Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[Villan82]

Not this argument, again.

The club's home is a big deal, no?

[Toronto Villa]

Not this argument, again.

The club's home is a big deal, no?

It’s a huge deal. But this has been done to death based on what we know. The plans haven’t been cancelled. I am sure the owners, who Heck works for want to expand the ground. But they have paused those plans for the time being as they consider all the options. It’s unfortunate and disappointing but it might turn out for the best when you consider everything else that needs to be considered at Villa Park and the surrounding area. It’s just that we had this conversation for ages when it was initially announced.

[Percy McCarthy]

Let's cut the crap about Chris Heck and his role and accept the brutal truth.

Heck's here to put more bums on more seats and get them to spend more money, whilst at the same time bringing in as much as possible from reputable commercial sources.

Football's always been about money. William McGregor set up the Football League to provide clubs with "a fixity of fuxtures". Hitherto games were played as and when and he wanted to regularise and increase the income flow.

To Heck, history, tradition and heritage count for fuck all unless they can be monetised.

Painful for some to accept, but we're not going to become a top club without the appropriate financial muscle and that won't happen if we stick what we've done up until now.

Don't forget, he's been head hunted by Wes and Naseef and must, therefore have their support and they've already put over half a billion into the club - no wonder they're looking to bring in money from other sources.

For the future of Villa, it's crucial that Heck succeeds - there will be missteps for sure, but let's give the bloke a chance.

Does anybody feel patronised when people think they’re explaining things that everybody already understands?

[ChicagoLion]

Let's cut the crap about Chris Heck and his role and accept the brutal truth.

Heck's here to put more bums on more seats and get them to spend more money, whilst at the same time bringing in as much as possible from reputable commercial sources.

Football's always been about money. William McGregor set up the Football League to provide clubs with "a fixity of fuxtures". Hitherto games were played as and when and he wanted to regularise and increase the income flow.

To Heck, history, tradition and heritage count for fuck all unless they can be monetised.

Painful for some to accept, but we're not going to become a top club without the appropriate financial muscle and that won't happen if we stick what we've done up until now.

Don't forget, he's been head hunted by Wes and Naseef and must, therefore have their support and they've already put over half a billion into the club - no wonder they're looking to bring in money from other sources.

For the future of Villa, it's crucial that Heck succeeds - there will be missteps for sure, but let's give the bloke a chance.

Does anybody feel patronised when people think they’re explaining things that everybody already understands?

Missteps ffs.

[PeterWithe]

As much as I enjoyed Hitz’s goals for us, did he even get to 100 appearances?

[FatSam]

As much as I enjoyed Hitz’s goals for us, did he even get to 100 appearances?

No, but he was with us from youth level, and went on to win a league title, international caps, and become a football administrator, so I imagine he brings more to the conversation than Gabby for example.

[Dogtanian]

As much as I enjoyed Hitz’s goals for us, did he even get to 100 appearances?

114 appearances. It's a shame we couldn't keep him longer.

In this day and age, having gay people represented is a positive when celebrating and promoting the club.

[Sexual Ealing]

As much as I enjoyed Hitz’s goals for us, did he even get to 100 appearances?

114 appearances. It's a shame we couldn't keep him longer.

In this day and age, having gay people represented is a positive when celebrating and promoting the club.

Quite right.

[pauliewalnuts]

Hitz also single handedly invented the Germano-Brummie accent.

[Dogtanian]

Hitz also single handedly invented the Germano-Brummie accent.

Gummie? or Deummie? 

[pauliewalnuts]

Not this argument, again.

The club's home is a big deal, no?

It’s a huge deal. But this has been done to death based on what we know. The plans haven’t been cancelled. I am sure the owners, who Heck works for want to expand the ground. But they have paused those plans for the time being as they consider all the options. It’s unfortunate and disappointing but it might turn out for the best when you consider everything else that needs to be considered at Villa Park and the surrounding area. It’s just that we had this conversation for ages when it was initially announced.

People at the FAB meeting specifically mentioned that the way he discussed the north stand left no doubt about it - cancelled not paused, even if he may not have used the word.

All he has to do is start talking about things we ARE going to do rather than just stuff we are not, or it sounds small time

Then stop trying to pull the wool over the eyes of people who have significantly more experience of people who run football clubs. For example, the absolute illusion that anyone at all contributed to the new new badge design other than him and his peers. Or the idea that the old new badge was being ‘reevaluated’ rather than scrapped, or that it was a one season badge to celebrate Rotterdam.

These are all things which are palpably not true, just utter nonsense. I am sure he is good at his job but he needs to stop treating us like morons who will believe anything he says.

I very much suspect that there are two more recent utterances which are also rubbish - somehow adding another 3,000 seats and the no consideration whatsoever of moving or rebuilding.

[chrisw1]

The more I have thought about this then next season with centenary celebrations and potential CL football against a backdrop of a building site at one end of the ground makes no sense to me.

It makes perfect sense to me.  It's a statement, we're not standing still this is the start of the next 150 years.  We're building one of the best stand-alone stands in the country.

For me, the only acceptable reason for putting off the build is that we've decided it's not big and ambitious enough.  Not that it's too much too fast.

[pauliewalnuts]

As much as I enjoyed Hitz’s goals for us, did he even get to 100 appearances?

114 appearances. It's a shame we couldn't keep him longer.

In this day and age, having gay people represented is a positive when celebrating and promoting the club.

Quite right.

It’s also important that there is some input from an international perspective rather then just people who live in places on the number 11 route.

We can’t just have local people agreeing that Heck is right and pretend to be a global club.

[algy]

The more I have thought about this then next season with centenary celebrations and potential CL football against a backdrop of a building site at one end of the ground makes no sense to me.

It makes perfect sense to me.  It's a statement, we're not standing still this is the start of the next 150 years.  We're building one of the best stand-alone stands in the country.

For me, the only acceptable reason for putting off the build is that we've decided it's not big and ambitious enough.  Not that it's too much too fast.

Yeah, willing to give Heck more time personally (and I know NSWE hang on to my every utterance on the matter). Stop the badge change, don't build the new North Stand - fine. But I'd hope there would be some better alternative to both of those in the next year or so. Because both are still problems - we still need a bigger stadium, and the Lerner badge is still shit.

Just hope over the next 12-18 months there's a clear vision as to where we're going cos at the moment it feels like we've got the business version of Gerrard.

[pauliewalnuts]

Yes! The Gerrard thing. I get that.

It’s the sort of putting the dampers on things vibes.