Doug Ellis Stand Should Remain?

Rename the Doug Ellis Stand?

I have had a change of heart on a much debated subject I would like to share with you.

A short while ago HDE was the owner of our great club and was seen by many including me as the real reason behind a torturous period in our history where we seemed to be slowly slipping under with no way back.

We have put up with our best players moving on to mediocre clubs, bad managers paying fortunes for rubbish and lies from the top about massive transfer budgets that never materialised. But we stayed there, each week cheering whatever was put out onto the field.

At this time it seemed like having his name on his own stand was like having someone slap you in the face and then graffiti their name on your house – it took the mickey.

Events of late have lightened my mood somewhat and now I am confident we have the right owner and manager to end the torture and allow us to compete on a level equal to our stature in terms of size and history.

I think the Doug Ellis stand should keep its name as a reminder to all the real Villa fans of what we have been through as a group of supporters. It should stand there as testament to our commitment to support our club.

The Villa fans of the future should be able to see the Doug Ellis stand so they can ask who he was and learn about our history and hopefully appreciate how good they will have it.

I think it should also be there as we can use it as an incentive for the club. i.e. we will give it the name of the captain who next wins the league/cup.

I know most people hate Doug but in time to come we may look back and wish we’d have kept our history.

Poll suggested and put up: Do we rename the Doug Ellis Stand

Yes name it anything
No I liked Doug
No keep for history
Yes but only for sponsorship
Yes but only to Villa Player Name
Yes back to Witton Lane Stand

Article By TylerVilla

We did a poll on this last month: http://www.astonvilla.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=27541 The results were A massive 61% said back to the Witton Lane Stand. 16% said the Ron Saunders Stand, 11% voted for the William McGregor Stand, An amazing 7% voted to keep the Doug Ellis Stand and only 4% said the Tony Barton Stand. Just 1% went for the ‘I can’t stand up for falling down’ Elvis Costello option!!!!

So have you changed your view? I must admit I’ve not, just because he is about to go doesn’t change what has happened, the stand should never have been renamed by him or his cronies and it will remain a disgrace until the day it is changed back or re-named. I remember when we put it as a resolution at the AV agm. One of the directors, Hales I think, scoffed and said they couldn’t be up and down the ladders changing the name each week, saying they’d more important things to do. Well, I never heard even ONE Villa fan ask them to re-name it in the first place! JF.