Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[chrisw1]

The other options is what they have done.  They aren't interested in an extra 5k general admission seats, it was always about increasing the capacity of the corporate / GA+ offer.  Heck's judgment call was he could do this within the 42k seats we currently have.  Now they have done that he will see it is as there's even less reason for them to build a new stand. 

It's very short term thinking, but accommodating more everyday fans is absolutely their lowest priority.

[Gareth]

We have to try and compete financially, I get that and I think commercially Heck has done ok.
I’m even prepared to understand that after some work inside the ground there maybe a hitch or 2.
What you can’t do is keep raising the prices and offer conditions that are no better or in Saturdays case, worse. For me, leaving supporters outside the ground with no communication and knowing they’d miss the kick off and more is the unforgivable bit. Could they have delayed the kick off? That shows a total disregard for loyal supporters and I just hope some of the blame isn’t put on us getting there too late.

Kick off was never being delayed for that…Sky have an international audience in the Far East and USA to satisfy….delaying because the plebs can’t get through the gate was not an option.  We were having similar conversations in the queue and trying to get it across to some who were sure we’d be delayed half hour or so. 

Was the same about 5.25 when I was near the front of the queue on Witton Lane telling people around me to brace themselves if the walk on music suddenly fires up as it could trigger a surge from behind with people pushing to get in to not miss the start.

[Risso]

I think he's missed a trick there. By knocking down the North and having a restricted capacity for two years he could REALLY have squeezed the prices until the pips squeak.

[cdward]

Out of interest anybody know what the official attendance was on Saturday? It seems that the figure hasn't been published anywhere.

[Chip Butty 111]

The other options is what they have done.  They aren't interested in an extra 5k general admission seats, it was always about increasing the capacity of the corporate / GA+ offer.  Heck's judgment call was he could do this within the 42k seats we currently have.  Now they have done that he will see it is as there's even less reason for them to build a new stand. 

It's very short term thinking, but accommodating more everyday fans is absolutely their lowest priority.

Unfortunately as it stands we are not selling these. 24hrs before every home game they put a large number back on sale. A2 is a classic example. And as mentioned in previous posts some of the expensive hospitality isn't going well. How long we persevere with it will be interesting.

[Border villan]

Out of interest anybody know what the official attendance was on Saturday? It seems that the figure hasn't been published anywhere.

Do we have the choice of the attendance at kick off or the attendance when they managed to get all the fans in?

[VillaTim]

Out of interest anybody know what the official attendance was on Saturday? It seems that the figure hasn't been published anywhere.

ahh this old chestnut again

[Paul.S]

We have to try and compete financially, I get that and I think commercially Heck has done ok.
I’m even prepared to understand that after some work inside the ground there maybe a hitch or 2.
What you can’t do is keep raising the prices and offer conditions that are no better or in Saturdays case, worse. For me, leaving supporters outside the ground with no communication and knowing they’d miss the kick off and more is the unforgivable bit. Could they have delayed the kick off? That shows a total disregard for loyal supporters and I just hope some of the blame isn’t put on us getting there too late.

Kick off was never being delayed for that…Sky have an international audience in the Far East and USA to satisfy….delaying because the plebs can’t get through the gate was not an option.  We were having similar conversations in the queue and trying to get it across to some who were sure we’d be delayed half hour or so. 

Was the same about 5.25 when I was near the front of the queue on Witton Lane telling people around me to brace themselves if the walk on music suddenly fires up as it could trigger a surge from behind with people pushing to get in to not miss the start.

I did mention in the queue that I didn’t think they would. It’s been done before because of issues at turnstiles, I think it was at a Crystal Palace TV game last season so 15 minutes wouldn’t have been an issue. I just feel we don’t really count anymore and it could’ve gone very wrong outside so there was a potential safety issue.
I’ll await an apology from the club and move on but Heck is walking on very thin ice with the fanbase.

[Demitri_C]

I have to say after experiencing the food during the lower grounds for the west ham game it has made  me think twice of payjng that for TV or LG as was going to try it this season.

The food was really bad. Grated cheese for a cheese burger and no onions ? Come on.the chips were burnt too. Honestly i am not hard to please but id give the food 2/10. If you are going to charge such high prices at least make sure the foods good.

Im pretty sure alot of others will be reluctant to pay those prices with the crappy food on offer

[Sexual Ealing]

I don't think I've ever had onions on a cheeseburger!

[kippaxvilla2]

Tickets in the middle of upper witton were £75 apparently . These are some seriously steep increases given we still haven't won anything ! Learn to walk before you can run Heck !

Imagine how much they would have been if the seats actually existed!

[Gareth]

Tickets in the middle of upper witton were £75 apparently . These are some seriously steep increases given we still haven't won anything ! Learn to walk before you can run Heck !

Imagine how much they would have been if the seats actually existed!

Some people just want the moon on a stick :-)

[kippaxvilla2]

I don't think I've ever had onions on a cheeseburger!

Also I am intrigued by the cheese comment - surely he prefers real cheese to a dairylea triangle?

[VillaTim]

I have to say after experiencing the food during the lower grounds for the west ham game it has made  me think twice of payjng that for TV or LG as was going to try it this season.

The food was really bad. Grated cheese for a cheese burger and no onions ? Come on.the chips were burnt too. Honestly i am not hard to please but id give the food 2/10. If you are going to charge such high prices at least make sure the foods good.

Im pretty sure alot of others will be reluctant to pay those prices with the crappy food on offer

Grated ? I thought it was full flowing liquid cheese in these establishments

[simboy]

It will be interesting to see what the extra match day revenue was last year - I think the last figure declared was a £2.7 million increase over the course of a season [22 -v - 23], from £16.1 mill [2021/22] to £18.8 mill [2022/23] a 2.7% growth. So a 20 game season [lost to Stevenage in the cup]. that's about £135k increase on average per game or £3.38 per fan per game if 40,000 attend.

2024 will show a larger increase principally because the season tickets will have gone up.

I'm afraid I don't really buy into the, "we have to pay more to get better players/achieve more" argument. It's the lowest revenue stream with the increase in sponsorship excepting player loans.

The reality is fans are a bit of a burden to football clubs ... unless of course they get relegated and all of a sudden our money is key to survival.