Next FAB meeting

[Clark W Griswold]

Whenever anyone mentions Inter they invariably talk about the 1994 match, I always think I preferred the 1990 one.

I remember them running out - Matthaus, Brehme (RIP), Klinsmann who had just won the World Cup, plus Berti, Walter Zenga and Bergomi who had featured for Italy (the latter a legend) and as they ran out, I remember the chorus of “who the fucking hell are you?” 

Also remember Trappatoni smacked his head on the dugout roof and was sporting a massive lump.

34 years ago, Jesus.

Same here. What a team they had and we beat them 2-0. Shame about the return but still. Brehme and Matthaus are in my personal best world 11 since I started watching football, along with Paul McGrath obviously.
The 94 game was great as well as we did knock them out, but it didn’t have the star quality of the opposition. They had an upcoming Bergkamp and an exotic South American in Ruben Sosa (which you didn’t see very often back then) but I don’t remember much else.

[Mister E]

I don't agree with what they've done with the Holte and I know full well their attitude towards supporters, but ultimately it doesn't really matter. As someone put it, they're here to make money, not friends, because that's the only way to success. If you support a Premier League club you have to leave your principles at the turnstile and accept that it isn't your club and in reality it hasn't been for a long time.

Yes, it's the tension between wanting to get the club competitive with the other leading English clubs and trying to remain faithful to the "soul of the club" (for want of a better phrase).
Doug never seemed able to bring us that close to being truly competitive with the leading clubs of the 1990's and 2000's because he couldn't bring himself to spend enough to do so: I still claim that - had he done so - we could have been in a different place now (because the 'cost of entry' to the top table in that era was probably lower than it is now - the stakes are higher now). We now have owners that have the dosh and  - I think - the intent to get us there. The price? - we ain't all going to be happy! and some of us will not be part of 'the project' (I, for one, will probably not renew next season regardless: the game-times, travel complexities and other commitments are beginning to tip the balance away from live viewing*).




* This is something I've said for about the last 5 years, by the way!

[Villan82]

I think a lot of us are fully on board with that.

The issue is we don't see how the new, new badge fiasco and the cancelled redevelopment are part of some master plan to gate crash the top four. It doesn't fit.

[tomd2103]

I saw a post on Twatter the other day where some Villa 'influencer' or whatever they call themselves these days, was asking what game had the best atmosphere they'd seen at Villa Park. So many just reeling off recent games, such as the Everton game when we came back up, and thinking, you poor sods, you haven't lived.

I started properly going in the 90s, and games like the Inter Milan penalty win and Tranmere before it would annihilate anything that has come since, and I'm assuming these weren't as big as the highs before that.

I filled that out and the two I went for were Inter Milan I in 1990 and the Tranmere semi-final. 

[ChicagoLion]

I think a lot of us are fully on board with that.

The issue is we don't see how the new, new badge fiasco and the cancelled redevelopment are part of some master plan to gate crash the top four. It doesn't fit.

Agree, the aspirations of the club does not have to be at the expense of all of the other stuff that the club is supposed to stand for.
We know there are going to be changes to maximise the commercial opportunities and some supporters will be impacted, but it is the way you go about it starting with communication or you just piss off lots more people than is necessary.
This Heck bloke just doesn’t get it and I fear what he will come up with next.

[dekko]

I think a lot of us are fully on board with that.

The issue is we don't see how the new, new badge fiasco and the cancelled redevelopment are part of some master plan to gate crash the top four. It doesn't fit.

Agree, the aspirations of the club does not have to be at the expense of all of the other stuff that the club is supposed to stand for.
We know there are going to be changes to maximise the commercial opportunities and some supporters will be impacted, but it is the way you go about it starting with communication or you just piss off lots more people than is necessary.
This Heck bloke just doesn’t get it and I fear what he will come up with next.

I think the more worrying thing for me is Heck knows he doesn't get it, and doesn't give a fuck.  As far as he's concerned he has one job - increase revenue, and anyone who complains or tries to get in the way of that can fuck off.

I can't remember if it was someone on here (might have been MOMs) that said Hatton literally said in an earlier FAB meeting 'our job is to increase revenue, not make friends, and we don't care if we upset people doing it'.

[ChicagoLion]

I think a lot of us are fully on board with that.

The issue is we don't see how the new, new badge fiasco and the cancelled redevelopment are part of some master plan to gate crash the top four. It doesn't fit.

Agree, the aspirations of the club does not have to be at the expense of all of the other stuff that the club is supposed to stand for.
We know there are going to be changes to maximise the commercial opportunities and some supporters will be impacted, but it is the way you go about it starting with communication or you just piss off lots more people than is necessary.
This Heck bloke just doesn’t get it and I fear what he will come up with next.

I think the more worrying thing for me is Heck knows he doesn't get it, and doesn't give a fuck.  As far as he's concerned he has one job - increase revenue, and anyone who complains or tries to get in the way of that can fuck off.

I can't remember if it was someone on here (might have been MOMs) that said Hatton literally said in an earlier FAB meeting 'our job is to increase revenue, not make friends, and we don't care if we upset people doing it'.

If he said that he should be nowhere near any business. I get that in business sometimes you have to be ruthless but smart business people seek to achieve their goals with the least amount of conflict possible.
That is just plain nasty and looks like they are spoiling for a fight.

[Villan82]

Whatever happened to 'keep your customers happy'?

[PeterWithe]

I think some of the recent atmospheres have been right up there with the Tranmere, Madrid and Inter games. The whole ground sings as it rarely did back then.

[Nev]

Whatever happened to 'keep your customers happy'?

We're not customers, we won't take our business anywhere else. But Football Clubs would like to replace fans with customers who spend vast amounts of cash in the club shop or on catering. They don't want people like me. I haven't bought anything from the club shop for 10 years at least (I don't really wear colours to be fair) and while I buy the odd pint I never eat at the ground. I'll only be valuable when there are empty seats.

[The Man With A Stick]

If they're struggling to sell 200 GA+ tickets every other week, why the hell do they think creating more will increase revenue?

The same way they got folks like me to buy a membership, less seats on general sale = more people who will compromise on price points in order to watch their team.

Sure I got a water bottle, but essentially I paid them £40 to make buying myself a ticket easier.

I think there's quite a difference between us paying £40 over a season to be at the front of the queue for buying tickets and having to fork out £150 for a ticket with a couple of hotdogs, some pissy lager and the luxury of wi-fi coverage chucked in.  I've been to about 12 or 13 games this season thanks to having membership, but I wouldn't pay GA+ prices, even if it was the only option.  Not because it's unaffordable but purely out of principle.  Paying over the odds for Category A games is bad enough. 

If they think people will be battering the door down for GA+ in future because there's 5-10,000 fewer tickets available they're probably in for a rude awakening.

[DB]

Whatever happened to 'keep your customers happy'?

Depends on the type of customer. They want day trippers who spend a shed load in the store and in the ground. Spurs is full of Koreans for example, who pack out the shop every match. For us who just pay for the ticket, maybe have a pint, that no good for making £££....forgetting we are the ones who support through thick and thin, create the atmosphere. We could turn out like Liverpool, I read they have highest % of Corp attendance in the PL and lowest local attendance.

[kippaxvilla2]

This is all fine and dandy while we are doing well.  If we start sliding again they’ll be plenty of padded seats available.

[dekko]

This is all fine and dandy while we are doing well.  If we start sliding again they’ll be plenty of padded seats available.

This 100%

Lets give them the benefit of the doubt for a minute and assume a) that we're actually able to do what virtually no club has done in the modern (ie post City takeover) era by breaking into the top 4 and staying there and that b) we end up with lots of tourists/daytrippers packing out the GA+ and club shop.  The 'slide' down from that point will be entirely relative - it won't take a relegation to see swathes of empty seats, all it would take is a drop back into mid table.  The tourists wont care any more and the people who would've been filling the ground previously will have been driven away.

It might make a few more quid in the short to medium term but its eroding the very foundations of long term success for the club.

[claret+blue ed]

Not sure if I missed it, but was the North Stand discussed in detail at the meeting, has it actually been binned off or was it just mentioned that options are being explored still??