Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[pauliewalnuts]

I thought it was in the T&Cs that the club only has to offer your returned ticket for sale if they have sold out?

Yes, and I don't think it's 'have to' more a case of they'll only consider it once the match is sold out. They clearly don't include LG and TV seats in that.

[WassallVillain]

I give my ticket to family and friends as there is virtually zero chance it will be resold by the club these days. It wasn’t always the case.

[Des Little]

All this resale stuff will only push ST holders to sell their seats themselves rather than via the club, which could well get messy if they end up being away supporters.

[chrisw1]

Only tickets showing as available yesterday and this morning was LG/TV types. I also saw someone that couldn't go today saying the club hadn't made their seat available to buy through the resale option.

They don’t unless the LG TV sell out.

That is pretty disgraceful.  My ticket has never failed to sell on the few times I've put it up, but if they're now adopting that approach it becomes entirely unworkable.  I thought previously they stopped selling TV & LG a few days before and then sold the seats as standard.  Have they now stopped doing that in an attempt to squeeze a few more GA+ sales?

[Risso]

That is pretty disgraceful.  My ticket has never failed to sell on the few times I've put it up, but if they're now adopting that approach it becomes entirely unworkable.  I thought previously they stopped selling TV & LG a few days before and then sold the seats as standard.  Have they now stopped doing that in an attempt to squeeze a few more GA+ sales?

Yep, they were still trying to flog GA+ tickets around lunch time yesterday afternoon.

[chrisw1]

That is pretty disgraceful.  My ticket has never failed to sell on the few times I've put it up, but if they're now adopting that approach it becomes entirely unworkable.  I thought previously they stopped selling TV & LG a few days before and then sold the seats as standard.  Have they now stopped doing that in an attempt to squeeze a few more GA+ sales?

Yep, they were still trying to flog GA+ tickets around lunch time yesterday afternoon.

Still desperately trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

[tomd2103]

That is pretty disgraceful.  My ticket has never failed to sell on the few times I've put it up, but if they're now adopting that approach it becomes entirely unworkable.  I thought previously they stopped selling TV & LG a few days before and then sold the seats as standard.  Have they now stopped doing that in an attempt to squeeze a few more GA+ sales?

Yep, they were still trying to flog GA+ tickets around lunch time yesterday afternoon.

I just think they are overpriced for what they are. 

[VillaTim]

Looks like my ST didn't resell yesterday probably for all the reasons mentioned above.

[nordenvillain]

We were in L6 yesterday having managed to get 2 seats virtually behind each other and there were 4 or 5 seats around us that were not taken at all - Presume they were STH's that didn't turn up or whose seats were not resold by the club. For the 2nd half I moved to sit next to my brother who's a STH with a seat on the gangway. The seat next to him is not taken by a STH (It was his mate's who passed away about 12 months ago) was definitely sold but yet that person did not turn up, very strange.
Normally there's 3 of us, my 2 adult sons and myself. We are Claret members and have only managed to get seats in the Holte for 3 games so far out of the 10 league games that we've attended. The European games have been different, we've seen all 5 home games so far and managed to get in the  Holte on 4 occasions, in fact for 2 of the games were in seats in K2 that were fantastic in the row right behind the exit stairs. I've been attending VP since 1959 and am virtually speechless in how the club are so poorly marketing the games to us, the fans. I live in Rochdale, so interact with friends who are STH's, and not, of Man City, Man United, Everton and Liverpool. With the exception of Man United, whose disregard for their fans is legendary, the others seem to listen to their fans more than Villa do. I know that Chris Heck came with a reputation for what he did at the Philadelphia 76's, but there is a different business model between the American sporting franchise and English football. I'm not a 'stick my head in the sand' and 'we've always done it this way' kind of guy, but I would be interested to know from others more attune with the American system whether you can succeed by not taking your fanbase with you. The disaster that is the cancellation of the North Stand rebuild and the imposition of the Lower Grounds & Terrace View without any apparent consultation or noticeable market research leaves me more than scratching my head. We would love to have ST's and are on the waiting list but is Mr Heck that concerned with true fans and what we think ?
P.S We get the train to and from Tame Bridge Parkway and last night whilst waiting for a northbound train on the platform, an empty "Football Special" train pulled into Witton going towards New Street - Hallelujah, at last a bit of common sense has been used. What I would add is that it was a 4 coach one, why not use a 6 coach one but it is a start I guess.

[Border villan]

A few games ago in response to complaints about the racket(music?) pre game the volume was turned down to only ear splitting, yesterday it was again so loud you could not hold a conversation. Come on Heck get this sorted.

[Dogtanian]

A few games ago in response to complaints about the racket(music?) pre game the volume was turned down to only ear splitting, yesterday it was again so loud you could not hold a conversation. Come on Heck get this sorted.

It is way too loud. The Holte was singing as the teams lined up, but the bloody PA was trying to drown us out.

[VillaTim]

There looked like quite a few empty seats in the Witton Lower dotted about.
Guess a lot of people may be away for Easter half term / school hols etc .

[Exeter 77]

Weirdly, two of my friends couldn't make the Spurs game and sold their seats through the re-sale process but those seats remained empty.

[Chris Harte]

I was unavailable to take my seat for the Wolves game so tried to sell it via the club's website.

It's not clear to me whether it has sold or not. It's a bit soon to receive my 80% of average ticket price yet, and the (lack of) detail on the site doesn't really help.


The icons in the top row are for a game earlier in the season that I managed to the sell the ticket on. The one below was for a game I'd attended. There's no key on the page to say what's what. I suspect the lack of a "left-arrow" icon on the Wolves ticket suggests is hasn't sold.

[VillaTim]

It tells you on the website if they sold or not .