blunther

Another 15 years, several trophies, and he'll leave with a statue and a stand named after him

Saw this thread at the top and the Kourtney Hause thread directly below and feared the worst....

Chelsea would get Conference League if they win today. If Liverpool win it'll go to league position.

I was fuming we barely played him during that relegation season. Not that I think we'd have got many more points, but at least he might have provided some entertainment and/or comedy. Always wonder with players like this, if they'd had a couple of years playing under someone like Emery in their early twenties, could he have imparted the knowledge of the game to make him a proper player.

The only thing that upsets me about Emery (though I have the utmost respect for it) is he never comes to the Holte after a match to take the plaudits. I get why, and its a strength, but I just want him to know how loved he is.

Did well, especially that bit early on when he drove into their half. For a 6th choice (!) CB he's very good!

Yep, Chambers on by the looks of it.

Awoniyi in for them. Would be good for someone to rough him up a bit the first five minutes while refs are still reluctant to get a card out.

It's not really about 'want'. I'd love to spend more time there before and after the match, but my choices before the match are standing up in a packed concourse paying £6 for a pint of piss, or, well, that's about it. For warmer matches I've had a couple of cans in the park before I guess. After the match the choice is head straight out, or get thrown out of the stand and stand outside doing nothing. It's ridiculous how little effort the club make sometimes.

Some sort of road management is the only way forward if we're going to increase capacity. I'd love to see the walking to the ground figures for different clubs. I'd wager than Liverpool's walking figures are orders of magnitudes above ours. We might have some dense housing locally like Liverpool, but far fewer locals are Villa fans I'd guess. We also have a lot of industrial units around reducing density (not sure what it's like around Liverpool). Lets face it, if you lived within a 2 mile radius of the ground and are able-bodied, walking would be cheaper, quicker and easier. Edit: I see Rugeley Villan has already made a similar.point

Well, I did on Sunday and won £125!

Well, there's always next season chaps! (I know it's just rumours, but I'm used to any rumours about our injuries ending up to be true)

I'm not too downbeat. It's the first time we've played well against decent opposition since the start of December. We had plenty of chances to win it, and didn't take them. Man U took theirs. Not too salty over that, I expected worse.

Absolute shite. Can't believe we charge £63 for this.

Some bellend must have done that to mine too as they're now available again (for £63! Shocking price.)

just seems daft waiting for that last single seat in A2 to sell when there's probably hundreds of people looking for Holte End tickets.

And my response: I understand the system of only selling resale seats once we're at 'sold out', but I wonder if the definition of 'sold out' could be loosened a little, for the good of both ST holders wanting to sell a seat, the club's finances and fans who are looking to attend. When we're down to the final 50 seats in the original batch, it's inevitable that lots of them will be single seats. I'd imagine that many fans will have logged on over the weekend and yesterday, seen only a very limited selection of seats, often singles, and in a place they might not want to sit, then thought 'well, I'll have to miss this game'. These fans may well not think to come back and look when there's only a few hours before kickoff on the same day - making plans to attend a match might need a few days notice to get friends involved, arrange childcare, sort things out with work or what have you. It seems to me the club would be better off selling the resale seats even if we get, say, below 100 of the normal seats. I understand the club is making less money per seat as they're having to the refund ST holders to an extent, but it's still a healthy profit margin. My seat has sold now (thank you!) for £63, of which I am refunded about £30. Fine, that's what we signed up for, and it's still good money for the club. Releasing seats earlier, we might sell 500 more resale seats, at the expense of not selling the 100 non-resale seats. This generates more revenue for the club, helps out ST holders when they can't attend and gives a better fan experience for those attending who get far more choice over where to sit, as well as side-revenue from drinks, food, merch etc that the club hopefully gets a cut of (unless Dr Tony sold all that off!). Fulham was obviously a different situation with them not taking the full allocation, but again I wonder how many fans had a look that would have bought tickets in a more desirable location but didn't fancy paying full price to sit above the away fans in a dated stand with terrible facilities. Is this something that could be suggested to the commercial manager or whoever is responsible? Waiting for that very last seat to sell in A2 could cost hundreds of potential ticket sales in other areas.

Reply from the club: I hope this email finds you well. I am reaching out in response to your recent correspondence (complaint reference 24 Jan-Mar 048). While it is regrettable that your experience led you to file a complaint, I am sincerely grateful for the time and effort you invested in expressing your thoughts via email. Although I had hoped to connect with you over the phone, it seems your mobile has gone to voicemail from which I have left you a message, prompting me to provide a swift written response. Concerning the resale seats for the Newcastle game not being available at the time of your initial email, I am pleased to inform you that the game reached a sell-out late last night; As a result, resale seats have been activated for tonight's match. I understand the frustration you may have experienced until this point and commend your commitment to using the proper channels for season ticket resale. It is important to persist in utilizing the club's designated resale platform, ensuring accountability for both sellers and buyers. In adherence to the Season Ticket Match Re-sale Terms and Conditions, the resale scheme operates once all available tickets for the match have been sold. Our priority remains the sale of general admission seats over resale seats, as the latter are partially reimbursed to season ticket holders. Regrettably, for the Newcastle game, general admission seats were not entirely sold out until later yesterday. This season, we only encountered one instance where a game did not feature active resale seats, attributed to Fulham not taking their full away allocation, resulting in several vacant seats in the upper Doug Ellis. Various factors influence whether a game reaches a sell-out. With Newcastle in particular, it has been unclear whether we would reach this point. As well as it being a midweek game, which limits the number of families that have the desire to attend, other factors include a less desirable kick-off time, television coverage, and a surge in sales observed in the last few days is possibly tied to supporters waiting until payday to make their purchases.

Stupid kick off time, no trains.

Yep, they've finally put them up. Less than 12 hours before kick off. Ridiculous

The stupid thing is my £30 would have gone straight back to the club for an FA Cup ticket, but bollocks they can have an empty seat for that too.

I get the club wants to sell full price tickets and not give any back, but how many hundreds have logged on, seen no good seats, only overpriced A2, and thought **** it. Surely better selling 500 seats where you 'only' get £30, than try and sell the last 20 for £60. Ridiculous, and makes a ST even harder to justify as prices rise. Maybe that's the idea.

I got a reply just directing me to make a complain to So I did: fancomplaints@avfc.co.uk Hello, I've been directed to this email address to express my concerns about how the ticket resales are handled. I've just looked if my ticket has been resold for tomorrow, but resales haven't even been turned on. I'm told this is because there are a 'large number of tickets available in A2'. This large number is currently 22 tickets, many of which are single tickets. Obviously there will be many more people who would happily buy a ticket in a place they usually want to sit, such as the Holte End. I've tried to resell two tickets, which are prime spots in the back centre of the Lower Holte which I'm sure would be snapped up in seconds, yet the club refuses to resell these, presumably because they'd need to give us 80% of our ticket fee. This is still a huge loss to the club - I'd get about £30 back for a ticket which would sell for what, £55, plus any food/beverage sales. This is rubbish for fans that are wanting to buy a ticket, it's rubbish for loyal ST holders who are trying to resell, and it's rubbish for the club which is apparently trying to maximise revenue. And all this because of the tickets in A2 which were only put on sale recently as unwanted Lower Grounds tickets I assume. Yet another example of how ST holders are going to be treated in the future I guess. When we were getting 29,000 under Lambert and in the Championship we were wanted, but now we might be able to attract daytrippers we're no longer seen as desirable I guess. Even so, refusing to resell our tickets is still the club cutting off its nose to spite its face - it makes no sense.

Now 22 seats in A2, many of which are singles. Yet they still won't release ticket returns.