brommy

Following the 'now available' notification from Villa, I've tried to get away sections tickets and for some reason, there's very, very few even single seats available. The even fewer with two seats together said 'sorry no longer available' when I selected them. Very frustrating! Anyone got a clue how get two seats together?

29 minutes ago, ender4 said:

MmmBop!

Off to PSG unfortunately.

7 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

dont wanna be a grump grandpa, but the blue balls from this loooooong tease, will almost make the final announcement an anti-climax.

There's enough time between to go twice.

6 minutes ago, cheltenham_villa said:

Are you sure you have this right? Traditionally the club have given back 1/19th of the ST per game that you resell. This typically works out at 80% of the match day price. So you get back what you have paid. 

I'm not seeing any change to the scheme, other than they want you to transfer your ST seat to a friends fan ID rather than just giving them your card. 

They've asked people to do this for years for health and safety reasons. 

I've never resold through the club. Tried once a few years ago but it didn't sell so I got nothing. I think you get 80% of your pro-rata season ticket value, not 80% of the match day price as that would typically be a profit on the season ticket value!

5 hours ago, Rich192 said:

The system is absolutely fine. You can give it for free to friends or family, or get the bulk of your money back if you sell it back to the club and they sell it on. Why not 100%? Because fans could then buy a season ticket, with no intention of going to all of the games and not lose out. I sold my ticket for about eight games last season, mostly because I’d just had my kid, so I’ve used it a lot, and it’s absolutely fair and appropriate. 
 

Moan about price increase, or the Terrace View, sure, but not this. 

Do the club permit transfer to others on a game by game basis? I thought the reason this is currently being discussed is because the club have very recently emphasised that they don't.

As for the club reselling a seat for 60% more than they give a fan that had financially committed the thick end of a thousand pounds before a ball is kicked, I think fair would be for the club to make a 35% profit whilst the ST holder gets their pro-rata refund (say £40 with the club reselling for the match day rate of £54). It would be easy to allow say 3 games at 100% pro-rata refund to account for untypical circumstance such as illness, before triggering an 80% rate to avoid the concern you raised.

1 hour ago, punkymonkey666 said:

It was referred to as GA+ on the survey, that to me suggests a premium over a standard ticket.

I've seen 'GA+' a few times now but have no idea what it means. GA used to mean goals against but what is 'GA+'?

1 minute ago, MaVilla said:

is that a small plane, or a gigantic person tho!?!?

...and how far away is it?

8 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

I read that in the voice of a plane captain over the speakers on a flight.

Or even A.P.!

10 minutes ago, pintpotvilla said:

It was a standard approach to Runway 15 at BHX No detour involved

It's great that BHX have their standard approach to include low level views of Villa Park and Bodymoor Heath training ground. It can only help our appeal.

Imagine Torres' delight when he realises Unai Emery is our manager too!

4 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

Club don't give a **** about fans.

I wouldn't go that far. They desire our money and Premier League football is partly dependent upon us creating a hyped atmosphere to make the product appear more desirable worldwide.

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

Yeah i dont get why we have to know his flight details what time he coming to brum etc. Its abit wierd 

He will be annouced when all parties are ready

You'll be delighted to read his flight has gone past BHX and just flown at 5000 feet above the training ground at Bodymoor Heath and then 2000 feet between Pipe Hayes and Villa Park. I'm assuming that wasn't a coincidence and was to give Torres a great view of his new work places.

34 minutes ago, S-Platt said:

t's a pisstake if you have to give it back to the club and only get 80% of the value.

Especially annoying that the club give you 80% of 1/19th of your season ticket price but only if they've resold the same ticket for the 'match day' rate.

As an example for a 19 game season ticket cost of £760 which is £40 per game, the club sell it for the match day price of around £54 but then only give the season ticket holder £32.

Whilst the club need to cover the small administrative cost, surely they can give an ST holder who can't make an occasional game, the lower of 80% of the resold price or 100% of 1/19th of the ST cost! In my example, the season ticket holder would get £40 (exactly the pro-rata value) and the club still makes another £14.

1 hour ago, pintpotvilla said:

Pau's flight due into BHX at 12.15pm today. Calm down everyone!!

There's no flight scheduled to arrive at BHX at 12:15pm today so is it a private flight?

37 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

There club have announced STs have sold out 

After less than one thousand of the thirty thousand were not renewed, it's hardly newsworthy that the newly available STs were all sold.

The publicising could be seen as sharing a good news story but I strongly suspect it's main purpose is to emphasise the demand is still high and therefore the hike in prices was justified. Just no more, please Villa!

9 minutes ago, villaglint said:

How many seats are we losing by having no North stand for 2yrs and how many season ticket holders are there currently? 
 

Assuming the North stand season tickets will be relocated in rest of stadium for 2yrs and it’ll basically be impossible for anyone else to go. 

I really hope the board don't use this as a chance to hike the prices again, knowing that they'll still sell out.

1 hour ago, VillaChris said:

Interesting. So potentially North Stand could still be in use up to the December of 24-25 unless there's an issue with access points?

Would be annoying to not be able to get a ticket and just see it empty on the TV for six months.

I'm assuming that digging the ground away at the back of the current stand (it's weirdly higher than the pitch level so removing it will give a lot more space to the concourse area of the new stand) and the associated disconnection of the electrical power of water/drainage services, would prevent the use of the North Stand even before it's demolished.

16 minutes ago, ender4 said:

So if the start date is July 2024 and it's going to take 7 months of preparation, does that mean that the 7 months of prep starts Jan 2024?  Or does the prep start in July 2024 and the actual stand rebuild start in Jan 2025?

As there is extensive ground work including power, water and drainage outages, I think the later date of ground work starting in July 24,  a fairly quick demolishion in early 25 and then construction from Spring 25 through to early summer 26.

18 minutes ago, maqroll said:

It's possible Heck has drawn the brakes on this because he thinks an entirely new stadium is the way forward.

Building the new North Stand and redeveloping the existing academy building will still cost most of the anticipated £100m budget (factoring not building Villa Live but also the large increase in construction costs and the academy redevelopment). I'm not sure why Heck would agree to announce the project commencement date of 1st July 2024 if he didn't intend for the expansion to proceed. Also, surely he wouldn't agree to spend circa £100m replacing one stand and extensively updating the hospitality in another, if he thought we should soon build another stadium.

2 hours ago, villa82 said:

I don't understand that we will be able to reach a capacity of 60,000. On average, we must then have 15,000 in each stand.

Holte End takes 13,500. Could perhaps be expanded to 15,000 by building out the corner towards TR.

Trinity has probably reached max level with almost 14,000 after the redevelopment.

The new North Stand will have 13,500. The new end stand at Liverpool will hold 15,800. We should do the same, our pitch is even bigger than Anfield.

A possible new Witton Lane stand must then take at least 17,500 for us to reach 60,000, and that is the side we have the least space to build on. Nor do I want a grandstand that is much larger than the other three. 

60k is currently unlikely to happen, in my opinion. If it were to happen at the current site and assuming the new North Stand will remain the same 13074 capacity, I think it would require several very significant things to happen.

Demolishion of the houses on the west sides of McGregor Close and Holte Road. Diversion of Witton Lane to the position where the houses have been demolished or actually along McGregor Close and Holte Road.

Building a new stand to occupy the space currently taken by Witton Lane and the small park alongside it.

Diverting Trinity Road approximately 15m towards,(through) the playground and tree area at bottom of the slope leading up to Aston Hall.

Extending the currently much 'clipped' sides of both Trinity Road and Holte End stands so they properly meet where the Trinity Road currently is.

Final capacities, totalling 60074

North 13074 (unchanged)

Totally new Witton 16000

Expanded Trinity 16000 (up 2235)

Expanded Holte 15000 (up 1439).

It's physically possible without increasing the approved capacity for the new North and without an imbalanced look to the size of the stands, but there's too many reasons (primarily housing residents and the protection of Aston Hall ground and trees) and expense why a 60k Villa Park is unlikely.

5 hours ago, villarule123 said:

Doubtful, and I doubt anyone will give it up next year unless they absolutely have to financially.

At least the ticket office will have a nice easy two years before shit gets real. 

There will always be reasons for STs not being renewed - death, ill health, finance, change of family circumstances and moving away from the area, among many.

It wouldn't surprise me if around one thousand of the thirty thousand sold are given up, year after year. Indeed it was unofficially 'leaked' this summer, probably to help justify the high price increases, that 'under' one thousand hadn't renewed. That doesn't rule out it being very close to one thousand though.

With that in mind, the club could reduce the available season tickets by that number, especially as they'll need to reseat a few thousand North Stand STs.

4 minutes ago, villarule123 said:

I'd imagine that for 2 years there will be a minimal amount of non ST tickets available for each game. We will have around 2000 available compared to the 8500 now if my maths is correct. 

I agree, unless they reduce the amount of season ticket holders by not offering those who don't renew next May.

3 minutes ago, NeilS said:

Thank you. I wasn't too far out with my estimates in the end. Just out of interest, do you know how many of those capacity figures would be hospitality boxes etc? The reason I ask, is that hospitality packages are not for your every day fans budget. Which will reduce the availability of normal tickets for the average fan further.

From a photo of the North Stand, it appears that there are two levels, each with 20 boxes. As each box tends to seat around 8 people, I'm assuming the hospitality of the current stand is approximately 2 x 20 x 8 = 320.

8 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

How many sth in the north stand? Could be barely any tickets left for members and I would imagine virtually none would reach general sale.

6537 currently sit in the North Stand (it still seems an incredible coincidence that the new stand will exactly double the capacity of the current stand 6537 + 6537 = 13074). So for two seasons, capacity will be reduced from 42657 to 36120, although after segregation it'll probably be around 35500.

Before anyone thinks adding 6537 to our current 42657 doesn't give us a 50k capacity, a further 871 is being added to the Trinity Road and D.E. stands, presumably in the lower tier corners that wraparound to the new North Stand.

23 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

I wonder how much it would cost to buy up the houses behind the Witton Lane to rebuild that stand properly?

A quick look at Google maps and it seems there are approximately 30 houses and flats on the west side of Holte Road that would be severely affected and another 20 further along but backing on to the Holte End and Holte End car park that could argue they were affected (blocking natural light etc.).

Zoopla has the average selling price in the past 12 months as £145k. Supposing that was rounded to £150k with a further £100k to cover expenses and good will. 50 houses at £250k each is £12.5m. Not an insurmountable cost, but if just one resident campaigned against, it wouldn't be a good look for the club.

33 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

The Holte End and the new Trinity each went up in about 6 months. May-December 1994/2000. Have things changed that much in construction that this stand will take 2 years? 

I don't think the projects are comparable.

I expect the facilities in the new Stand will be more extensive, especially compared to the Holte End. Also, many people complain that the Trinity Road stand looks like it was thrown together in a hurry, so perhaps the new stand should take more time. Plus, there was no change in ground level, which there significantly is for the new North.