Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[Chris Smith]

Apologies Chris, reading that back it seems Im being a bit aggressive towards you.

Im genuinely not mate.

I need to work on my communication skills, lol...

Thanks for saying that but I try to, as far as possible, take things in good faith on this site so didn’t see anything to bother me.

I would love to see higher capacity but at the same time I know the issues we already have with transport etc and also I feel that we need to be good neighbours to local residents and businesses and not just plough on regardless.

[dave.woodhall]

5% increases and staying at Villa Park. It seems a lot of people I Heard a lot of nonsense.

[London Villan]

Interestingly he says he has listened (twice) and won’t do anything else to the Holte.

[Villan82]

5% increases and staying at Villa Park. It seems a lot of people I Heard a lot of nonsense.

Walking us away from the biggest redevelopment since 2001 is still a major red flag for me that somethign else could well be happening.

I mean, it's so weird otherwise. He must know you don't just walk away from something so public as that was and no explanation.

I mean, a child can see that standing still in terms of the overall stadium is the worst of three options (1. redeveloping VP, 2. new stadium, 3. do as little as possible)

[Risso]

It also doesn't explain why they needed the investment from Atairos, and what's in it for them.

[usav]

5% increases and staying at Villa Park. It seems a lot of people I Heard a lot of nonsense.

Walking us away from the biggest redevelopment since 2001 is still a major red flag for me that somethign else could well be happening.

I mean, it's so weird otherwise. He must know you don't just walk away from something so public as that was and no explanation.

I mean, a child can see that standing still in terms of the overall stadium is the worst of three options (1. redeveloping VP, 2. new stadium, 3. do as little as possible)

Major red flag is a ltitle OTT.   It seems to me they are going to try and maximise revenue streams with what they have and while making some minor changes.  Keep an eye on progress on the pitch and then reasses expansion plans.  It could also be that they have run the numbers and they don't think we are capable of filling a 50,000 seater stadium just yet.

[andyh]

Well, I enjoyed listening to him.
He seems genuine. It seems the club has a plan.
It’s fashionable to moan about the ‘management’ or ‘leadership’, but for me I’m happy to enjoy the ride, have faith in our owners and see where they take us.

[Villan82]

5% increases and staying at Villa Park. It seems a lot of people I Heard a lot of nonsense.

Walking us away from the biggest redevelopment since 2001 is still a major red flag for me that somethign else could well be happening.

I mean, it's so weird otherwise. He must know you don't just walk away from something so public as that was and no explanation.

I mean, a child can see that standing still in terms of the overall stadium is the worst of three options (1. redeveloping VP, 2. new stadium, 3. do as little as possible)

Major red flag is a ltitle OTT.   It seems to me they are going to try and maximise revenue streams with what they have and while making some minor changes. Keep an eye on progress on the pitch and then reasses expansion plans.  It could also be that they have run the numbers and they don't think we are capable of filling a 50,000 seater stadium just yet.

When were our average crowds this high though? When have we had demand like we have had? If you don't have a season ticket it's actually quite a challenge to get a ticket. And the team is likely to go from strength to strength next season.

[Dogtanian]

The Devil takes many forms…

[Percy McCarthy]

Don’t shoot the messenger, but my mate who works at Claret & Blue Mosaics Inc has just told me they’ve had a big order for letter Vs, Is, Ls, As, Ps, Rs and Ks from a Mr T Wagner.

[DB]

Thats superb news that we are staying at Villa Park. As is the 5% season ticket increase.

I still do not understand the need to stop increasing the stadium capacity when we need FFP revenue more than ever, just to cram in a few extra "prawn sandwich" seats dotted around the stadium.

No news about the crest either, which was supposed to be publicly released in Feb...

I think there are a couple of obstacles to enlarging the ground. Firstly, while it’s happening attendances and therefore revenue is reduced. Secondly, the transport infrastructure is creaking at our current capacity, add any more without accompanying improvements to that and it will be gridlock.

Liverpools wasn't... I don't know how because Im not a structural engineer or an architect, but it's possible to build a stand without it affecting attendances.

Im not saying its going to be easy, especially if we have to shut down parts of the stadium, but if they are expecting Villa to dine at the top table from now on, when is it that we can improve the stadium?

We need to do it to help with whatever the fuck FFP is now called, but if we cant do it when we are successful, do we wait until we aren't to build the stadium? When its not actually needed...

As for transport, it seems they are trying to improve that with shuttles, pushing politicians to improve the trains & having fans arrive earlier & leave later to help ease the rushes.

I imagine that the Liverpool style change is far more complex compared to just knocking down and rebuilding and consequently requires a lot more in terms of planning. Perhaps that is why the new firm were brought in.

Yeah, Liverpool just built a massive new tier on top of the old one, so they just built it while the old one was able to stay open. The North is a total rebuild.

[pauliewalnuts]

When he referred to wanting people to stay two hours after the game, I found myself thinking, they already do, in a queue for the woeful train service.

[Dante Lavelli]

After the final whistle at Brighton last week we went down to the bar under the stand and had a few pints and watched the Spurs Liverpool game which was being shown on a few screens. It didn’t cost us anything ( other than the usual rip off beer prices) , there was no street food or school dinner benches to sit at, no unnecessary frills, just somewhere to get a few pints down instead of queuing up for the train back into Brighton. It’s really not difficult, it just takes a club to approach it from a human perspective instead of seeing dollar signs in front of everything.

I didn’t think the bars were allowed to be open within the ground.  Did I imagine that?

[Chris Smith]

When he referred to wanting people to stay two hours after the game, I found myself thinking, they already do, in a queue for the woeful train service.

Anything that helps staggers the times of fans leaving Aston will help with that though.

[Chris Smith]

After the final whistle at Brighton last week we went down to the bar under the stand and had a few pints and watched the Spurs Liverpool game which was being shown on a few screens. It didn’t cost us anything ( other than the usual rip off beer prices) , there was no street food or school dinner benches to sit at, no unnecessary frills, just somewhere to get a few pints down instead of queuing up for the train back into Brighton. It’s really not difficult, it just takes a club to approach it from a human perspective instead of seeing dollar signs in front of everything.

I didn’t think the bars were allowed to be open within the ground.  Did I imagine that?

Before it went “premium” you could do exactly that in the Holte Suite