Facilities

Villa Park

Villa Park is a football stadium in the district of Aston, in Birmingham, England. It has been the home of Aston Villa Football Club since 1897. It is a UEFA 4–star rated stadium and it has hosted 16 England internationals at senior level. The first international was in 1899 with the most recent being in 2005. It was the first English ground to stage international football in three different centuries.

Villa previously played at Aston Park from 1874 to 1876 and Perry Barr from 1876 to 1897. Villa Park is the most used stadium in FA Cup semi-final history, having hosted 55 semi-finals. The stadium currently comprises four stands; Holte End, Trinity Road Stand, North Stand and the Doug Ellis Stand. The Club have planning permission to extend the North Stand. This will involve the ‘filling in’ of the corners to either side of the North Stand. If and when completed, the capacity of Villa Park will be increased from 42,573 to approximately 50,000.

Bodymoor Heath Training Ground

The training ground site was purchased by former Aston Villa Chairman Doug Ellis in the early 1970s from the farmer who owned the land. It lies in proximity to The Belfry Golf Club and Kingsbury Water Park, just a few hundred metres from the M42 link to Tamworth.

The ground is situated near Fazeley by the side of the Fazeley canal, within walking distance of Drayton Manor Theme Park and Middleton Hall, complete with its own lake and working quarry.

Situated in the more rural part of the Midlands, many of the past and present Aston Villa players have taken up residence in various palatial homes within the area, enabling them speedy travel to training sessions.

The ground itself is surrounded by fields on three sides and the A38 on the fourth, and when built was considered a modern establishment well advanced from the old training facility in Trinity Road, Aston.

Planning permission has been a huge problem in the club’s intent to modernise both the training facilities and the ground itself.

Source: Wikipedia