in maximum attendance due to construction projects.

But Villa proudly announced that its "stable design process" has found a way to modernize the existing North stands with "no seat loss during the season", which means fans can continue to cheer for Villa with full seats.

As expected, the entire project will not be cheap. Vera estimates that improvements to Vera Park will cost at least £100 million. Most of this will be used in the brand new North stands.

Once the construction work is complete, it is difficult to see what negative impact this renovation will have on Villa and the local community. A larger stadium has two key fundamental benefits, more fans can create a better atmosphere and earn more revenue by selling additional tickets, catering and surrounding goods.

Vera also predicts that the renovation will inject 120 million pounds into the local economy each year and create 1,700 full-time equivalent jobs. There are several other major benefits, and the “Warehouse” will double as a key indoor venue in the West Midlands, hosting high-spec concerts and even boxing nights at the new indoor venue.

Finally, and the most important point for all football fans, the project is planned to be completed by the end of 2027, just in time for the 2028 European Cup. Villa Park is one of nine candidate venues submitted to UEFA for hosting the tournament during the joint hosting of the event in the UK and Ireland.