Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[jon collett]

I was trying to avoid going down the rabbit hole of the relative merits and popularity of sports. Both of which I’d disagree with the recent comments on here although the world has changed so much since the advent of Sky and the Premier League and decline of hooliganism.

My point was how revealing the mindset of Heck was. Not only patronising but entitled. Even given our success one would expect him to be marketing Villa and expanding support and attendance. Instead he seems to revel he has a captive audience to milk! This may explain his attitude (although I am not sure about the owners) towards ground expansion.

[Chip Butty 111]

Where do you think GA+ tickets should be located?

Not at the back of the Holte, or by the away fans with a lousy view for starters. Where you are sitting would be the major point for me if I were buying GA+ ticket.

[Chip Butty 111]

Sorry Chip Butty, I meant as far as the owners are concerned, he will spin that he is maxing profit across the CL games.
It looks awful but he does not care about optics.

No worries we were looking at different angles. Although I moan about GA+ I don't think it's a bad idea in general. I just think we've gone about it in a bad way, the seats are mostly in the wrong areas and it's overpriced. The most disappointing thing is the leftover empty seats now we are flying on the pitch. It'll be interesting to see if Juventus turns out to be more like Bayern or Bologna for sales.

Bologna is largely sold out.

I get your general point, but it's not like we're going to be playing in front of thousands of empty seats.

My point is we shouldn't have any empty seats in the CL. It's madness. We should all be desperate to get our hands on one, it should be the Holy Grail of tickets. And yet a week before the game they are available to basically anyone who has ever been over Spaghetti Junction. It's a bit daft.

[ender4]

£100 GA tickets will be the norm next season, that’s for sure.

We pay £72 for a Cat A PL game in most of the ground now if you're not a season ticket holder. And £50 for a Cat B game.   

I assume next season will be £75 and £55.

[kippaxvilla2]

Where do you think GA+ tickets should be located?

Not at the back of the Holte, or by the away fans with a lousy view for starters. Where you are sitting would be the major point for me if I were buying GA+ ticket.

I would’ve thought if it’s aimed at mini corporate and day tripper types then at the other end of the Witton by the tunnel would’ve made more sense so they can take their selfies when the players come out.

[claret+blue ed]

£100 GA tickets will be the norm next season, that’s for sure.

We pay £72 for a Cat A PL game in most of the ground now if you're not a season ticket holder. And £50 for a Cat B game.   

I assume next season will be £75 and £55.

If it goes up 12% like this season, we'll be looking at £80 and £61 respectively

The club made a big thing of keeping ST rises at 5%, but us members got well screwed over

[Ads]

I was trying to avoid going down the rabbit hole of the relative merits and popularity of sports. Both of which I’d disagree with the recent comments on here although the world has changed so much since the advent of Sky and the Premier League and decline of hooliganism.

My point was how revealing the mindset of Heck was. Not only patronising but entitled. Even given our success one would expect him to be marketing Villa and expanding support and attendance. Instead he seems to revel he has a captive audience to milk! This may explain his attitude (although I am not sure about the owners) towards ground expansion.

He made the comments in awe of the regard football is held in, as a quasi religious exprience. He wasn't patronising at all. Total misrepresentation.

[edgysatsuma89]

Yeah, I'm no Heck fan, but I think he's right here.

[jon collett]

Another rabbit hole I’m not going down!

[Chip Butty 111]

Saw a weird quote from Heck today where he essentially implied English people are obsessed with football because there aren’t other sports here. He compounded this by saying it’s a family thing.

I think we probably play and watch more sports than most countries but I thought the interesting insight is he clearly sees us as a captive audience!

And the funny thing to me was in the same breath he said he didn't know anything about sport, just business. And bragged about something he'd done, but couldn't remember what, which was 'wildly successful' but he was getting hammered by 20 or 30 people for it. You couldn't make it up. If I didnt know anything about sport I wouldn't be talking about it. The guy just keeps digging himself into a hole when interviewed, and turning the conversation so it's all about him. He cracks me up..

[john2710]

There's about 130 GA tickets available for Bologna, many of which are single seats. Considering, when the prices were announced, some predicted the embarrassment of playing a Champions League game with big areas of empty seats.

[Chip Butty 111]

More than 130 GA + in K2 , K6 similar and plenty of others in K block, A2 A3 the same . Still GA about , T Block your best chance by the look of it.

[pauliewalnuts]

There's about 130 GA tickets available for Bologna, many of which are single seats. Considering, when the prices were announced, some predicted the embarrassment of playing a Champions League game with big areas of empty seats.

Indeed, single seats are hard to shift.

Expect us to end up with a Newcastle style thing where you specify the block you want, and they choose the seat, so there are way fewer empty singles.

[john2710]

More than 130 GA + in K2 , K6 similar and plenty of others in K block, A2 A3 the same . Still GA about , T Block your best chance by the look of it.

There's about 130 GA tickets available.

[pauliewalnuts]

More than 130 GA + in K2 , K6 similar and plenty of others in K block, A2 A3 the same . Still GA about , T Block your best chance by the look of it.

There are literally 2 GA in T2, 14 in T1, 1 in T5

The match is, to all intents and purposes, sold out.

And Heck doesn't give a fuck about 4 or 5 empty GA seats here and there, he only needs to sell one GA+ at the right level to make up for that.