Job Losses At The Club

[Risso]

The wages thing is just basic economics.  If you give every club in the Premier League multiple millions, then as they're chasing essentially the same small pool of players, all the extra money is going to end up being spent as wages.  The only possible solution is to have a salary cap.

[Daholteend]

AVFC and Randy Lerner are just like any other business dealing with the effects of a global recession.
Any business owner that doesn't look at their profitability and structure a feasible operational budget during these days of austerity would be foolish.

There are  3 ways to make a profit, increase prices, increase sales, and cut costs. In the current economic climate increasing prices is more likely to reduce demand for the Villa product. Similarly increasing sales will prove difficult because many season ticket holders have elected not to renew for economic or political reasons.

With a lack of revenue growth and shrinking margins the only remedy left is to cut one's costs where possible. We have seen in the last couple of years the trend at B6 towards a reduced wage bill along with a sell to buy policy as part of an effort to move towards profitability.

Reducing staff overheads to fit with our current cash flow is a necessity and it is a no brainer that the Holte would move towards a match day only opening until such times if ever that the economic climate improved to where it is viable to spend money on a potentially profitable area.

At this time it isn't viable, thus the cuts.

It wouldn't matter who owns AVFC, in this economic climate  unless your club is owned by  Oil Oligarchs  who can squander their billions on whims  and folly, you would have to make these kinds of cuts.

Any individual in these days whether they have money or not is faced with the problem of the costs of living increasing where in many cases wages are stagnant or if you lose your job, non existent. Any one fortunate enough to have any savings or spare capital lying around knows that the return on many investments is negligible and sometimes negative. Randy Lerner is no exception to this situation.

If he owned any Bank of America stock in the last couple of years you only have to check the stock prices to find that the value of those stocks has decreased considerably. We are not privy to his personal finances, but like many that amassed fortunes over the last twenty years, today's financial straits are challenging to say the least.

While it is always sad that anyone loses their jobs, these things happen and rather than rage over the Villa's ownership cost cuts, perhaps we should stop and think that it might be the smartest thing to do in the short term to ensure that we survive to see a long term.

I for one am glad that Randy owns the club. Consider for a moment what kind of club we would have if say we were owned by a lesser individual who instead of acting like a steward was completely profligate . I can't do that for more than one moment without a cold shudder down my spine.

I believe the club is in safe hands and have no desire to see a change of ownership. If you think that things are bad now don't worry, they can always be considerably worse.

In the meantime let's see Villa's fortunes on the pitch take a rapid upward movement, then we will all be happy. Well most of us at any rate

[kippaxvilla2]

I don't think the overheads of day to day running would be enormous, to be honest, certainly not for a company throwing 40k a week at habib Beye;-) The staff won't have been paid a great amount.

Profitability is a totally different thing, though.

It's all relative. It would certainly have cost more to run than the other pubs round there, and the food waste much have been enormous every day.

True, but relative to the other costs at the club, peanuts.

The staff restaurant closing probably says more, mind. More people on the dole.

I think Randy must have known this would be a big loss leader, there was no earthly way it was going to work bearing in mind its location and to be honest there is a large muslim population in the area, added to the fact that gun crime has a propensity to rear its head from time to time.

Therefore, he did it in my view to make a statement to the fans in a more philanthropic manner.  Therefore, to take the decision to close it shows just how far back he wants to cut in a bid to make ends meet.

[dave.woodhall]

I think Randy must have known this would be a big loss leader, there was no earthly way it was going to work bearing in mind its location and to be honest there is a large muslim population in the area, added to the fact that gun crime has a propensity to rear its head from time to time.

I don't think he did. A lot of those first two or three years was based on "Build it and they'll come." But they didn't.

[deero83]

What are the disadvantages of the Witton Arms and Aston Hotel?

Me and my mate are looking for somewhere to have a couple of pints before home games that isn't as far from Aston station as the Barton Arms but that's still reasonable. I've tried the Holte Pub before but despite it being nicely done out inside, there was zero atmosphere and the beer was the same crap they sell in the concourse at half time. I was also put off by the fact that I had to pay £4 to get in even as a season ticket holder.

Are the Witton Arms etc any good?

[Fuse]

I think Randy must have known this would be a big loss leader, there was no earthly way it was going to work bearing in mind its location and to be honest there is a large muslim population in the area, added to the fact that gun crime has a propensity to rear its head from time to time.

I don't think he did. A lot of those first two or three years was based on "Build it and they'll come." But they didn't.

I think that had we made the CL the season of the Moscow debacle then we would ahve moved on massively in revenue. From the moment we didn't and then the subsequent cutting of investment that has taken place we lost the chance and I fear it will never return. Don';t forget we did average over 40K that season and could proably ahve averaged a lot higher had the gound held more.

The potential is there but it takes more thna a couple of good seasons to sustain it. You need to win things and you need to prove to our fanbase that it isn't a false dawn as we have had so many of those people are far more cynical.

[dave.woodhall]

I think Randy must have known this would be a big loss leader, there was no earthly way it was going to work bearing in mind its location and to be honest there is a large muslim population in the area, added to the fact that gun crime has a propensity to rear its head from time to time.

I don't think he did. A lot of those first two or three years was based on "Build it and they'll come." But they didn't.

I think that had we made the CL the season of the Moscow debacle then we would ahve moved on massively in revenue. From the moment we didn't and then the subsequent cutting of investment that has taken place we lost the chance and I fear it will never return. Don';t forget we did average over 40K that season and could proably ahve averaged a lot higher had the gound held more.

The potential is there but it takes more thna a couple of good seasons to sustain it. You need to win things and you need to prove to our fanbase that it isn't a false dawn as we have had so many of those people are far more cynical.

I don't think the fanbase need convincing or are particularly cynical. There are 30,000 who will turn up pretty much whatever happens then another 10,000, of whom most are floating fans rather than supporters who don't know that much about the club and our history of missed opportunities. 

Even when we were getting the big crowds it was on the back of cheap tickets and promotions; I think the thing they really expected was or the commercial income to grow and it didn't.

[Concrete John]

I remember in one of the rare interviews Randy gave a few years ago he 'shared a vision' of growing the support for the club from the city and surrounding area.  Basically, creating new fans and making the club part of the Midlands as juch as it is part of Birmingham.

Didn't really happen, did it?

[dave.woodhall]

I remember in one of the rare interviews Randy gave a few years ago he 'shared a vision' of growing the support for the club from the city and surrounding area.  Basically, creating new fans and making the club part of the Midlands as juch as it is part of Birmingham.

Didn't really happen, did it?

It's been said many time before (mainly by me), but whoever can turn the many thousands of "I support the Villa" fans into "I go to the Villa" supporters will be a genius as it's eluded everyone else who's tried.

[Californian Villain]

The fact is we're just not as well supported as the sky 4, Spurs etc..

[Chris Smith]

The fact is we're just not as well supported as the sky 4, Spurs etc..

I don't accept that. Manu piss over everyone, Arsenal have grown bigger than us and Liverpool's international pull gives them the edge, Man City and Chelsea are only getting bigger gates because of their owners wealth and Spurs and Everton are of a similar size.

[PeterWithe]

How do pubs like The Adventurers do on non match days?

I'd imagine they do very poorly but match days more than make up for it, that can only be the reason someone is spending money doing up the rat pan.

[Risso]

It is pretty sad that a city the size of Brum can't support a club with 50,000 gates.

[Concrete John]

I remember in one of the rare interviews Randy gave a few years ago he 'shared a vision' of growing the support for the club from the city and surrounding area.  Basically, creating new fans and making the club part of the Midlands as juch as it is part of Birmingham.

Didn't really happen, did it?

It's been said many time before (mainly by me), but whoever can turn the many thousands of "I support the Villa" fans into "I go to the Villa" supporters will be a genius as it's eluded everyone else who's tried.

I think that's something that a lot of clubs could say.

[Steve R]

It is pretty sad that a city the size of Brum can't support a club with 50,000 gates.

It can.

What is sad is that in the last 50/60/70 years only one person seems to have had the faintest idea as to how to go about it.

Villa has a large latent support, exactly how big no one knows. We have had some very creditable initiatives to add numbers at the gate, but has anyone at the club really tried to understand why Lerner and O'Neill could not do something that Ellis and Docherty did in '68.

Equally, 10,000 on the gate at an generous £40 game comes out at  less than £8mill a year from league games.

That hasn't been the difference between the lofty ambitions we had and the mediocrity we've actually achieved.