Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[Percy McCarthy]

Robbing the loyal fanbase is the lazy, easy and pathetic option. What Heck should be focusing on is driving up the commercial sponsor revenue streams , that's where the big untapped opportunities lie.

in 22/23 (the last accounts before he arrived) sponsorship was a little over £16m. Our current shirt deal and main sponsor are both, individually, worth more than that (according to reports at least, we won't know the exact values for a while), so he's clearly been successful in focusing on commercial sponsorship revenue.

Absolute tap-in deals that any of us could have pulled off on the back of the sterling work of Emery & Co.

Yes, I’m confident that you could have negotiated those deals with Adidas and Betano. I mean, look how hard-nosed you were about getting full value from our £40m-rated second-choice striker who had 40 clubs after him.

Oh.

[Percy McCarthy]

At least at Spurs and Arsenal, in return for getting fleeced you get two modern stadiums with facilities fit for watching football in the 21st century. And with Arsenal, it's a piece of piss to both get to, and away from.

Of course, but nevertheless it's clearly not true to say that other clubs have continually raised revenues without resorting to hammering loyal supporters in the pocket.  Infact, without googling I strongly suspect that with the exception of Man City our league match day prices are cheaper than all the other 'Big 6' clubs we are trying to compete with.

For John's sake I will reconfirm my view that the CL prices were far too high.  The truth is they could have sold all seats at a Cat A prices (which I again feel is too high but that is now an established price for this season) and surely there would have been much less outcry.  As season ticket holders are paying that price anyway, we'd only be talking about knocking £15 off for what, about 6k general admission tickets?

Newcastle and Liverpool have both recently done deals with concessions when playing in the Champions league. Liverpool even did a cheapest kids one for £9. Our fans are being hammered in their pockets. Whether you think it's justified or not is a different matter. My current circumstances mean I can afford it but I'm not a bloke in his thirties with a massive mortgage and young kids to feed. Ordinary people like that with averagely paid jobs are  being frozen out and it's those people I'm voicing concern for. Lose 'em young and you risk losing 'em forever.

It's not just about the CL though is it?  Would you be happy with minimum £1k + season tickets and £100+ pw ticket prices if we did a deal on the CL games?  As that's what the alturistic 6 have been charging for years.

I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that other clubs have not continually raised revenues without resorting to hammering loyal supporters in the pocket.

I also don't think Newcastle are the greatest example as they are also fucked by PSR, just like us and they have the benefit of a 52k seater stadium.

Why would we have to pay a grand for season tickets and 100 quid for matchday tickets in the PL just because the club offered concession package deals in the CL? As many on here have pointed out numerous times the price of a match  ticket is a small percentage of the clubs overall revenue so it's just so unnecessary to squeeze the pips out of the fans. Add that to all the other crap things Heck has presided over and it doesn't paint a pretty picture. In his short spell at the club he has  created a lot of animosity at a time when we should be having the time of our lives.

Right, the point I'm making is that all the 'Big 6' have not 'continually raised revenues without resorting to hammering loyal supporters in the pocket'
I supported this by pointing to their £1k+ season tickets and £100 match day tickets for league games.

You responded by saying their CL tickets are cheaper.  Implying that they indeed are not 'hammering loyal supporters' as per the original hypothesis.

And I responded to this by asking if you would prefer the higher League match ticket prices in return for the lower CL prices these clubs charge.  This was my way of demonstrating to you that these clubs do indeed hammer their fans even if their CL tickets are cheaper than ours.

Sorry if this comes across badly, but I'm just trying to draw a line under this part of the discussion which was just in reference to that comment.  I entirely agree that our CL prices are too high, I'm just pointing out that all the clubs we are trying to compete with (perhaps bar Man City - I haven't looked) also fleece their fans - and over the course of a season by substantially more than we do.

Ok i see you have zoned in on one part of my post. I don't want to get bogged down with that. Liverpool are selling child's tickets for £9.50. Our cheapest child ticket for CL is £54.

It can’t be. Me and my two youngest are all going for £145 all in. That’s an adult, an under-18 (she’s 14!), and an under-14.

[jwarry]

Collomosse having a go today

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13844747/Aston-Villa-stadium-upgrade-scrapped.html

[kippaxvilla2]

That’s behind a paywall.  But it looks very embarrassing from the headline.

[Drummond]

Percy is right, we just aren't interesting enough for sponsors, yet.

It. Takes a while to be viewed in the big club category for the media. We need sustained success, on the pitch, to be more successful with sponsors. Let's hope the team can raise enough money to keep Emery happy with the signings he will continue to need.

If we qualify for the Champions League it'll. Be far easier, Europa will be a challenge but it's doable.

[PeterWithesShin]

That’s behind a paywall.  But it looks very embarrassing from the headline.

https://archive.ph/MCYKQ

[London Villan]

The article says there is a statement due out today "A more detailed statement from the club is expected on Friday and its content will be fascinating." Hmmmm we'll wait and see.

[Percy McCarthy]

Percy is right, we just aren't interesting enough for sponsors, yet.

It. Takes a while to be viewed in the big club category for the media. We need sustained success, on the pitch, to be more successful with sponsors. Let's hope the team can raise enough money to keep Emery happy with the signings he will continue to need.

If we qualify for the Champions League it'll. Be far easier, Europa will be a challenge but it's doable.

Exactly. In the absence of other clubs’ attractiveness to sponsors, we are doing two things we don’t like that other clubs can do less of: big price rises and selling good players that lots of us would prefer to keep. Brace yourself for more of the same next season, but bear in mind it will allow for exciting investment in the squad too.

[Somniloquism]

That’s behind a paywall.  But it looks very embarrassing from the headline.

Well the one line answer for the headline "Why Aston Villa scrapped £130m Stadium Upgrade" is

Emery and his advisers did not like the idea of playing European football in a three-sided ground.

[Ads]

I remain utterly convinced we can build a new stand in behind the North. It will just be more expensive.

[Chris Smith]

That’s behind a paywall.  But it looks very embarrassing from the headline.

Well the one line answer for the headline "Why Aston Villa scrapped £130m Stadium Upgrade" is

Emery and his advisers did not like the idea of playing European football in a three-sided ground.

It was the right decision. If on top of the outcry over prices imagine the additional noise if there were several thousand fewer tickets available to see us play Bayern.

[Somniloquism]

That’s behind a paywall.  But it looks very embarrassing from the headline.

Well the one line answer for the headline "Why Aston Villa scrapped £130m Stadium Upgrade" is

Emery and his advisers did not like the idea of playing European football in a three-sided ground.

It was the right decision. If on top of the outcry over prices imagine the additional noise if there were several thousand fewer tickets available to see us play Bayern.

I'm not saying it is or isn't. Just the main headline of the article had that as the answer. Of course Heck is getting all the blame of course for that as well and everything else in the article is definitely down to him.

[Somniloquism]

I remain utterly convinced we can build a new stand in behind the North. It will just be more expensive.

Well we are going ahead with the Stumps redevelopment apparently due in late 2025 /early 2026 or so. So I don't expect any new stand behind / in place of the North Stand to even be started until after then.

My opinion is Heck is milking it and building up the loss of earnings we can assign to it, with the hope that two more seasons of Euro means playing with only three stands for a season is not seen as an issues as it is not "special" nights any more.

[Dogtanian]

You do wonder if we are suffering from not having an actual CEO. The danger when you have two people with complete control of their areas is that they have the freedom to do whatever suits their interests most.

A good CEO is there to do the balancing act and make sure that they are reigned in and don't cause other issues because they have their blinkers on.

[Brend'Watkins]

Liverpool did a good job of increasing and upgrading the Anfield Road end while minimising the effect of reduced attendance. Maybe we should be discussing with their designers. We have more space for manoeuvre too than they did/have.