Manchester City's PS300m expansion of the Etihad Stadium shows Aston Villa the true scale of redeveloping an existing ground.

The Premier League champions are building an extra tier on their North Stand, which will take the overall capacity of the stadium to over 60,000. As well as an extra tier and around 7,000 seats, City are building a covered fan park behind the stand, plus a hotel, sky bar and roof walk.

In the summer of 2022, Villa's former CEO Christian Puslow unveiled plans to eventually take the capacity of Villa Park up to 60,000. Firstly, Villa had planned to build a completely new North Stand which would take the capacity to 50,000 in time for Euro 2028, with the stadium being used for the summer tournament.

It would have also allowed a greater proportion of the tens of thousands of supporters who are currently stuck on a waiting list to buy a season ticket. However, it would've meant Villa would play for two seasons without a North Stand, taking the capacity down to around 36,000.

Plans were then scrapped following the departure of Purslow and subsequent arrival of Chris Heck, who was appointed as the club's president of football operations.

"I think it would be a bad idea to tear down one of our stands for two years playing like we are," said Heck, before outlining new plans. "Going forward, everything should be about all fans.

"We are going to start renovating the warehouse area which is a massive space that we feel can be a hospitality zone and entrainment zone for three thousand fans. We are going to be doing lots of renovation and building at Bodymoor Heath to build our academy and women's programme and to build more for our first team.

"We are going to enhance our technology and some of the practical facilities in all four stands at Villa Park. Don't be surprised if you see our superstore double in size."

There are no plans to leave Villa Park under Heck, who is committed to overseeing the redevelopment of Villa Park, which has already started this summer. As he mentioned, the superstore at the back of the North Stand car park will be renovated in time for the new campaign, while the Warehouse project will take a little bit more time to come to life.

Heck also added: "As regards to the car park with the fan zone, this will be a new area, built right behind the players' entrance and we are changing the whole make-up to allow the fans to see the players come off the bus before every single match.

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"Not only will they be able to do it in better sight lines, they will also be able to see it on large screen TVs, they will have food and beverages too. It will be first class all the way.

"The store experience will be something never seen in the Midlands. We have seen it elsewhere in the world, but the dynamic nature of retail will come to life. It will be exciting for everybody and particularly with our new partnership with Adidas and their quality of kits and lifestyle apparel."

As regards to the North Stand, Villa have a wider Villa Park project which will see 1,200 seats added over the next two summers. Phase one of Purslow's regeneration project - which was scrapped last year - would have cost the club approximately PS100million to complete.

Architecture and planning specialists F3 Architects are the brains behind the renovated club shop. They worked extensively on Tottenham's stadium in north London, which they moved into back in 2018.

F3 worked with Tottenham and Nike to deliver their flagship Spurs Shop at the Tottenham Experience - the largest retail space of any football club in Europe. Measuring some 23,000 sq ft, the Spurs Shop became the first part of the Tottenham Experience to be opened by the club, stocking Spurs, Nike and NFL merchandise.

Meanwhile, Man City fans have got their first glimpse of what a completed Etihad Stadium expansion will look like as the PS300m project continues at pace. Fans have already seen computer-generated images of what the project will look like, but now a documentary has shown the scale of the stadium once finished.

Construction video channel The B1M has featured the workshop where a scale model of the stadium was made, and briefly discuss the challenges that the construction will entail - namely the shape and design of the new North Stand roof.

The model clearly shows the roof walk feature, which is similar to the one at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as well as the two wings of the hotel building jutting out from the stand. Construction has already begun on those buildings, with an estimated opening of the stand in time for the 2025/26 season and the hotel pencilled in to open in late 2026.

The model also shows two huge spires at the top of the stand to hold up the new roof, which looks to rise at the same height as the spires currently rising into the East Manchester skyline.