Lerner keen to increase capacity

Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner has revealed his ambition to increase the capacity of Villa Park to 50,000 to help the club stay competitive. Lerner wants to redevelop the North Stand end of the ground and lift the ground capacity from its current level of just over 42,000.The American multi-millionaire has no definite time-scale as to when such major work would be undertaken but knows it is an important project in terms of sustaining success.Lerner said: "The capacity issue, the focus on Villa Park, is very real. I do believe that as part of our plan, taking the North End of the ground and improving it and modernising it, should be part of our reasonably near term strategy."I am conscious of the fact this is an attendance-driven business and, if you don't have (high) attendances, then at some point your success will decline."There are a variety of balancing acts that go into generating additional capacity and at what cost are you going to do it."

Source: Team_Talk