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.
