Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[Border villan]

Because they pay less per game.

[LeeB]

Why would the club want to get rid of season ticket holders?

To get in more day trippers? Doesn't seem too mad a concept given the way things are going.

[VillaTim]

It's a fact any way the number of ST's is reducing

[PeterWithesShin]

Of course they want fewer normal ST holders, why else would we have have gone from 30K GA season tickets a few years ago to 27k now.

[Skerra]

The club are looking at getting as many people as possible to come to the occasional match hoping they will spend in the club shop etc. I doubt they give a toss about long term season ticket holders. If they did then they would have made sure that season ticket holders would have got a good price for the CL matches. I normally agreed with things you say Ads but, really don’t think they’re too bothered about season ticket holders not renewing as they seem to have so many people on the waiting list that they can’t even resell my ticket if I can’t make a match.

[BC54 VFC]

I get you don't like Heck, your Carthago daellenda est approach to every post you make leaves us in no doubt, but I really don't understand the analysis there.

We hit the "rocks" in 2010 because we'd allowed 1 man to max out the (limited) Lerner family trust. Lerner was more interested in Jewish folk history come 2010 than running a football club by that point and it appeared that his sister had been updated by the family lawyer to see just how much money he'd wasted. A discreet set of circumstances.

We're owned by 3 entities of extreme wealth. As miraculous as our rise has been, it would be equally miraculous to go the same way in reverse. It is all indexed to those 3 entities and Emery, with Emery's structure around him.

Great Man Theroy in action; Lerner and O'Neil these lot are not. They're infinite levels of wealth, knowledge and ability above.

Prices are elastic, they can expand or contract. There's no way of carving £90 or £79 anyway that I'd like or many of us would like. There might be reasons for this beyond maximising revenue  such as structural or regulatory ones- that would make a lot of sense.

But the idea that if Heck leaves in say 18 months when his son has finished at university, that the club with a ~£400m turnover is some how irreparably damaged and not significantly financially stronger is just garbage. And garbage that's repeated time and time again.

When Lerner sold his shares in MBNA to Bank of America (deal completed 01/01/06) he took the majority of his consideration in Bank of America shares. The Bank of America share price plummeted by more than 90% between January 2006 and February 2009, as a result of the banking crash, resulting in a sizeable decrease in Lerner's personal net worth. This, along with his divorce and philanthropy, were the prime reasons for the mess he got himself in.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

If you were running a football club, surely you'd want as many season ticket holders as possible. Guaranteed income at the start of the year regardless of what's going on on the pitch.

[amfy]

If you were running a football club, surely you'd want as many season ticket holders as possible. Guaranteed income at the start of the year regardless of what's going on on the pitch.

I’d say you want to get a certain number to give you a clear bottom line, but not as many as possible. There is more profit in one off attendees both in terms of ticket price and what they’ll spend while they’re there. High number of ST holders keep high profit customers out.

[London Villan]

The club made a big thing about data at one of the networking events. An element of this was about profiling fans and they will have segmented the entire fan base based on the data they have. Then compare the revenue and you can see why a season ticket holder is the last type of fan they want.

You can imagine a season ticket holder is defined as a "Legacy Fan" and their spend level will be very low - (GA season ticket holder, doesn't spend in the ground, doesn't buy official merch) therefore, low revenue per head £45 per match.

Replace 10% of these each year with a different type of fan, let's call them "Big Match Followers" (Use ex-season ticker seat as GA+, attends once or twice a year, spends in shops) high revenue per head £300 per match and you've upped you match day income by £13m. ( fag packet maths)

It makes it very attractive - assuming you can sell all those seats as premium or even full-price admission.

[VillaTim]

If you were running a football club, surely you'd want as many season ticket holders as possible. Guaranteed income at the start of the year regardless of what's going on on the pitch.

I’d say you want to get a certain number to give you a clear bottom line, but not as many as possible. There is more profit in one off attendees both in terms of ticket price and what they’ll spend while they’re there. High number of ST holders keep high profit customers out.

Its the same logic with airlines and hotels , you don't want them full too soon cos you can charge a lot more as the availability runs out

[BC54 VFC]

It is an absolute disgrace these prices.  How do I get a ticket for Bologna?  Asking for a friend.

It would be cheaper to go to Bologna.

I understand that a few Villa fans are doing just that!

[Lsvilla]

It's probably been covered many times in this debate, but what do people think would be a reasonable ticket price for our first Cl venture in 41 years watching a team of world class talent under the guidance of one of the best managers in the world taking on the cream of European football ?

[Sexual Ealing]

87p

[BC54 VFC]

87p

Seventeen shillings and fivepence.

[dave.woodhall]

It's probably been covered many times in this debate, but what do people think would be a reasonable ticket price for our first Cl venture in 41 years watching a team of world class talent under the guidance of one of the best managers in the world taking on the cream of European football ?

Cat A prices, same as when we take on other cream of Europe teams.