I am cautiously optimistic about Villa's Warehouse - but I have one big plea

Aston Villa have announced that their regeneration of the area outside of the North Stand - North Grounds - will add a new multi-use venue (The Warehouse) to the front of Villa Park, as well as an expanded and improve plaza and a new ticket office: and it will be ready around this time next year.

Firstly, I think the matchday impact of The Warehouse will be hugely positive.

The pre-match and post-match experience at Villa Park is fairly limited - the regular spots are either always packed, or a decent walk away from the ground. Villa's offering is exclusive, and expensive. Free matchday entry to a 3,500 seater 'beer hall' is a grand idea, and it's a good option for televised away games. I don't think this 'harms' local businesses either - it'll just attract the clientele that don't go to those places because they are too busy currently. People are creatures of habit and probably won't ditch The Witton Arms or anywhere else because The Warehouse exists - it'll just expand the capacity of the current, and fairly popular, prefabbed Fanzone.

This was needed. Take it from Chris Heck:

"We want to create the best matchday experience possible in the Premier League, so we’re giving our fans an open space to do what fans do best–come together to celebrate the players, the game and the lifeblood of this community."

Fair play Chris. Spot on. It's PR words - but it's correct.

It's not on matchday where I'm cautious about this venue though. It's outside of the games. Especially when Villa's excitingly bold statement suggests that 'beyond matchdays, The Warehouse will transform into the Midlands’ premier concert venue and event space'.

That's bold.

The Warehouse as a music venue

Big, legendary names perform at the Villa - and I'm not just talking Emi Martinez.

Villa Park has grown as a music venue over summers gone by. Bruce Springsteen, Pink and Foo Fighters have all performed in B6, and Ozzy Osbourne will eventually (hopefully) do a set of farewell shows there. There's a music pedigree on this hallowed ground.

The Warehouse is way different though. One-off big tourers who bring their own stages, staff and setups to rock Villa Park for one-night-only is one thing. Operating Villa Park's fan zone as a bonafide week-in/week-out music venue is another.

Villa have two options for how they set this up:

A - The Warehouse is just a knock-off Boxpark

B - The Warehouse is a music venue first, without losing that matchday impact.

I'm praying it is option B - or at least a blend. I am almost certain after speaking to a number of people that it is currently leaning towards A. This is 'fine'. But it's not good for what The Warehouse wants to be. Boxpark rip-offs are not going to be premier concert venues for a massive region.

One thing is utterly certain though: you cannot simply transplant matchday staff into a music venue and expect it to run. It's two different skillsets. That's not my opinion, it's the opinion of several people in both industries I've spoken to, and not just for a newsletter - but because I am genuinely interested in this. This project will require hands-on help from professionals already in the business as partners on the project.

Unless Villa has a Santa's Elves' workshop of music industry staff locked away, they will need a large music-orientated booking business to book the venue out for them, and run it outside of matchdays.

To deliver on the statement of it being the Midlands' premier concert venue, they'll need to make it music-first. The CGI renders are likely not hugely representative of how the venue will feel, but ideally it takes lessons from Leeds' First Direct Arena, or even Nottingham's Rock City.

The Warehouse looks sizeable, and is almost encircled by a large balcony area, but as a multi-use venue, it'll have a flat floor (not raised at the back) and lack the care some other music venues have. Birmingham already has venues like The Warehouse in those terms. This one is just newer.

Admittedly Leed's arena is, well, an arena - but there are bespoke elements of curated design crafted to make a certain experience. It's large, yet intimate. It's also steep, staggered and centered around the stage. Friends who have visited say it's incomparable. It's a classic and rarely seen fan-shaped arena, thoughtful in design.

Villa can't make the above happen, but they can certainly emulate aspects of it.

Something that leans towards Rock City would be spot on:

An intriguing element of The Warehouse is in it's capacity. In the statement, it is called a 3,500-seater venue. This might be a matchday specification with the benches installed. If it's not, and it is 3,500+ standing, it could mean that the overall 'venue' capacity is closer to 5,000. Or at least that's my hope.

If the 'music' capacity of The Warehouse is in-fact 3,500 - it would just exist as a different version of Birmingham's O2 Academy (3,000-ish cap). For anyone who isn't a Villa fan, it's seemingly a bit redundant.

My personal hope is that the full capacity of the Venue is closer to 5,000 as then it genuinely provides something different to touring bands - who currently have to leap from either the Academy to either the 15,000-ish NIA/NEC. That's a huge leap and a lot of touring bands 'too big' for the Academy do not sell it out. Or even come close.

A region-wide venue tier that is something like: Pub - O2 Institute - O2 Academy/Civic - The Warehouse - Arenas - Villa Park would give the city something different.

Otherwise, it's in a place that isn't always the easiest to get to and will be overlooked by other venues. It probably can't be used for music on matchdays due to music/setup and soundtesting (unless it's a 12:30 kick-off? Venues need to be set-up a fair while before a show, and if they are of the size the capacity suggests, it'd be a nightmare to operate a music show on a matchday). What's more, the football season and the touring season share most of the same peaks and troughs. Venues are traditionally a bit quieter in June/July due to European/US festivals, and a bit more active in the winter. Planning events would take care, and rearranged matches would be a consideration. There's opportunity for music/boxing/football double and triple bills. That's cool!

As for location, Aston is a microcosm of Birmingham itself. If Birmingham is ignored by the larger world, Aston is ignored by Birmingham, and why would a booking partner divert business away from their own operations in Wolverhampton/Birmingham to make Villa's Warehouse a success? Music venues thrive around scenes and nightlife, things that spontaneously erupt. It's not really a 'if you build it, they will come' scenario. Established venues are established venues for a reason. If The Warehouse is good enough, it should do well - but it's a tough gig. Ahem.

So is combatting Financial Fair Play restrictions, to be fair!

The Finances

According to Heck, The Warehouse is 'another pivotal piece to climbing the financial fair play mountain.'

I think at face-value, there's a lot of happy-clapping and creaming over spreadsheets to be done, but i feel The Warehouse's impact on FFP is a bit overstated here. It'll have the same impact on Villa's FFP predicament that winning a £50 Premium Bond has on my mission to save for a house deposit. It's welcome, but the main thing I can do is examine my spending.

Now, every little helps - but the FFP rules have been bent by clubs to the point where it just looks like the game is rigged. Clubs in Villa's position need to get bang for their buck, because transforming their income is not an overnight job, and things like this do help - but not in the immediate term, and not as much as getting more impact from their spending.

Coaching, youth development pathways and elite scouting/analysis will help Villa compete 'with the big boys' and manage FFP in a more effective manner.

Put it this way, a recent yearly matchday revenue sum for Villa was £18.7 million. If the Warehouse brought in 10% of that figure on matchdays, that's £1.87 million. That's a very optimistic outlook.

Even more so when you consider non-matchday income it could cultivate - but there's not a great deal to be made there. Profit, for sure, but not football profit. From what I can gather, Villa would need it booked out all year-round to earn, in my opinion, a very optimistic £3m-ish a year. That's without mentioning a potential operating partner's slice of the pie.

I've started to see through the statements from the club that mention FFP now. It's an excuse to justify poor spending. We all do it in our own ways.

But I don't see much FFP benefit here, and really, that's beyond the point. What I see is something greater. People wetting themselves over revenue (there are more things to Villa then the money they make) are missing the point.

Villa might be about to do something nice off-the-pitch for a change, and I pray they consult local music and entertainment experts about this in detail. It could be something really special for the culture of the region. It'll be a winner on matchdays, just make it mean something outside of then. Seriously, something that matters to a bigger audience.

And not just Villa's bank accounts.