The FA Cup (Other football)

[VillaTim]

Should have been the Palace H game . That ship now sailed
Heck go fuck yourself

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Friday night, just after Xmas , on TV, B team, boring opponents , why the fuck has that prick made this the 150th birthday party , what a clueless wanker

That’s exactly why. Some people who wouldn’t bother for those reasons might now because of the ‘celebration’. If it puts an extra few thousand on top of what will likely be a poor attendance otherwise it’s job done for Mr Heck.

If he's strategically done this he's a bigger ****** than I imagined . I hope they rethink this and do the 150th on a Prem game .

Not sure I understand, most those tickets are sold anyway to season ticket holders, so where does the extra revenue come from?
We could risk a more lucrative match later but its 50/50 whether we make it through.

As far as I know you don’t get a cup game included with your ST, you just get the opportunity to buy your seat before it goes down the categories, members then general sales etc. I would think quite a few wouldn’t perhaps bother due to the reasons Tim mentions. This smacks of bolting an extra on to try and get a few more through the turnstiles.

I don’t know how to quote several different quotes at once but I hadn’t even thought of the higher percentage of away fans being there as someone says above. Why not just do it for a league game? You would have thought it would have been pre designated before the season started, it may have been but I missed it and I’m doing the powers that be a disservice.

[cdbearsfan]

Didn’t Port Vale have the entire Witton Lane and Lower North? 12,000 tickets in the days when home teams had to give up 25% of their capacity to away away fans?

They did, it's the game we won 5-0 in the pissing rain.

*6-0.

(Not sure why they couldn't be arsed to show the sixth).

[Percy McCarthy]

I mean, Spurs had an anniversary strip for a league game against us in 2008

One of the matches which has made me most angry in the last 25 years.

Leicester at home was even worse.

Anyway, me and the kids are going because its cheap, and if there’s a promotion on to make it so it’s not as dead as it otherwise might have been, like the Palace cup game, I’ll be happy.

I think of it like this. I’ve been to all the CL games, and the odd one in the league, and consider myself fortunate that I can go. My daughter tells me that she is one of only two kids in her class at school who’s parents are still together, and that some of the other kids are a bit envious when she tells them she’s been to the match. This is a game that I assume lots more families can afford to go to, it’s not a school night, tickets will be more easily available than usual, they can learn something about our history, and so can the viewers on terrestrial television. Whatever the motivation of Heck, all that seems positive to me.

I probably have a different feeling to most as it gives me a good excuse to book the Friday night off work, so it’s a win-win for me, as long as we erm… win.

[BC Villain]

This absolutely drips with cynical opportunism and I hope the place is half fucking empty.

No doubt it'll be half empty, but that's as much down to Emery's continued two-fingered salutes to cup competitions as it is Hecks money-grabbing mentality.

[sid1964]

Everything is Heck's fault according to most on here -  the 150th anniversary game has been chosen by a honorary board which includes Brian, Dennis and Ian Taylor, maybe next time you all see them tell them to f... off!!

Hopefully the ground will be packed and at the prices that have been quoted, I think it will be (I have brought a ticket)

I like a moan but some take it to a new level!!

[Chico Hamilton III]

the 150th anniversary game has been chosen by a honorary board which includes Brian, Dennis and Ian Taylor, maybe next time you all see them tell them to f... off!!

Where did you read that Sid? The honory board were acknowledged in the club PR blurb yesterday but nowhere was it mentioned that they were responsible for choosing the West Ham match.

[Nev]

Everything is Heck's fault according to most on here -  the 150th anniversary game has been chosen by a honorary board which includes Brian, Dennis and Ian Taylor, maybe next time you all see them tell them to f... off!!

Hopefully the ground will be packed and at the prices that have been quoted, I think it will be (I have brought a ticket)

I like a moan but some take it to a new level!!

There is a board indeed but do you really think that people who are absolutely immersed in the club such as Mortimer, Taylor and Little were all happy with this? The whole thing feels like an afterthought once the ticket sales were apparent, backed up by the extension to the ST holders window.

An event like this should've been months in the planning, not announced on the back of a Cup Draw less than a month out from the game, and days after the date and time had been announced. In my mind the owners are just as culpable as Heck, and if it was backed by the three mentioned legends I would be very disappointed that they can't see why this looks so poor.

The obvious game would've been Celtic, something of a unique occasion, in the biggest competition we can compete in and with a lot potentially riding on it. That or a league game. But then they sell out don't they so no opportunity should be passed up in order to increase revenue, the price of everything, the value of nothing.

[Lucky Eddie]

I've slept on this and I'm still upset, the timing of the announcement wreaks of opportunism. The club can only possibly salvage the situation by going balls out with the first choice squad actually looking like a celebrated football club who actually want to win this sadly devalued Cup.

[Nunkin1965]

Didn’t Port Vale have the entire Witton Lane and Lower North? 12,000 tickets in the days when home teams had to give up 25% of their capacity to away away fans?

They did, it's the game we won 5-0 in the pissing rain.

*6-0.

(Not sure why they couldn't be arsed to show the sixth).

I've only.just dried out from that game.
Sure it was £5 to get in aswell.

[Gareth]

Everything is Heck's fault according to most on here -  the 150th anniversary game has been chosen by a honorary board which includes Brian, Dennis and Ian Taylor, maybe next time you all see them tell them to f... off!!

Hopefully the ground will be packed and at the prices that have been quoted, I think it will be (I have brought a ticket)

I like a moan but some take it to a new level!!

There is no way on earth that the 150 group had anything to do with this decision….this is 100% a club decision made purely for financial purposes.  The 150 group are there for consultation on certain events and to use for publicity only.

Celebrations are supposed to be ‘warm and fuzzy’ events for fans not…
- a game that season ticket holders do not have included in season tickets
- a game where 6500 away fans will be out singing the home fans
- a game where several thousand season ticket holders won’t be in their own seats

It’s a cynical, grubby, tacky money grab with absolutely no sensible thought given and the responsibility for that lies with those execs in charge day to day and that is Heck and Hutton so I reserve the right to call them all the names under the sun…particularly as it’s by no means a one off.

[VillaTim]

I mean, Spurs had an anniversary strip for a league game against us in 2008

One of the matches which has made me most angry in the last 25 years.

Spurs 125th anniversary, was at the game , Monday night , we were 4-1 up taking the piss singing "happy birthday to you" .
Then MON bought Harewood on , 8 mins later 4-4 .
That was a long walk back to Seven Sisters

[The Edge]

Everything is Heck's fault according to most on here -  the 150th anniversary game has been chosen by a honorary board which includes Brian, Dennis and Ian Taylor, maybe next time you all see them tell them to f... off!!

Hopefully the ground will be packed and at the prices that have been quoted, I think it will be (I have brought a ticket)

I like a moan but some take it to a new level!!

I doubt very much that this decision is anything to do with Mortimer, Taylor or Little. Heck's the kind of hard nosed American businessman that would be used to telling them what game had been chosen rather than asking them. I imagine they will keep schtum because they enjoy being part of the Villa family. This is a cynical ploy by Heck to get bums on seats when it would otherwise be a half arsed affair judging by our recent exits from the domestic competitions. A freezing cold Friday night when a lot of people will be feeling the financial pinch right after Xmas is not the kind of match to be doing this. As others have said there will be 7,000 cockneys in the ground who will have spent all day on the lash and it will be more like a piss take than a celebration of 150 years for our club. A shocking decision with zero thought process. It's our 150th year the actual date is irrelevant. It would have been much better to have it on the last home game of the season against Spurs on a nice sunny day with a full house. But Heck already knows that will be a sell out so he gains nothing. The clubs history being treated as a commercial venture to put a few more quid in the coffers instead of an historical event for Aston Villa Football Club is a new low from Mr Heck and in my view and he needs to go. Pronto. We need someone with his commercial acumen but also a sense of history and knows what it means to those of us who have followed in the foot steps of our ancestors down to Villa Park to pay homage to our heroes for 150 years.

[Villan82]

The discussion of the Spurs 125 year anniversary game has me thinking the  half arsed way we have done 150 will be compounded in the next 15-20 years as we watch a succession of other clubs get it right.

[The Edge]

Everything is Heck's fault according to most on here -  the 150th anniversary game has been chosen by a honorary board which includes Brian, Dennis and Ian Taylor, maybe next time you all see them tell them to f... off!!

Hopefully the ground will be packed and at the prices that have been quoted, I think it will be (I have brought a ticket)

I like a moan but some take it to a new level!!

There is a board indeed but do you really think that people who are absolutely immersed in the club such as Mortimer, Taylor and Little were all happy with this? The whole thing feels like an afterthought once the ticket sales were apparent, backed up by the extension to the ST holders window.

An event like this should've been months in the planning, not announced on the back of a Cup Draw less than a month out from the game, and days after the date and time had been announced. In my mind the owners are just as culpable as Heck, and if it was backed by the three mentioned legends I would be very disappointed that they can't see why this looks so poor.

The obvious game would've been Celtic, something of a unique occasion, in the biggest competition we can compete in and with a lot potentially riding on it. That or a league game. But then they sell out don't they so no opportunity should be passed up in order to increase revenue, the price of everything, the value of nothing.

Spot on mate.