Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[olaftab]

It's clear from response so far that Bologna at home is not going to be sold out. Heck was no doubt encouraged by the rush that resulted in Bayern game GA selling out in under 24 hours and stuck with the same pricing structure. This  could  be a commercial mistake. Furthermore club are having trouble shifting GA+ stuff for the Bayern game. We could have another Wolves situation on Wednesday night with 100's if not a couple of thousand empty seats. This would be a shame.

[Stu82]

My worry isn't that Heck doesn't know what he's doing, but rather that he knows exactly what he's doing and it's what NSWE want.

I agree.

They have all the social, economic, demographic and financial data. Heck has form in implementing

My worry isn't that Heck doesn't know what he's doing, but rather that he knows exactly what he's doing and it's what NSWE want.

There is little doubt in my mind that you are right.

This is where I struggle to believe he does know what he’s doing. If they were interpreting the data correctly he must surely realise the pricing structure is wrong - there are not enough people who want to watch Villa who can afford the current prices.

People keep saying we want to attract day trippers ahead of regular match goers as they spend more money. If that were true and they looked to limit STs to, say, 25k then that’s 15k seats we have to sell for every game, effectively 400k tickets to sell to day-trippers. With the best will in the world, we are never going to sell 400k tickets to individual purchasers - we need a good chunk of people who go week after week. The reality is that with prices as they are, those people that would go to multiple games can’t afford it.

I’m going back to something I’ve repeated multiple times - for the last 5 years we as family of 3 have gone to almost all matches. This year we will probably go to no more than half all together. Where are our replacements, when we haven’t managed to sell out a single game so far this season, including Wednesday which is our biggest home game in 50 years.

He’s screwing up the long-term in pursuit of a short-term objective, but in doing so he is screwing up the short-term as well. We are not making anything like the increase in income he is expecting with thousands of seats that were previously full now empty, and there will be games later in the season where the deficit in atmosphere could well end up costing us on the pitch. Last season we finished 4th by 2 points - one more draw or defeat and we would have lost £50 million.

Great post Pat.

People are saying that NSWE are aware and have approved or even planned this approach from Heck. I think that the targets have been set and Heck has put his plans into action to achieve this, if the result is not a success or creates too much negativity the owners will not be happy. They want the fans on board and Villa Park full, I would not be surprised if adjustments are made if the uproar continues and the seats remain unsold. After all they will be planning expansion/ a move and want more demand not less.

[john2710]

It's clear from response so far that Bologna at home is not going to be sold out. Heck was no doubt encouraged by the rush that resulted in Bayern game GA selling out in under 24 hours and stuck with the same pricing structure. This  could  be a commercial mistake. Furthermore club are having trouble shifting GA+ stuff for the Bayern game. We could have another Wolves situation on Wednesday night with 100's if not a couple of thousand empty seats. This would be a shame.

There's less than 50 GA+ tickets left for Wednesday night, with a top price of £1080. There's no chance of 2000 empty seats.

[Sexual Ealing]

There's a very easy mnemonic to help remember all this stuff. Heck's a c*nt, NSWE are c*nts, Purslow was/is a c*nt, David O'Leary was/is a c*nt.

[Pat Mustard]

The Wolves game last week there were no GA tickets available on Thursday. It was sold out. There were GA+ tickets available. On Friday before the game resale tickets were made available, mostly single seats. Many were left available but that's not lost revenue it's just season ticket holders who didn't attend.

GA+ is where there's clearly blocks of seats that aren't selling, I don't know what the ratio of sales is needed to make it profitable but I would hazard a guess that over the season the club will make substantially more money than if they were left as GA & especially so as season tickets.

The club are clearly trying to understand the appetite for GA+ & will be learning as they go. The level of change has been rapid & it's possible they've gone too far too soon. You can do all the profiling you like but It will still only give a indication. The thought of paying £1k+ for a game is as alien to me as paying £97 is for others. They may scale it back but I think that's highly unlikely & even less likely that they'd admit it.

Anyone saying we can't sell out the Bayern game need to look at the price of the 50 or so tickets left ranging from £340-£1080.

There’s a lot more than 50 tickets left available for Bayern, and that is the one game where even I thought they would get away with charging whatever they want and would still sell out (there are also still 100s available through third party resellers too). With Wolves, the club would have known the resale tickets that would be available, but try to hold a noose around our necks by not making them available till the last minute in order to force people to buy GA+ - it clearly didn’t work with a couple of thousand empty seats as far as we know.

The reality is that Heck’s pricing structure is clearly not working, the club might be making a few more quid but it’s nothing like the level he expected because of the losses in seats that are just not selling. We will also soon be approaching games where GA+ is even less attractive - who is going to buy a package for Bologna when there are 10k seats available? Who will buy one for a midweek game in December against Brentford?

[amfy]

This is where I struggle to believe he does know what he’s doing. If they were interpreting the data correctly he must surely realise the pricing structure is wrong - there are not enough people who want to watch Villa who can afford the current prices.

People keep saying we want to attract day trippers ahead of regular match goers as they spend more money. If that were true and they looked to limit STs to, say, 25k then that’s 15k seats we have to sell for every game, effectively 400k tickets to sell to day-trippers. With the best will in the world, we are never going to sell 400k tickets to individual purchasers - we need a good chunk of people who go week after week. The reality is that with prices as they are, those people that would go to multiple games can’t afford it.

I’m going back to something I’ve repeated multiple times - for the last 5 years we as family of 3 have gone to almost all matches. This year we will probably go to no more than half all together. Where are our replacements, when we haven’t managed to sell out a single game so far this season, including Wednesday which is our biggest home game in 50 years.

He’s screwing up the long-term in pursuit of a short-term objective, but in doing so he is screwing up the short-term as well. We are not making anything like the increase in income he is expecting with thousands of seats that were previously full now empty, and there will be games later in the season where the deficit in atmosphere could well end up costing us on the pitch. Last season we finished 4th by 2 points - one more draw or defeat and we would have lost £50 million.

Bob on! Absolutely what the ‘fans need to understand that if we want success we have to pay for it’ brigade are missing.

[Villan82]

Great, forensic post Pat.

[maidstonevillain]

He’s screwing up the long-term in pursuit of a short-term objective, but in doing so he is screwing up the short-term as well. We are not making anything like the increase in income he is expecting with thousands of seats that were previously full now empty, and there will be games later in the season where the deficit in atmosphere could well end up costing us on the pitch. Last season we finished 4th by 2 points - one more draw or defeat and we would have lost £50 million.

Exactly Pat.

“HOLTE END THE 11 1/2TH MAN”

This will be Heck’s legacy by the time he has finished.

[RamboandBruno]

It's clear from response so far that Bologna at home is not going to be sold out. Heck was no doubt encouraged by the rush that resulted in Bayern game GA selling out in under 24 hours and stuck with the same pricing structure. This  could  be a commercial mistake. Furthermore club are having trouble shifting GA+ stuff for the Bayern game. We could have another Wolves situation on Wednesday night with 100's if not a couple of thousand empty seats. This would be a shame.

If you’d told me I wouldnt be taking my kids to watch Villa at home in a champions league game, I wouldnt of believed you. However, i can’t afford the Bologna game and can’t justify the outlay after already paying for the Bayern game. It will be interesting to see if our seats sell for the inflated price.

[TonyD]

It’s not our biggest home game in 50 years. 

[Pat Mustard]

It’s not our biggest home game in 50 years.

In terms of profile it absolutely is

[TonyD]

Juventus was bigger. 

[PeterWithesShin]

It's very high profile but nowhere near our biggest game, it's not even top 10 biggest home games in 50 years.

[Pat Mustard]

I’m trying to think which games would be an easier sell than our first Champions League game in 41 years, against Bayern Munich, in a period when most people don’t view football matches as potential riots. I’m struggling to be honest.

[Chip Butty 111]

It's very high profile but nowhere near our biggest game, it's not even top 10 biggest home games in 50 years.

Juventus and Barcelona early eighties were big games, but other than that I'm struggling to think of another eight bigger than Bayern. Anyone else think of any ?