Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[purpletrousers]

39k for Wolves sounds about right if they are being honest about attendances - we could see a few empty blocks, and there were lots of single empty seats dotted around.

This is where I really don't get anyone defending the prices - we are going to lose thousands on the gate for every home game this season.  There are still loads left for Man Utd a week on Sunday (looking at it the same ones that were empty on Saturday), and even the supposed fastest sell-out in history against Bayern still has tickets available.  We might make a bit more money overall in the grand scheeme, but it won't be anywhere near as much as people think once you take into account the lost income on games that would have sold-out before, and in the long-run we are potentially losing thousands of fans who could become regulars.

Absolutely, we are sabotaging the prime period of younger fans catching a lifelong bug, like I was being brought along at a pivotal moment, maybe this could be another golden age in our history.

I wasn't the best judge juggling little ones who hadn't had their funzone experience (I understand we'll easy be two seasons without it, not the one the club have let on) but from where I was in the family zone the atmosphere didn't seem great when we were struggling Saturday.

So there is
1) the long term loss of empty seats in developing newer fans,
2) loss of cash of sales (to balance against the higher European prices income)
3) the embarrassment to our profile on TV etc of looking either chaotic (which is the case) or that we can't attract fans
4) it impacting on the pitch, possibly the loss energy from a full house missing some extra excited occasional attenders.

I think Gary Shaw's death potentially deflects potentially more protest/criticism at the stadium, but
also
5) the disgruntlement/disgust caused by the prices/things being generally appalling off the pitch, can impact atmosphere/positivity therefore the players too.

Maybe I should copy this to Lee Preece, what harm can it do...

[Sexual Ealing]

I would do just that mate.

[Risso]

Somebody on Twitter is claiming that the attendance for Wolves was 39Kish. If true, for a Saturday 3pm kick off that's not televised, that's woeful.

That AV Updates? Not the most reliable. MoTD had attendance as well over 42k.

I'd say that's even more unreliable, what with the vast swathes of empty corporate seats.

[Risso]

I’m guessing the great Heck swindle is the reason we dont give out the match attendance figures during the game any more.  Wouldn’t be a good look publishing one of your main kpi’s when its clearly being missed.

I think we stopped giving attendance numbers long before Heck arrived.
But, if he is going to get shit for everything, then why not blame him for that too.

The traffic on the Coventry road was shit on Saturday. It took me nearly 40 mins for what’s normally a 30 minute journey.
What is Heck going to do about that, the ******?

What a bizarre post.

Whoosh !!!!!

I'm fairly certain there's no 'whoosh' there.

[Des Little]

Heck won't be around to suffer any long term consequences of alienating the future fans, as is the nature of these roles - in two or three years he'll be pissing off the entire customer base of another organisation.

[chrisw1]

Somebody on Twitter is claiming that the attendance for Wolves was 39Kish. If true, for a Saturday 3pm kick off that's not televised, that's woeful.

That AV Updates? Not the most reliable. MoTD had attendance as well over 42k.

Absolutely no chance it was above 42k.

[chrisw1]

Am I right in saying that no STs go on resale until every last seat (inc GA+) has been sold by the club?  If true, it won't ever happen.

Not quite.  They do leave it very late though.  There was loads of unsold GA+ against Wolves but they put the resales up on Friday I believe.

[ChicagoLion]

He won't realise Chicago. if we have learned anything about this man it's that he does it his way, he doesn't pass any heed to how much of a shitshow his way causes and then he materialises when things settle down to bizarrely claim credit for things more to do with the wider context of our improved form since Emery arrived.

And another point, surely the renovated shop was a waste of time if Heck's agenda is driving attendances down?

It's been one heck (!) of a clusterfuck under this man.

Totally agree mate.
As someone said, wait for his next VT folksy American interview where he will completely ignore all the shit he has created and pump his condescending self promoting story line.

[Pat Mustard]

Somebody on Twitter is claiming that the attendance for Wolves was 39Kish. If true, for a Saturday 3pm kick off that's not televised, that's woeful.

That AV Updates? Not the most reliable. MoTD had attendance as well over 42k.

Absolutely no chance it was above 42k.

Not unless he managed to squeeze in the mythical 3k extra seats Heck reckons we could install in the current layout.

What else is remarkable is that it looks like there are still at least a few hundred tickets available for Bayern across corporate and GA+.  Now I thought our capacity was reduced for CL games due to the UEFA hoardings blocking the first couple of rows (capacity in the Confrence League last year was about 41k).  Effectively, he has managed to take what for a whole host of reasons is possibly the most attractive fixture we have had in nearly 50 years and failed to sell it out at first time of asking even at a lower capacity than we have for regular league matches.  It's not a great look.

[dalians umbrella]

Excuse the bad language in this person's tweet but the video shows some of the worst areas of unsold seats from Saturday, which is in addition to the number of empty seats scattered more generally in areas like the Trinity Road stand middle tier.

https://x.com/avfcry/status/1837491361974526266?s=12

[Villan82]

He won't realise Chicago. if we have learned anything about this man it's that he does it his way, he doesn't pass any heed to how much of a shitshow his way causes and then he materialises when things settle down to bizarrely claim credit for things more to do with the wider context of our improved form since Emery arrived.

And another point, surely the renovated shop was a waste of time if Heck's agenda is driving attendances down?

It's been one heck (!) of a clusterfuck under this man.

Totally agree mate.
As someone said, wait for his next VT folksy American interview where he will completely ignore all the shit he has created and pump his condescending self promoting story line.

Indeed mate. At one point during the summer I muted the club socials because I was so fed up of Heck

Let's hope his reign is short lived.

[VillaTim]

Somebody on Twitter is claiming that the attendance for Wolves was 39Kish. If true, for a Saturday 3pm kick off that's not televised, that's woeful.

That AV Updates? Not the most reliable. MoTD had attendance as well over 42k.

why would MOTD know the attendance

[Hookeysmith]

It was reported as 39K Villa and 3K Wulfs

[Villan82]

It's not rocket science. People are more likely to fork out big money on a GA+ 'experience' if it is inside a shiny new spacious structure built for that purpose than they are when it is inside a part of a stand they have been in on and off for 20 years before it got rebranded as a GA+ experience

[Chip Butty 111]

It's not rocket science. People are more likely to fork out big money on a GA+ 'experience' if it is inside a shiny new spacious structure built for that purpose than they are when it is inside a part of a stand they have been in on and off for 20 years before it got rebranded as a GA+ experience

For a non London team, who haven't won anything for years, our ticket prices are very high now. GA+ would sell if the food offering was much improved and the pricing reduced. Who wants 7/8 pints of lager to watch the game,  I don't get it? Why offer the same food in GA+ that we can all buy outside the stadium from a greasy van.