Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[Chico Hamilton III]

Saw two instances of elderly fans with blood covered heads from tripping over the kerbs trying to navigate through the north stand car park.

We saw someone who looked in a bad way and was on the floor between the club shop and the back of the North stand. I hope they’re ok. It’s a proper bottle neck round there with the new fanzone and with people being made to walk all the way around the ground instead of being allowed to walk up Witton Lane.

[LeeB]

Saw two instances of elderly fans with blood covered heads from tripping over the kerbs trying to navigate through the north stand car park.

We saw someone who looked in a bad way and was on the floor between the club shop and the back of the North stand. I hope they’re ok. It’s a proper bottle neck round there with the new fanzone and with people being made to walk all the way around the ground instead of being allowed to walk up Witton Lane.

I've taken to just walking down Nelson Rd onto to Witton Rd, there's an entrance that brings you in by the side of the club shop that means I can avoid that bottle necked alley.

[jon collett]

Judging by the warnings given last night I think the problem was people squeezing between the parked cars and not realising a very dark raised kerb was in front of them. Whilst at the same time everybody was looking upwards to see how big the queues were getting for the North Stand.

[SoccerHQ]

Saw two instances of elderly fans with blood covered heads from tripping over the kerbs trying to navigate through the north stand car park.

We saw someone who looked in a bad way and was on the floor between the club shop and the back of the North stand. I hope they’re ok. It’s a proper bottle neck round there with the new fanzone and with people being made to walk all the way around the ground instead of being allowed to walk up Witton Lane.

I've taken to just walking down Nelson Rd onto to Witton Rd, there's an entrance that brings you in by the side of the club shop that means I can avoid that bottle necked alley.

I've used that for years, can save five minutes walking up to Trinity Road forecourt if coming in from Witton island as it's just a straight walk up rather than having to zigzag round all the barrier restrictions they put in now for the coach arrival.

[Lucky Eddie]

It certainly sounded full last night.

[Holte132]

Yes no doubt (re McCoist et al). But in terms of perception, it just looked "full to the rafters" to them.

The only areas showing availability before kick off were K, A and T Blocks, all high up and not really covered by TV coverage, and in the darkness wouldn't have been obvious. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter...unless you wanted to go and couldn't afford it !!

It looked as if the front row of the North Stand was empty

[Olneythelonely]

Yes no doubt (re McCoist et al). But in terms of perception, it just looked "full to the rafters" to them.

The only areas showing availability before kick off were K, A and T Blocks, all high up and not really covered by TV coverage, and in the darkness wouldn't have been obvious. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter...unless you wanted to go and couldn't afford it !!

It looked as if the front row of the North Stand was empty

The front two rows around the ground are empty for CL games because of extra room needed for advertising

[London Villan]

About 1300-1500 seats - which makes the ‘official’ attendance nonsense.

[pauliewalnuts]

About 1300-1500 seats - which makes the ‘official’ attendance nonsense.

What was the official attendance?

[London Villan]

41,847

[astonvilla82]

Turning out to be a complete fiasco regarding the tickets. Villa/Heck have lost a lot of faith from long term supporters like me and, will be difficult for the club to turn this around. £35 would have been about right for this Bologna match. Good luck to whoever has got my seat for tonight for the bargain price of £97!! They will be right pissed off when they find out others have paid £25 or thereabouts!

Not sure about £35. They can charge more than that without pricing people out.

Same prices as Cat B prem game like Bournemouth on Saturday would've been right for Bologna, 40-50 quid in all parts of the ground.

The club can and will get away with it this season but if we're in CL again next year it won't have quite the same pull as this season unless we draw Real Madrid and Barca at home (or one of the Milan clubs).

We could easily have three Bologna type matches at VP, maybe four. How well would the games have sold if the fixture list had flipped and we'd have Leipzig, Monaco, Brugge and Young Boys as the four home games.

One thing we can't do is play this trick v Celtic and Juventus as with the demand from their fanbase there will be away fans in home ends and all the security headaches that would bring so if the GA + dosen't sell it needs to remain unsold rather than being shifted at knock down prices.

Manchester United had the same problem last season with 2000 away fans in home sections, believe it was season ticket holders selling them on

[dave.woodhall]

I'm not sure it was the club selling them. There are plenty of examples in other sports of agencies buying up tickets then having to sell them at a loss.

[pauliewalnuts]

Turning out to be a complete fiasco regarding the tickets. Villa/Heck have lost a lot of faith from long term supporters like me and, will be difficult for the club to turn this around. £35 would have been about right for this Bologna match. Good luck to whoever has got my seat for tonight for the bargain price of £97!! They will be right pissed off when they find out others have paid £25 or thereabouts!

Not sure about £35. They can charge more than that without pricing people out.

Same prices as Cat B prem game like Bournemouth on Saturday would've been right for Bologna, 40-50 quid in all parts of the ground.

The club can and will get away with it this season but if we're in CL again next year it won't have quite the same pull as this season unless we draw Real Madrid and Barca at home (or one of the Milan clubs).

We could easily have three Bologna type matches at VP, maybe four. How well would the games have sold if the fixture list had flipped and we'd have Leipzig, Monaco, Brugge and Young Boys as the four home games.

One thing we can't do is play this trick v Celtic and Juventus as with the demand from their fanbase there will be away fans in home ends and all the security headaches that would bring so if the GA + dosen't sell it needs to remain unsold rather than being shifted at knock down prices.

Manchester United had the same problem last season with 2000 away fans in home sections, believe it was season ticket holders selling them on

No it wasn’t.

It was United selling hospitality tickets to people who were blatantly Galatasaray fans and bundling in seats in the home end.

Their fans were understandably upset*



*’GOOD, you ******.

[SoccerHQ]

The Times had an article on stadium expansions on Tuesday and they listed our capacity this season as 42,918.

[Louzie0]

That’s from the FA handbook Directory of Clubs that I use for Guess The Crowd, so it’s correct.