Aston Villa chief executive Keith Wyness has revealed that the Championship club are hopeful of boosting the capacity of Villa Park to nearly 60,000.
The Villans are exploring six different options to expand their famous home by almost a third, making it the biggest transformation in its 120-year existence.
Wyness has warned supporters not to get too excited just yet, however, as the project is still at an early stage and discussions with Birmingham City Council remain ongoing.
"We would be looking to take the stadium up to a 60,000 capacity," the Express & Star quotes him as saying. "We are in initial discussions about how that could possibly be done. We have groups working on the project right now to try and bring a whole different level of attraction here – and redeveloping the whole area around the whole vicinity of Villa Park to improve it.
"We have some clever thoughts on what the area redevelopment would look like. There would be some sporting themes. In terms of 60,000, I don't see us pushing the button on that until we were back in the Premier League. These things can take between three to five years too. There are six different solutions to make this come to be.
"We are looking at all of them. North Stand would be the key area to be redeveloped. Other parts of Doug Ellis – and some parts of even the Holte End – would need to be redeveloped to in increase its capacity. But there are so many variables that we have to look into. Even though it's a great piece of land with good access, it's still landlocked to a great degree and there are big traffic implications to increasing to 60,000.
"Things like the stations might be need to increase in size. Villa Park needs to be updated to keep it as that jewel it has always been. We have the utmost respect for the ground and what it means to our supporters and any changes would be in-keeping with that. But it needs to be increased if we are to be commercially successful long-term."
Villa Park can currently hold just over 42,500 supporters following previous renovation work to the Trinity Road Stand in 2000.
Daniel Lewis
