Villa Park Redevelopment

[AV82EC]

Heck hasn’t got the same job as Purslow either. Purslow was the CEO with oversight over the whole club including the Football side hence the Gerrard appointment. As soon as that went tits up Nas and Wes decided to go in a different direction and split the Commercial and Football sides entirely hence Purslows exit and Heck coming in. This is the first time we’ve had someone with this much power in that position before and he isn’t here to make friends, he’s here to drive performance commercially as much as Unai is in a football sense. I get why he’s doing some of the things he’s doing but his comms skills are frankly appalling.  We’ll see how this develops but he hasn’t got off to the best of starts.

[Drummond]

On which note... Its our big anniversary next season, and potentially bigger European competition too. Having a quarter of the ground closed is a bad idea.

It's not, because in two years when we're still in European competitions, we'd have a nice new stand, with great facilities, with 10,000 more people in it. And then we'd have that extra capacity forever.

Oh I can see that argument too, and the smoke and mirrors statements don't help.

However, a season with Champions League football in a full Villa Park, going the whole hog and then doing something could work as well.

There must be some other ideas floating about, and our new investors will likely want a say as well. I'd guess we will hear more news in due course.

[dave.woodhall]

Heck hasn’t got the same job as Purslow either. Purslow was the CEO with oversight over the whole club including the Football side hence the Gerrard appointment. As soon as that went tits up Nas and Wes decided to go in a different direction and split the Commercial and Football sides entirely hence Purslows exit and Heck coming in. This is the first time we’ve had someone with this much power in that position before and he isn’t here to make friends, he’s here to drive performance commercially as much as Unai is in a football sense. I get why he’s doing some of the things he’s doing but his comms skills are frankly appalling.  We’ll see how this develops but he hasn’t got off to the best of starts.

I think this is the crux of the matter - he's here to make money, not friends. He doesn't think the badge is sponsor-friendly so it goes. He thinks a new North Stand wouldn't be cost-effective so the old one stays. Prepare yourselves for corporate everything that isn't nailed down and Weimar Republic-level ticket price inflation.

[Dante Lavelli]

Agree that the new owners will want their two pence worth but i doubt we will hear much.  Any plan B will likely mean exploring alternative sites and these negotiations will be kept top secret for as long as possible.

[GarTomas]

In response to no one in particular but more just a lot of the thoughts/feelings/frustrations that are being aired.

Along the journey into becoming part of the big 4/5/6 we are naturally going to attract a lot of casuals who attend match days on a game by game basis, not fans or supporters per se but bona fide day trippers who are coming for one day out every so often.  The club is right trying to maximise the revenue from those fans via GA+ or other means.

I’m a season ticket holder for the last 15 years and had friends visiting for the Christmas period. One of the things they wanted to do was see a football game and the Lower Grounds was the only way to get 4 seats together (especially with zero booking history for guests) I understand the frustration that some feel in the fact the ability for the Holte Suite to be used for season ticket holders for free is now gone, but realistically the capacity in there is 500/600 at most?  And if it was the same 500/600 going week in week out rather than shared across fans on a ballot basis it’s hardly true to say that the 30k season ticket holders are being deprived something they were buying as part of their season ticket and they have now been mis sold something.

With the North Stand plans, it’s hard to know what to think as the data the club has around waiting lists, demand etc and what the target market was. If they added more seats and were targeting GA+ maybe the current take up means actually the demand is not where they thought it was. I guess a lot of the data was put together under Purslow and now a new group are looking at it and challenging assumptions.

I sat in the Trinity Upper for the Sheff United game - the leg room was shocking compared to what you get in the Witton Upper but the concourse is wider.  It’s clearly going to be difficult whatever the club do, rebuild/redevelop existing stands or move. I don’t think anyone really thinks moving is the right thing to do but any development is likely to have considerable short term pain for many.   Neither place seemed great to get half time refreshment unless you leave on 35 minutes but to be honest most of the issues in the Witton are staff related.

The badge, meh. Ask 20,000 or however many did the survey and you are going to get something naff.  The 50 or so people debating on here probably couldn’t agree what is good or bad or a design so any mass consultation like this is likely to be mixed at best.

Finally on Heck - he’s here to do a job and maximise revenues, that’s it.  Along the way we are naturally going to become somethings we currently detest about Man City or Man Utd, lots of new fans who don’t understand our history or football (some of the comments I hard in the Sheff Utd game sitting in GA+ from attendees who clearly don’t watch much football let alone Villa under Emery) but I can’t find much to get to bent out of shape around what he has done so far.  Time will tell as he makes further changes but it’s natural that he’s going to put his mark on certain things and piss some of us off on the way but to date there’s been little more than some bad PR which we’ve never been great at.

[pauliewalnuts]

I'm also disappointed with the news but there has to be a wider plan we are not yet privy to. The new investors with their stadium building and management experience coming in is one pointer, the other is that Heck will be coming in on a massive salary package, to justify that he is going to have to hit some pretty ambitious targets in terms of the uplift in club revenue, that uplift isn't going to be achievable with 2k extra seats squeezed into the poorest stand we have.

I think we will be seeing big plans soon.

Without the extra seats and hospitality of a new stand, he’s going to be focusing on maximising revenue per customer.

That means price wise, we are going to be paying significantly more than we are now.

Important to be aware, That doesn’t just mean lots more money for stuff you might want like TV and LG, it means lots more money for the stuff you do want - ie match tickets.

As for those 200 unsold single seats spotted around the ground - some clubs already allocate seats when you buy them - ie you say “I want a 40 quid seat” and they decide where it is, not you, picking seats for you. They do this to avoid the single unsold seats you get otherwise

I bet you what you like we have this soon enough. That’s going to be as popular as it is elsewhere.

[LeeB]

Heck hasn’t got the same job as Purslow either. Purslow was the CEO with oversight over the whole club including the Football side hence the Gerrard appointment. As soon as that went tits up Nas and Wes decided to go in a different direction and split the Commercial and Football sides entirely hence Purslows exit and Heck coming in. This is the first time we’ve had someone with this much power in that position before and he isn’t here to make friends, he’s here to drive performance commercially as much as Unai is in a football sense. I get why he’s doing some of the things he’s doing but his comms skills are frankly appalling.  We’ll see how this develops but he hasn’t got off to the best of starts.

I think this is the crux of the matter - he's here to make money, not friends. He doesn't think the badge is sponsor-friendly so it goes. He thinks a new North Stand wouldn't be cost-effective so the old one stays. Prepare yourselves for corporate everything that isn't nailed down and Weimar Republic-level ticket price inflation.

I do wonder if like the seemingly 'intentionally bad basic service to drive people to the premium packages' approach is part of a strategy for selling a proposed new stadium site.

[dave.woodhall]

Heck hasn’t got the same job as Purslow either. Purslow was the CEO with oversight over the whole club including the Football side hence the Gerrard appointment. As soon as that went tits up Nas and Wes decided to go in a different direction and split the Commercial and Football sides entirely hence Purslows exit and Heck coming in. This is the first time we’ve had someone with this much power in that position before and he isn’t here to make friends, he’s here to drive performance commercially as much as Unai is in a football sense. I get why he’s doing some of the things he’s doing but his comms skills are frankly appalling.  We’ll see how this develops but he hasn’t got off to the best of starts.

I think this is the crux of the matter - he's here to make money, not friends. He doesn't think the badge is sponsor-friendly so it goes. He thinks a new North Stand wouldn't be cost-effective so the old one stays. Prepare yourselves for corporate everything that isn't nailed down and Weimar Republic-level ticket price inflation.

I do wonder if like the seemingly 'intentionally bad basic service to drive people to the premium packages' approach is part of a strategy for selling a proposed new stadium site.

They've specifically said we're not moving.

[LeeB]

Heck hasn’t got the same job as Purslow either. Purslow was the CEO with oversight over the whole club including the Football side hence the Gerrard appointment. As soon as that went tits up Nas and Wes decided to go in a different direction and split the Commercial and Football sides entirely hence Purslows exit and Heck coming in. This is the first time we’ve had someone with this much power in that position before and he isn’t here to make friends, he’s here to drive performance commercially as much as Unai is in a football sense. I get why he’s doing some of the things he’s doing but his comms skills are frankly appalling.  We’ll see how this develops but he hasn’t got off to the best of starts.

I think this is the crux of the matter - he's here to make money, not friends. He doesn't think the badge is sponsor-friendly so it goes. He thinks a new North Stand wouldn't be cost-effective so the old one stays. Prepare yourselves for corporate everything that isn't nailed down and Weimar Republic-level ticket price inflation.

I do wonder if like the seemingly 'intentionally bad basic service to drive people to the premium packages' approach is part of a strategy for selling a proposed new stadium site.

They've specifically said we're not moving.

I missed that, but was it 'ever' or for the forseeable future?

[Risso]

Who knows? If Heck told me today was Friday I'd check the calendar.

[dave.woodhall]

'Ever' is a long time but for the foreseeable would rule out at least a decade.

[pablo_picasso]

Re: this fabled 200 unsold seats. Are they random seats dotted around the ground which would be difficult to sell? Are they unsold from the TV and LG sections which nobody wanted in the fucking first place? Also I see plenty of matches on tv, West Ham & Man City for starters, who regularly have plenty of empty seats yet are planning to increase capacity over the coming years so why are we any different? How are we going to increase capacity by 8k by reorganising seats by 2028?  You can't fill in the corners of the North Stand due to the massive pillars holding up the roof. So you could remove the roof and fill in the corners leaving the bulk of the stand in place which would look bloody awful from outside and is a complete dog's dinner botch job which a certain Mr Ellis would be proud of and besides all that rejigging and fucking around would still cost a fortune. The whole thing is an utter mess and we're left second guessing what Hecks plans are. Why are our very wealthy owners allowing this clown to mess with us like this and why is he seemingly allowed carte blanche to mess about with our historic beloved stadium with little or no consultation to us the fans who are following in the footsteps of our forefathers by following OUR football club? Apologies for the rant but the more I think about it the angrier I'm becoming.

Well said, I feel the same.

The plans we had looked ace and also left the possibility of a future new Witton. What is Heck playing at? He is effectively putting a ceiling on our future growth.

And I highly doubt there is some grand plan in th works. And uf there is, I am not sure Heck is the person I would want masterminding a new Villa Park.

I wouldn't trust the arrogant tosser to organise my breakfast.

And I don't eat breakfast...

[eamonn]

Who knows? If Heck told me today was Friday I'd check the calendar.

No one is ever sure what day of the week it is between Christmas and New Years 

[LeeB]

I fear we're going to see a classic approach of maximising immediate revenues but harming in long term whilst dancing off into the sunset with his bonuses.

[DeKuip]

As for those 200 unsold single seats spotted around the ground - some clubs already allocate seats when you buy them - ie you say “I want a 40 quid seat” and they decide where it is, not you, picking seats for you. They do this to avoid the single unsold seats you get otherwise

Aren’t the unsold single seats usually season ticket holder’s seats they’ve put up for resale when they can’t attend? Often only a day or two before the game.