Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[pauliewalnuts]

Heck is here to grow revenue. So long as he does that enough, they’ll be more than happy.

He doesn’t care who buys the tickets and the corporates so long as someone does.

All this stuff about how the club has changed, they don’t need us any more, they’re trampling over loyal fans for money etc etc  must have spent the last three decades asleep if they’ve only just noticed this.

[dave.woodhall]

Billionaires with global business interests tend not to let senior management run high-profile, £250 million turnover companies without being in contact on at least a weekly basis. The idea that NSWE are a couple of benevolent, kindly old uncles who would get rid of Heck if only they knew how unpopular he was, is naive to the point of being laughable. He knows what they want, they know how he'll achieve it. Annoying a few supporters is collateral damage.

[VillaTim]

Remember, these fuckers sided with Manchester City. They don’t see football the way we do.

yeah, i'm very uncomfortable with Sawaris support for the 115 . Who are these imposters who have taken over our club and are now supporting these owners who are up on so many charges of cheating .

[Villan82]

People defend Heck for whatever reason as is their entitlement but I can tell you his whole demeanor has sucked a lot of the joy out of it for me and has made it much harder to swallow handing money over to the club. You can do that job without giving the impression you relish pissing people off.

And yes he was sacked from his first 'soccer' job for making the relationship with fans toxic.

[Clampy]

I dont think anyone is defending him as such, they're just saying he is doing what he's being paid to do.

[Drummond]

Billionaires with global business interests tend not to let senior management run high-profile, £250 million turnover companies without being in contact on at least a weekly basis. The idea that NSWE are a couple of benevolent, kindly old uncles who would get rid of Heck if only they knew how unpopular he was, is naive to the point of being laughable. He knows what they want, they know how he'll achieve it. Annoying a few supporters is collateral damage.

And that folks, is it.

If we want to compete, we need to raise revenue, and the way to do that is to make people pay, whoever that is.

That's his brief, and by all accounts he's doing it.

As for people never to return, that happened in the 80s when crowds everywhere were ridiculously low. The game has found a way to survive,and flourish, it just feels a bit different now, and I reckon similar things will happen again.

[eamonn]

I don't think of a milisecond the owners told him to piss of the loyal fanbase, ignore tradition, have a customer acquisition strategy that doesn't include retention, flood the bogs in the Holte and minimise...

Maybe he's in league with God. His initials are very similar to Jesus Christ's...

[Percy McCarthy]

Billionaires with global business interests tend not to let senior management run high-profile, £250 million turnover companies without being in contact on at least a weekly basis. The idea that NSWE are a couple of benevolent, kindly old uncles who would get rid of Heck if only they knew how unpopular he was, is naive to the point of being laughable. He knows what they want, they know how he'll achieve it. Annoying a few supporters is collateral damage.

And that folks, is it.

If we want to compete, we need to raise revenue, and the way to do that is to make people pay, whoever that is.

That's his brief, and by all accounts he's doing it.

As for people never to return, that happened in the 80s when crowds everywhere were ridiculously low. The game has found a way to survive,and flourish, it just feels a bit different now, and I reckon similar things will happen again.

Yep, turnover for last season about £270m - I’d hazard an educated guess that there are six teams on double that or more  (you know the ones), and two about the same (West Ham, Jaudis). We may out-perform the last two this season, let’s say £320m, but still only a dent in the gap to the first six. Great selling and recruitment, great coaching and what we consider extortionate pricing (in the absence of a new revenue-creating stadium) are the three pillars of us competing.

[john e]

I get the he’s just doing his job mantra

I’m just saying that when everything is washed through he’ll do more harm than good
That’s just my opinion right now whether right or wrong
If that’s on the owners as well then so be it although I’m Loath to say it because they haven’t done much wrong so far

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Heck is here to grow revenue. So long as he does that enough, they’ll be more than happy.

He doesn’t care who buys the tickets and the corporates so long as someone does.

All this stuff about how the club has changed, they don’t need us any more, they’re trampling over loyal fans for money etc etc  must have spent the last three decades asleep if they’ve only just noticed this.

That last part doesn't make much sense as over the last three decades tickets have been some of the cheapest, especially season tickets, in the league. The thing that upsets me with Heck and his new pricing is from what I've read especially on here, is the pricing now no longer allows families to go to games together, they now have to pick and choose as they've been priced out.

The solution is obviously a bigger stadium where everybody can be accommodated but until that happens, turning Villa from a strong, traditional, locally supported club to one where we only really want those who is willing to pay London/Man U prices/daytrippers for the occasional game is a very sad day.

[pauliewalnuts]

Amongst the cheapest yes, but in a league with rampant price inflation over 30 years, and a game which has changed beyond all recognition.

Heck is an arse, but it isn't like he's an innovative arse, he's just a continuation of what has happened over several decades now. At a point, we became customers and not supporters when it suited them (stump up the money or fuck off), and supporters not customers when that suited them (overflowing bogs).

It is absolutely nothing new.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

It may not be new but he certainly slammed his foot down on the accelerator, the likes of which we've never seen at Villa Park before. The same goes with supporters to customers; Ellis, Lerner, even Xia were wise enough not to go trampling over the fans. Shit catering, crap bogs, season tickets prices increased above the rate of inflation, paying to go into the Holte Suite, admin fees, not taking full away allocation when it would easily be sold..yeah there's been plenty of examples but none I can think of with such distain for the fans/customers.

[Risso]

Obviously the owners were happy to sign off on the new North Stand and surrounding area under Purslow's tenure. What we don't know is whose idea it was to rip and all that up and cancel the expansion. My strong suspicion is that it was Heck's idea that they went along with.

[john e]

It may not be new but he certainly slammed his foot down on the accelerator, the likes of which we've never seen at Villa Park before. The same goes with supporters to customers; Ellis, Lerner, even Xia were wise enough not to go trampling over the fans. Shit catering, crap bogs, season tickets prices increased above the rate of inflation, paying to go into the Holte Suite, admin fees, not taking full away allocation when it would easily be sold..yeah there's been plenty of examples but none I can think of with such distain for the fans/customers.

And he’s got away with it because we’ve got Champions League football for the first time in 40 years and for the first time in ages there’s a good feel around the footballing side
The whole strategy relies on the fact that when you’re traditional support goes because they can’t afford it or leaves because they feel used and alienated There’s a whole raft of people queueing up to take their place and willing to pay the top prices

In my view we just don’t have that kind of support, it simply won’t be there when we’re not doing as well, it’s a very short term plan based on milking the fans while they can and it just won’t be sustainable
I think the whole thing is badly planned and it will backfire long-term

[Sexual Ealing]

Obviously the owners were happy to sign off on the new North Stand and surrounding area under Purslow's tenure. What we don't know is whose idea it was to rip and all that up and cancel the expansion. My strong suspicion is that it was Heck's idea that they went along with.

It feels like a pretty straightforward conversation to me. Purslow, having been in situ for ages, probably didn't have the same targets as Heck. Once they'd recruited the Willy from Philly one of the first things he would have noticed would've been that he couldn't hit his targets on time if the expansion took place. This would have been communicated to NSWE, and they'd have seen he had a point.