Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[Chico Hamilton III]

So if Heck is just doing his job, why aren’t we directing our anger at the owners? The buck for this pile of shit has to stop somewhere.

i love the owners and they were our saviors and thats no exegeration,

Yep, no argument there - although weren’t we saying the same about Ellis in ‘68? They’re not sacred cows though and we should be able to question everything they do

[LeeB]

But there's one of those NFL games a year in this country as opposed to hundreds of Premier League matches.

[Drummond]

£4m a year is probably Dendonker's wage, for context.

Buendia, Konsa or Ramsey if you believe this list. https://www.spotrac.com/epl/aston-villa-fc/cap/_/year/2024

Yes, but they're all of use to us unlike Dendonker.

And if you change the year to 2023, you will see that I was wrong anyway, he actually earns (lol) £4.8m a year.

I know they are, that was the point. Would we sacrifice one to pay less?

I know we'd sacrifice Dendoncker, Olsen, Hause etc if we could. And I also know it's not as easy as that, but that's the choice that people at the club have to make. That's why we are so close to the wire for PSR.

And it's shit. I like to pay less, stand in the North and grab a pint and a Bovril, I don't want fancy sandwiches and the like at football. I want a more level playing field, but I want us to fucking win something that I can actually remember us winning. And that's the painful balancing act with all this shit.

[Drummond]

But there's one of those NFL games a year in this country as opposed to hundreds of Premier League matches.

Yep, but the Champions League games haven't happened for us for 41 years.

[paul_e]

But there's one of those NFL games a year in this country as opposed to hundreds of Premier League matches.

There may be hundreds but there's only 19 that are relevant and not all of those would be 'premium' pricing.

[LeeB]

But there's one of those NFL games a year in this country as opposed to hundreds of Premier League matches.

There may be hundreds but there's only 19 that are relevant and not all of those would be 'premium' pricing.

Only 19 that are relevant to us legacy fans yes, but that's not the case for the consumers they're marketing to.

[paul_e]

But there's one of those NFL games a year in this country as opposed to hundreds of Premier League matches.

There may be hundreds but there's only 19 that are relevant and not all of those would be 'premium' pricing.

Only 19 that are relevant to us legacy fans yes, but that's not the case for the consumers they're marketing to.

To an extent.

[john e]

i've got no problem with expanding the hospitality areas and bringing in the revenues that comes with it, no problem at all if it sells
not sells for Bayern Munich but sells throughout a season, i just dont think our supporter base is there yet, maybe well get there maybe not but at the moment its not working

[Drummond]

i've got no problem with expanding the hospitality areas and bringing in the revenues that comes with it, no problem at all if it sells
not sells for Bayern Munich but sells throughout a season, i just dont think our supporter base is there yet, maybe well get there maybe not but at the moment its not working

Eh?

It's sold out. So it is there isn't it?

[Pat Mustard]

Great to see our club mentioned on BBC Breakfast this morning concerning the way our Europe adventure is going sour because of ticket prices.

PR disaster and Heck is risking destroying the feel good factor around the club . There was absolutely no need to set pricing so high and well above prices at clubs who have actually been successful and won trophies regularly for years

I think someone worked out this pricing would secure an additional £4m turnover, it's peanuts in the grand scheme of things, but at the same time, it's £4m we don't already have. It's wages for a decent player for a year.

That we're talking about all this, instead of talking about the football, is particularly annoying, hence the feelgood factor stuff, but an International break creates a vacuum too.

The extra £4 million we get from the CL pricing is going to be reduced by lost revenue at other games - we'll never get to know properly as attendance figures are not being published, but everyone can see that there are lots of empty seats that used to be full.  There are loads of GA+ left for Everton, Arsenal was nowehere near a sell-out in those areas, and even Man Utd has plenty of availability (albeit with a few weeks to go).  If we can't sell these games, and people are having to choose their matches after being forced to pay through the nose for Champions League then we are going to potentially lose hundreds of thousands in revenue at some games later in the season.  And this is before any supporter boycott of food and drink sales etc.

[Chico Hamilton III]

i've got no problem with expanding the hospitality areas and bringing in the revenues that comes with it, no problem at all if it sells
not sells for Bayern Munich but sells throughout a season, i just dont think our supporter base is there yet, maybe well get there maybe not but at the moment its not working

Eh?

It's sold out. So it is there isn't it?

Loads of GA+ tickets available when I checked this morning

[VillaTim]

Exactly this, once the likes of Palace , Brentford, Southampton start rolling into town you are going to see lots of empty seats as the budgets have been spent on Bayern / Juve etc .
Heck is as short sighted as his stature .

[PeterWithesShin]

I think John means it sells out every game not just for Bayern. Although as of yesterday GA+ hadn't gone on sale for Bayern yet.

We as fans, especially those that can only afford GA, hate seeing empty seats at games but as I said last night GA+ doesn't need to sell out to be making more money than last season. Which seems to be the only thing that matters to the club just lately.

[Drummond]

i've got no problem with expanding the hospitality areas and bringing in the revenues that comes with it, no problem at all if it sells
not sells for Bayern Munich but sells throughout a season, i just dont think our supporter base is there yet, maybe well get there maybe not but at the moment its not working

Eh?

It's sold out. So it is there isn't it?

Loads of GA+ tickets available when I checked this morning

I know. Let's hope they stay unsold. Prove him wrong.

[Drummond]

I think John means it sells out every game not just for Bayern. Although as of yesterday GA+ hadn't gone on sale for Bayern yet.

We as fans, especially those that can only afford GA, hate seeing empty seats at games but as I said last night GA+ doesn't need to sell out to be making more money than last season. Which seems to be the only thing that matters to the club just lately.

I do wonder whether the GA+ seats will get moved into more prominent positions. At the moment they are out of sight of TV cameras and not in the best place. Next tactic will probably be to make them more prominent and price higher.