Villa Park Redevelopment

[langleylions]

What do you all mean by expired passes ....i have just got my season ticket in the wallet that i  bring up on my phone and scan it ....am i missing something ?

[Border villan]

At present there are between 20,000 and 30,000 fans on the waiting list for season tickets. For the Everton and Wolves matches these people could not be persuaded to part with their hard earned cash to buy into the various GA+ offerings thus leaving a substantial number of empty seats.
Chris Heck is a supposedly intelligent man but is either unwilling or unable to see what is staring him in the face. If the new North Stand is built our capacity for GA, at a reasonable price, will increase by approximately 8-10 thousand. If only half of those on the waiting list then take up these seats we are looking at attendances of 50,000 on a regular basis. This should then be the basis for more upmarket areas of the ground to be developed, not the booze and burger offerings that fans are presently rejecting.

I have little hope that he will ever consider this as he has no interest in Villa fans and it appears it’s his way or the highway.

[VILLA MOLE]

Not sure where to put it , but I see Dirty Leeds are looking to expand to 53000  as they have a 26000 waiting list for Elland Road , They are not even top flight but showing some ambition

Just a thought Mr Heck

[Villan82]

Heck's tenure will be the thing that trips us up. We have to hope it isn't long

[Chip Butty 111]

We've gone from 30,000 on the waiting list to 15,000 trying to get in 10 mins after kick off.

[chrisw1]

What do you all mean by expired passes ....i have just got my season ticket in the wallet that i  bring up on my phone and scan it ....am i missing something ?

On an Iphone after you use a ticket once - eg a train ticket or concert ticket it classes the ticket as expired and hides it in a different folder.  It shouldn't do this with a season ticket but that's what was happening.  You could just click on the folder and 'unhide' the ticket and it would work again.  But for anyone not familiar with this or not expecting it it comes as a surprise at the turnstile.

FWIW mine doesn't seem to have expired after Wolves and it did for the previous games, so maybe it has sorted itself out.

[Percy McCarthy]

I dunno about that.  First time I downloaded from the e-mail.  Second game I deleted it and downloaded it from the app.  It's disappeared both times.

@Percy, you can check your Apple wallet now to see if the pass has 'expired' (mine had) and if it has then click view expired passes and 'unhide' it, you don't need to wait until game day or the turnstile.

Thanks Chris. Is that the same for Google wallet? That’s the one my missus usually puts it into.

[chrisw1]

I don't know if they were expiring from Google wallet or not.  But tbh it's a 5 second job to 'unhide' them if they do.  It's just a matter of knowing before you're at the turnstile with 1,000 annoyed people behind you.

[Percy McCarthy]

I don't know if they were expiring from Google wallet or not.  But tbh it's a 5 second job to 'unhide' them if they do.  It's just a matter of knowing before you're at the turnstile with 1,000 annoyed people behind you.

Cheers mate, much appreciated.

[eamonn]

Expired Passes....is that the new xG or summat?

[john e]

What do you all mean by expired passes ....i have just got my season ticket in the wallet that i  bring up on my phone and scan it ....am i missing something ?

Some expire some don’t no one knows why

I have my ST in my apple wallet and it’s fine
But my kids have got there’s in the apple wallet and they have expired

as others have said it’s an easy job to put them back
Just unhide them and they plopp straight back in

[SaddVillan]

At present there are between 20,000 and 30,000 fans on the waiting list for season tickets. For the Everton and Wolves matches these people could not be persuaded to part with their hard earned cash to buy into the various GA+ offerings thus leaving a substantial number of empty seats.
Chris Heck is a supposedly intelligent man but is either unwilling or unable to see what is staring him in the face. If the new North Stand is built our capacity for GA, at a reasonable price, will increase by approximately 8-10 thousand. If only half of those on the waiting list then take up these seats we are looking at attendances of 50,000 on a regular basis. This should then be the basis for more upmarket areas of the ground to be developed, not the booze and burger offerings that fans are presently rejecting.

I have little hope that he will ever consider this as he has no interest in Villa fans and it appears it’s his way or the highway.

It's quite a complicated topic.

Most "top clubs" have between 69-71% of seats held by STs.

The outliers - at either end of the scale are: Liverpool - 50.37% of 53,394 and Everton 79.92% of 39,414.

When Heck arrived he obviously looked at our commercial deals, ground, capacity, season ticket holders and waiting lists, and redevelopment plans in relation to his remit from Wes and Naseef to increase income.

We've got 30,000 STs and 26,000 on the waiting list, with a current capacity of 42,640.

The planned North Stand development would have increased that to 52,500 an extra 10,000 at a reported cost of c.£100m.

So what did he do?

As a business we have a demand for what we sell (seats) far in excess of a fixed supply (ground capacity). In these circumstances standard elasticity of demand economic theory advocates increasing prices - in the expectation that less well off fans won't renew and their tickets will be bought by better off fans on the waiting list.

And that would appear to be what the club’s doing.

Heck took the decision to cancel the expansion and increase prices, thereby increasing income without spending anything (relatively speaking) on upgrading facilities.

In addition he's evicted some ST holders from their historic seats to create GA+ offers to attract high rollers (or perhaps genuine fans who can't get tickets any other way and "treat" themselves). The aim being to squeeze even more income from the existing capacity - presuming that all GA+ seats sell.

And don't forget the new Betano and Adidas deals - doubling what we got from their predecessors.

So, job done?

Depends how you judge success.

He may well have increased income, but in terms of customer relations, he's fucked up royally - antagonised the existing fan base with price increases.

You have to wonder if Wes and Naseef are aware of the discontent.

In reviewing the current position one question is often overlooked - is it fair for fans to expect NSWE to continue to pour money into the club? Since taking over in 2018 the share capital has gone from £69m to £653m.

We need to recognise that matchday income must rise, but the trick is to do so without pissing off the fans.

And that's the $64,000 question.

2 bits of football news today:

The Friedkin takeover at Everton confirmed.

Leeds announcing plans to up the capacity of Elland Road from 39k to 55.5k.

We need to make sure that we don't get overtaken by them.

[Ads]

Anfield holds >60,000 now.

As long as we have Emery and NWSE, Everton and fucking Leeds, won't be in the same orbit. Worry about them? Crikey. We're winning the league now Rodri is out.

[SaddVillan]

The other factor in ticket sales is the quality of the "offer".

Dyed in the wool Villans will put up with crap catering and piss poor facilities because they won't/ can't go anywhere else.

That's not the case for GA+ they'll expect value for money - unless the club ups its game, then Heck's plans mihut bsckfire..

[Ads]

I think the assumption about the profile of supporter who is GA+ is way off the mark. We don't have Tarquins. I know of one GA+ season ticket holder on here that is as proper Villa as it gets. The issue for Heck is that there's enough for the mid-range Terrace View and Cells to be popular, but we lack Tarquins (and hopefully always will) to make the lesser corporate or expensive GA+, attractive.