brommy

9 minutes ago, turvontour said:

I dont think the 6k, or however many fit in the lower holte, are suddenly going to sit down because of disabled rows at the back?

They won't need to sit down as the disabled row will be at the highest level of the four rows taken up.

5 minutes ago, Zatman said:

I am wondering how many buckets he will break in his 4 games

Well he is known as 'Big' Sam.

4 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Isn't the entirety of St. Andrews a urinal? Would explain why it's falling down- acidic bluenose wee-wee degrading the concrete. 

Just incase you think I was joking, there's a decent YouTube video (I found by searching 'Villa Park tour'), by a manyoo fan who tours stadiums, that compares tours of Villa Park and the sty. Even ignoring their closed crumbling stands, the state of the sty (including the urinal bike, doors off their hinges with the screws left on a physio table, home/away dressing rooms that looks Division 2/non-league standard) is hilarious to watch. 

2 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Was I imagining it when I recall that he tried to implement exercise bikes for subs warming up on the sidelines? I can't find any pictures but I seem to remember it. It was ages ago. 

I suppose that beats the exercise bike seen next to the home dressing room urinals at the Sty!

1 hour ago, Pinebro said:

Going from Bielsa to Allardyce in under a year is abolutely madness.

I'm really looking forward to leeeeds fans proclaiming Sam Allardyce is setting the new technical standard on how to play football.

1 hour ago, duke313 said:

With 4 games to go what's the point in changing manager now?  Just accept you're shit and might get relegated, go back to the championship and re-build.

One last throw of the dice. The owner will have felt they were in a nosedive and highly likely to be relegated but a change at the top just might increase their chances of survival. From what I've read, Gracia was on a short contract so relatively cheap to compensate and any large bonus due to a new manager helping them stay up, would be well worth it.

Despite their woeful April (impressively equalling Birmingham City Football Club's record of most goals conceded (23) in one month of top league football, held since 1961), leeeeds aren't in the bottom 3 and still only need to be not as crap over 4 games as 3 other clubs currently playing poorly.

They'll be relying on Sam Allardyce's big character to shock their team in to not losing all their remaining games. Even 4 points might be enough(?).

34 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

I would rather play a Leeds or Everton than the likes of Burnley and Sheffield United.

Probably an elitist opinion but growing up in the early 90's games against the traditional English clubs still have a nostalgic effect on me.

Bigger and more famous grounds too.

Sheffield Utd are a traditional club who have spent 9 more seasons (62) in the top flight than leeeeds have. Unless it's only about the Premier League era, but that rules out your 'traditional' description.

7 minutes ago, Folski said:

Right here with you, one of my buddies is a leeds fan and I'm as equally invested in them getting relegated as us getting europe.

I'm expecting neither but Villa's success will always trump others failure for me.

I might be the only VTer who is fully expecting to do the 'Roy Hodgson head drop in disappointment' when they survive again this season.

53 minutes ago, Villa87 said:

Win tomorrow would be absolutely momentous. 

I'm thinking the win against Newcastle - times ten. That might be behind my pessimism for the result. Is Emery really going to break Villa's 'not quite good enough' streak running for years??

2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

 

Looks like he's back with us recovering from his injury - a shame, but we'll have to rely on an Archer hat-trick in the playoff final against Coventry.

I wonder if that suggests a season ending injury? Hopefully only because there's less than a month left, rather than something more long term.

51 minutes ago, Oaks said:

Purslow has been talking about budgeting for 8th for 2/3 seasons now. Forget next season because we dont know how much the other clubs will improve either. We're miles behind clubs we should be ahead of. 

Who are we miles behind the clubs we should be ahead of?

It's a nice change for us Villa fans to be excited about the possibility. Although I am wary of thinking you're going to win the race despite knowing everyone else has just pitted and your tyres are over worn. 

1 hour ago, rodders0223 said:

If we can't get better deals than some of these mugs some people need to be replaced.

Some medium term context is needed before throwing staff under the bus.

Us Villa fans put much more weight on our historical success than sponsors who, for the past 3 seasons have only seen a newly promoted mid-sized team that are highly unlikely to show their products in a winning light.

If we continue our current playing success, the next step will hopefully see us significantly increase our sponsorship values. Still below the $ky6 and the artificially state inflated Saudi Utd but alongside or above the Premier League ever present Everton and Premier League winning Leicester.

36 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Surprised he can make a living out of it, the viewing figures aren't massive, lower than Villa On Tour for example. 

I doubt Pete was able to make a living purely on his current output but suspect Pete's now had an offer to change things up.

Purely guessing, but it could be something like he's been given a short term contract to promote Villa in North America on the lead up and during Villa's U.S. summer tour.

47 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

I totally agree. I just think the club is moving at a rate that commercialism and revenue take priority over giving a shit about the fans.

Like most businesses, they'll keep pushing until they find the limits of their client base. Unless we are regularly competing for league titles or at least in the CL, I think the latest price rise is the most they can expect to charge (barring minor inflation rises) and still fill the future expanded capacity for most of the league games.

It will be massively disappointing if this Villa Board are okay with future seasons seeing even higher prices at the expense of lower occupancy of a 50k Villa Park.

1 hour ago, pas5898 said:

Its crept up. Obviously 800/850 is not the same as it was 15/20 years ago. 

But the club have basically doubled the cost of many season tickets in the last few years and there is a point I just can't do it anymore. At the moment thats around 800/850.

Everyones circumstances are different, but that's where im at financially.

On the, perhaps realistic, assumption that Villa are not going to consistently compete in the CL, I like to think future (after this year) rises in ticket prices won't exceed inflation levels, with the vast majority of adult season tickets staying well below £1000 for a good while yet.

I'm assuming your 23/24 season ticket price is £779?With inflation expected to fall rapidly next year, your £850 limit might be okay for a few years and then any increases hopefully be met by an increase in your income over that time.

Without consistent CL level football, I think the Villa Board will get a big shock if they're expecting to shift 50,000 tickets every 2026/7 home game at £50 (£950) for season tickets holders and £60+ for general sale. They need to know the vast majority of Villa fans don't have the disposable income of the London club fans!

57 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

Them days are over my friend

I'm not going to mention a future season in the Championship, but even if we're mid-table or lower in the Premier League against someone like Fulham or Luton, I can see us being 10k short of a 50k or 52k sellout. You might be right, but I think the club should look at offers to get an expanded Villa Park fuller in the lower key games.

42 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Fair enough! I’ve seen a fair few non-regulars getting tickets easily for the Holte as well.  I still think the disparity between demand for big games on the weekend and non-fashionable is huge, just like the old days, it’s just our bottom end is still just about a full house with our top end probably double our capacity.

We're not alone in that. There's always been a huge disparity between desirability of games and the demand for tickets, across every club - right from  non-league only selling a few dozen in the league yet a couple of thousand unable to get tickets in the 3rd round of the FA cup, to large Premier League clubs who might technically sell out but have empty seats due to people not bothering to travel for a low key midweek match yet could have sold out twice over for more glamorous games.

The expansion of Villa Park to 50k or 52k will probably exaggerate this for us. If we're playing well against 'large' teams, we'll fill it comfortably. If we're struggling and/or playing smaller teams, we won't. 52,000 seats is a lot of tickets to sell so there's no shame in Villa not selling out every game. I'd like to see us do things like 'bring a mate for a tenner', 'kids for a fiver' or ticket donations to local schools, for the games with less demand.

16 hours ago, WHY said:

31,000 apparently on the waiting list but there are tickets available for tomorrow, something don’t add up!

From what's been said already the available tickets are in the away area having been very recently returned by Fulham. There will be fans who couldn't get a group of seats together a few days ago that haven't checked since the 'away' seats were returned. Yes, the ticket office could or should have been proactive in the last couple of days to nudge known fans without tickets but that's another and smaller matter.

Either way, with less away fans, Villa Park will still have approaching forty thousand Villa fans for a Tuesday evening game against one of the league's unfashionable teams. Indeed, if Fulham had sold their allocation, tonight would be a sellout.

Also, I wouldn't conflate a few seats available on a Tuesday evening against a team who didn't sell their own allocation, with a denial of the now 33k waiting list.

2 hours ago, pas5898 said:

I've always said £800/£850 is my limit so I have a season or 2 left realistically.

Been a season ticket holder for 20 years but the outlay is now starting to affect my kids, their activities and holidays. It's not fair on them.

Are you going to allow for annual inflation on the £800/£850?

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

I probably could have done, if I wasn't 7 or 8 whiskies in  

I'm half annoyed I just walked out without dealing with it, and half proud of myself for at least not making an arse of myself

(I think drunk me was joking about the likelihood of violence, not trying to play internet hard man - besides, the bloke was **** massive)

Ah yes, the addition of alcohol to both parties probably ruled out my option.

You definitely did the correct thing, given the circumstances.

18 hours ago, Davkaus said:

I'm the most privileged category of word removed imaginable. I'm a white, cis, able-bodied, neuro-typical male in the 21st century. But I've got a disabled daughter. And she's cool, it doesn't usually bother me. She's just Caitlin, not disabled Caitlin.

But tonight, I was at a whiskey tasting with a bunch of white, cis, able-bodied, neuro-typical males, and as it tapered down, one of the regulars started to tell a funny story about some "special needs" kids he knows, and while I'm too angry to recall the details, it was meant to be a funny, endearing story about how these kids are almost human, despite their limitations. I had the choice of laughing, crying, or breaking the word removed's nose on my knee, and on this occasion, I was able to blink back the tears and walk away, but **** hell, were my eyes opened tonight on the discrimination people face even from well-meaning people with their backhanded compliments

Could you have gone with a fourth option of explaining your situation and educating the bloke who might then never repeat his stupidity, or would he have been riled by you embarrassing him?

17 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

My only gripe of the Europa conference, look how it's affecting West Hams season.

I'm all for 5th 6th and 8th. 

You may have just guaranteed us 7th!