Fans Consultancy Group Meeting

[ferguson1]

10 hours ago, mikeyp102 said:

Bit harsh on @OutByEaster?, every question put here couldn’t possibly be asked, but he gives up his freetime to go to these events and I’m sure he tries to get relevant questions into the agenda. You have to remember there are many other fan groups attending as well. 

As for the club’s responses, well yes they could be better 

I haven’t mentioned or blamed any individual on here, so how is my response harsh? I have even private messaged said individual to say how disappointed I am.  It’s a fact that most questions in this thread are never asked or answered. 

[KenjiOgiwara]

18 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

So they have already designed next year's kit without listening to any feedback from  the fans for this year?  Seems a bit strange.

Doesn't seem strange at all and it wouldn't surprise me. That's what you do if you have a crap product that sells either way. There's very little incentive for the club to try and listen to the fans on this. Our opinion just don't matter to them. 

[Shomin Geki]

I must admit, particularly as more of a lurker than a poster, I've ummed and ahhed over whether to post in this thread.  I'm very much London based and only ever really see Villa play away, so more intimate operational club knowledge isn't exactly something I feel that close to.  However, I feel it would be remiss of me not to mention what feels like the elephant in this particular room.  I hope I'm not misunderstanding the remit of the consultancy meeting and commenting out of turn.

But... the stadium sale right?  I'm not the only one, right?  Fans have seemingly been misled regarding its sale, a rare black mark against the new regime.  I certainly remember a few Villa Talk feathers being ruffled (to say the least) when the possibility of a Villa Park sale was mooted.  Villa fans have every right to be vigilant and to feel protective over our club.  So, with the news that Sheffield Wednesday, I believe, are being investigated over their stadium deal (admittedly on grounds perhaps different from ours) isn't it reasonable to expect a little more detail on this?  I fear it's the little things getting overlooked that can embolden, over time, a reckless or arrogant streak in owners.

But anyway, much gratitude for the recap from OBE.

[Elton]

I really don’t see the problem, owners own the club, which includes stadium. Or owners own subsidiary company that owns stadium. They have done this to help us as a paper exercise. It’s not like they’ve sold the ground to an entirely separate entity. 

[tomav84]

presumably not giving any further detail on this for fear of drawing attention to it following what's happening with sheff wed.

personally, stadium sales bother me not if it's the right thing for the club. if it puts us on a better financial footing then i'm happy with it. if they renamed it NWSE Park i wouldnt care either, because  to us it would always be villa park, irrespective of what it was officially called.

[The Fun Factory]

On 18/11/2019 at 06:39, KenjiOgiwara said:

Doesn't seem strange at all and it wouldn't surprise me. That's what you do if you have a crap product that sells either way. There's very little incentive for the club to try and listen to the fans on this. Our opinion just don't matter to them. 

I presume you don't have a career in public relations then?

[hippo]

On 18/11/2019 at 12:48, Elton said:

I really don’t see the problem, owners own the club, which includes stadium. Or owners own subsidiary company that owns stadium. They have done this to help us as a paper exercise. It’s not like they’ve sold the ground to an entirely separate entity. 

It's not a problem right now. And I think the owners have done it with the best of intentions.

The problem comes should the current owners ever decide to sell Aston Villa. Some chancer comes along - can't afford to buy avfc - and the stadium. So strikes a deal just for the club - the stadium is sold to some unknown entity who in due course start to demand unreasonable rents from the club - who have no option but to pay.

Sounds far fetched - but look how close xia came to busting us ? ....things can quite easily go wrong.

 

[limpid]

Can we take this back to discussing the FCG and not the owners' financing of the club.

[wilko154]

Next meeting could we mention the pricing structure for the Carabao Cup fixture against Liverpool. In my opinion the club have got it completely wrong and we are likely to see a lot of empty seats for a game that should see a packed out Villa Park.

a) The pricing doesn't match the away fans £20 per ticket

b) It is overpriced for what will likely be a second string match

c) If we had drawn a Colchester, Oxford or even Everton the ticket price would likely have been £15-£20

d) During December we have 8 games. For me 4 of these are away games and now one is a cup game that I have to pay extra for; I know it's my choice to go to these games but do we not think about the fans anymore?

[OutByEaster?]

Apologies, I've not had a great deal of time of late and this thread could do with a bit of attention. I've gone through the last few pages and will have a go at answering where things have been mentioned but perhaps not reported back, or where some of the answers weren't clear. I'll also make a note of those things that I didn't manage to get onto an agenda and what I'll try to do about them.

 

Demitri_C on 21st June

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My question never got asked about a hibs friendly =(

Dem, there was some chat at about friendlies at the time and the way in which the club structures them - there's always a lot of attention paid to how they're structured as one of the chaps on the supporters group arranges travel packages. I don't think a Hibs one was ever on the cards, there's a little bit of a fan friendship, but I don't think it fit for either club in the summer.

 

Villan-Scott on 29th October

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On the half time pie debate. I was being served in the Upper Trinity, I forget which game this season. The guy serving in the counter was getting some stick. He was looking for support from his senior, which wasn’t forthcoming. He seemed new, like day 1 new. He was asking if there were runners, to fetch the orders etc. While he continued serving. There wasn’t. Not sure if that could be an option to get things moving quicker?

Catering gets talked about at just about every meeting. it's also something i understand a little about through my own job - kiosks are difficult and the club knows it - they're working on things like the right use of runners, going cashless, changing menus and training people to try to improve it - there have been some changes - but it's always trial and error. For the club in the long term, I think it's about trying to get people to eat and drink from more places and for longer periods of time - and in doing so reducing the mad half hours before games. In terms of how the FCG feeds back on that, I'm happy to gatherer feedback on specifics like this and feed them in to the right person at the club on a monthly basis - I don't know if that'll get you answers, but it might be useful to them in identifying small things. 

 

MikeyP102 on 29th October

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Can you ask about sport in the local community. Numerous times when heading to the ground (fields at the back of Aston Manor), I see groups of kids (mainly of the Asian community)being coached football. Once finished they head home. As this happens so close to KO I’ve often wondered why the club don’t go out and give the teams season tickets. It will help bring the local community in and also bring through a new generation of supporters, hopefully avoiding them supporting Liverpool/City etc 

There's a couple of things on this I guess - firstly, the club does lots of work within the local community which they don't really shout about - the club runs leagues for local schools  which I know used to be played in the Academy building - they've also run programmes there for local disabled groups and other people who might find it difficult to get involved in football through regular means - I know in the past that there have been tickets allocated to local schools too.

I know that the closure of the Academy has made that more difficult, but the club have worked on that - the link below shows a bit of that but also gives an idea of some of the activities that the club is involved in:

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2019/07/19/academy-building-closure

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The Academy Building will be out of action from 22nd July as the facility undergoes improvement works. 

Making the local area (and Birmingham as a whole) somewhere that kids grow up supporting Villa is a big push for the club, and working within Aston is the priority of the foundation - the club aren't great at publicising that work in my opinion, but there's a bit more on the Foundation here: https://www.avfc.co.uk/foundation/about It's a charitable organisation and I know they're always interested in ways that people can help - if you want to get involved I know they'd be happy to hear from anyone that can help.

Tickets have become more difficult since they became so scarce and I don't know what the club currently does, but I'd be surprised if there isn't something in place for local schools - I'll try and find out.

 

[OutByEaster?]

Chappy on 30th October

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Difficult one because I understand why the criteria is set up as it is but away tickets - the ballot is a great idea given sales never seem to even reach season ticket holders any more, could more be available in each ballot?

There's a separate group that look at Away ticketing issues which I don't believe that VT is currently represented on. In terms of helping to communicate issues on away ticketing they've agreed to share minutes of those meetings with us and to open up a communication so that you can raise question here which can be fed in. There's been a lot of debate around allocation of tickets and it's a delicate balance between rewarding loyalty without becoming a closed shop - I'm with you on the idea of having more tickets balloted, but there are people who have travelled the length and breadth of the country for years who wouldn't want to lose out on that basis.

 

Unused Sub on 4th November

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Can we get a bit of clarity on the U23 homes games please. Why are we scheduled to use the training ground as a home venue, especially when supporters have previously been turned away at Bodymoor. While I understand there are rumours that Walsall aren’t too keen to host them anymore, surely there are plenty of non-league grounds that would. Can we get a statement from the club on this; is it a temporary thing, is it to be a long-term thing, are they actively engaging other clubs for venues etc.

This one is down to the redevelopment at Bodymoor - that's now completed and I believe that the club will use the purpose built facility at Bodymoor for the first time for our upcoming fixture against Portsmouth in the PL Cup on Friday. At the meeting, the club said that there will be the opportunity for fans to attend these games but that fans will need to "apply" for tickets - I'm not clear on what that application process is, but I want to go on Friday so i'll be trying to find out. The club wanted to play the Newcastle game at Bodymoor but the facility wasn't quite finished - I'm not sure what the new facility looks like but it would appear that there is a spectator area and I'm very interested - more and more big clubs have added pitches with small spectator areas at their training ground for these types of games and in a way, it's a sign of our progress - although I love being at VP, it costs a fortune to open it for 250 people and I think it will become a rarity in future.

 

Unused Sub on 4th November

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With this in mind, can we make sure we get decent match reports for the upcoming premier league cup games, as this competition gets very little coverage elsewhere on the net.

Also, its been mentioned before but, the website still hasn’t updated the player profiles. Us nerdy types do like to know background info like DoBs, previous clubs etc.

 

I'm going to group these both under "website" - the club have spoken at a number of meetings about its digital output and I know that doing that is something of a personal quest for Paul Tyrrell. Their focus though is very much on video and on output attached to games, interviews and the type of features that go onto the youtube channel. I still believe that the club website should also be a valuable reference for information on the club and this element is particularly well maintained - very often, it's not that the content doesn't exist - it's that the club website is a place where information about Aston Villa is hidden.

For example, to find the links for the foundation in the previous post, I didn't work my way through the menus on the club site, I googled. For me, the main website can be confusing to navigate and very often has lots of the same information up front and some really good stuff hidden away. 

The website has been raised at meetings a couple of times, but I think the focus has been perhaps too much on the video output - it's something I will hope to take back to the group.

 

 

[OutByEaster?]

Sidcow and Chappy on the 4th & 5th November

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The new towel dispensers in the lower Holte toilets are terrible. Have to push the lever in about 20 times to get a single towel out. By that point your hands practically drip dried 

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Also the ‘poster’ adverts above the urinals seem to be from last season or the season before - old players in them etc. Also Lower Holte toilets.

This is probably not the right question for the next meeting, but I will make sure it's fed back - can you please let me know if the issues are still the same - three weeks can be a long time in toilet.

 

ferguson1 on 4th November

 

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On another note, following the well publicised upgrades around the ground during the summer, could the club confirm what the next phase of upgrades/improvements are going to be?  

Our next meeting is with Mr Purslow and the subject of ground improvements will most definitely be on the agenda - in terms of the stuff that was done in the summer, I really liked it and the general feedback I've seen is all good - for a relatively low outlay I think we've done a good job on tidying the ground and adding something at the same time. What we want to know now is the longer term plan - what will happen behind the North Stand and how will we get more seats in? 

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Finally, and apologies if this has already been addressed previously, but do the club have any plans to change the club badge, rename stands or rename Villa Park itself? 

There have been conversations on this but there are absolutely no plans to rename the stadium or the badge in the short term. For the stadium, I don't think it's something the club would want to even consider.

 

Hippo, Wilko154, rodders0223 on the 5th November plus blunther and sidcow on 7th November

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Can the villa rewards move in some way to a simpler format ....ie the rewards points give you money off at the club shop - Im a 56 year old bloke - I have no interest in a half time shout out - or my name in the programme - back to basics please. 

This is one where the group may have been too nice - the notes from the meeting seem to reflect that the club have perhaps misunderstood - we'd raised the wallpapers specifically as a demonstration of the poor offering of rewards within the scheme - and the notes from the meeting seem to have added them as an "and we've got those wallpapers you like".

There's certainly a groundswell of opinion that says that the Pride Rewards scheme is currently completely let down by the quality of the rewards - I'd love to see some numbers on how many of the points are used, or on how many people log in and then don't use the points. From a personal perspective, I've never seen an item I wanted. It's be great if the scheme was linked more directly to the club - to financial benefit at the club shop, or kiosks, or programmes - or just about anything other than stuff that didn't sell online or anything that can be added without generating a cost.

I'd happily swap the 5,000 points I'd gathered for a free programme voucher - at least I'd feel that I'd got something for them. As it stands, my personal opinion is that the scheme adds nothing for me as a fan.

We'll be revisiting this one at future meetings.

 

 

[OutByEaster?]

wilko154 on 5th November

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Beer buggies in the Upper Holte would be nice 

I work in a business that uses beer buggies and when you get them right they're both a goldmine and a really useful way to get your customers what they want. They're not easy though, they're exposed and they need to be used in the right areas and manned with the right people. I think the club have used them more often this season - I've personally seen one in the Lower Ellis and one in the Upper Trinity. I feel this answer doesn't help you at all but that I've talked about the subject - this must be what being Boris Johnson is like. Sorry.

 

wilko154 on 5th November

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PA System - no noticeable improvements, has it been changed over the summer?

The new PA is installed everywhere except the DE stand - the delay there is in ensuring that the roof can take it - they're adding 4 tonnes of stuff to the Ellis Roof in order to improve it - whereabouts are you in the ground where you can't hear those improvements? I think in the Upper Trinity it's noticeably better.

 

wilko154 on 5th November

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Team Lineups on the outside screen and on the screens in the Holte Pub and Holte Suite?

Please pardon my ignorance, but I thought those were already there - I'm sure I remember seeing team lineups on the big screens in the car parks, and in the Holte suite - if that's not the case, could you come back to me please.

 

wilko154 on 5th November

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Is there any update on the mobile signal issue with all networks other than Vodafone? I'm not after Wifi like signal strength, just enough to check the lineup and halftime scores.

The notes have the information on the 4G install which will hopefully help a great deal. I'm not on vodaphone, but it looks like the rest of us will be getting a service more akin to the service that vodaphone users currently get at VP - if there's anyone here that currently knows what that's like - I'm all ears!

 

wilko154 on 5th November

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Can we have no music after a win? The atmosphere from the crowd is much better with Allez Allez being belted out; stick the music on a few minutes later.

Music comes up form time to time and it seems everyone has a different favourite or opinion - personally I like the music after a win, I love belting out Sweet Caroline and I think it'll be there for a little while at least. If there are a lot of people that feel the same way about the music, again - let us know.

 

[OutByEaster?]

blunther and tom_avfc and Her on 7th November and nick76 on 17th November

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Transport - Not much the club can do about this maybe, but I live about six miles away and now need to leave at half twelve to get a parking spot, and I'm lucky if I make it home by half six. That's getting ridiculous. I live on the train line and would like to get the train, but the waiting time to get on is also ridiculous. I'd walk but it's taking your life into your hands now it's dark at night. Help us out lads. Some more car parks a bit further out going straight onto main roads, or bribe WM Railway to chuck an extra six-coacher or two on half hour after the final whistle.

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Transport is the main issue for me too. Whenever I get the train to Villa Park it always results in walking back to the City centre after the match as the queues for the train are ridiculous. It shouldn't be that difficult to put on enough trains to get people back to Birmingham after the game and we should be making it easier for people to get public transport to and from the ground to cut down on the number of people driving.

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Car Parks need attention.  I come in via Brookvale Road.   When we were last in the Prem, as well as the big main official car park, there was one opposite known as "Beau Crest" also the place on the left a little further down (just before the station entrance) used to operate as a car park on matchdays, then there was the School on the road to the left (past the Villa Chippy).   None of these latter three operate any more and therefore the big main car park is so busy - after the Liverpool game, it took me 40 minutes to even get off the car park, never mind then queue in the traffic along Brookvale Road.    The folks that man the main car park did mention that at one time there was talk of opening exit gates at the rear (leading on to Electric Avenue I think) - at least that would take some of the queue away to get out into Brookvale Road.   It is so bad now that I may have to look for somewhere else to park which is a shame as the people that man the big main car park are all nice and friendly but the time to get out is just getting ridiculous now .

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Transport:  We used to have Police directing traffic on the main roads years ago when we had big crowds.  It meant getting away from the ground easier for everybody.  The traffic lights arent suited during this period and cars block each other off.  We just need a few police at those key points of traffic congestion and getting away would be easier for everybody.

This is becoming a big issue both for fans and the club - and it's one the club are taking very seriously. There are lots of very different parts to it, but I'll pass on what I know.

The club have met with representatives of the train companies about trying to get additional trains added before and after games - the train companies want to work with the club (and they're represented by Villa fans which is always helpful) but the practicalities of it are immensely complicated - timetabling and the single line through Aston and Witton means that to put on an extra train means moving trains around elsewhere on the local network to make the spaces in the timetables - it might mean a train elsewhere not stopping at Adderley Park or Wylde Green or the like in order to make up the time lost while the Villa extra goes through - it'd be disruptive to the city in many ways. They're still looking at ways to make a difference, but there's not a solution at this point.

In terms of the traffic issues getting away, police traffic management would be excellent, it'd be down to the local authority, who are unfortunately largely skint and would need a concerted noise by supporters but it'd be lovely to have. I don't think it's in the remit of the club and hasn't been asked at a meeting - I'll look to get it onto one.

I'll also try to get the car park situation back onto an agenda - Hev, that one is simply my bad, I didn't push it enough. Sorry.

One other one, and again this hasn't come from the club, is the local situation regarding on street parking - where people are often double parked or parked around junctions and create hold ups for the rest of us. It drives me potty - park in the city centre like that and you'd have a ticket within twenty minutes.

Underlying this is our future - it's bad right now because we're selling out each week. I'd like us to do more than that, I'd like us to expand the stadium, I'd like more people not less - the area is changing, we're losing a University (closed on match days) and gaining several hundred houses - if anything it will become more difficult in future and our ability to grow will to a large extent be limited by it.

This one will stay on agendas.

 

 

[Sid4ever]

@OutByEaster? one for the future, but given that Virgin Trains lose the franchise on the 8th December, has the club spoken to the new owners of the West Coast Mainline about the discount for season ticket holders?

[OutByEaster?]

Shomin Geki on 18th November

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So, with the news that Sheffield Wednesday, I believe, are being investigated over their stadium deal (admittedly on grounds perhaps different from ours) isn't it reasonable to expect a little more detail on this?

 I'll look to get this asked at the next meeting with Mr Purslow.

 

wilko154 on 20th November

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Next meeting could we mention the pricing structure for the Carabao Cup fixture against Liverpool. In my opinion the club have got it completely wrong and we are likely to see a lot of empty seats for a game that should see a packed out Villa Park.

I've a confession on this one - the club ran the price ranges by us at the last meeting and whilst there was opinion in there room that it was expensive, it perhaps wasn't seen as quite so extreme as has been the case. I personally thought (and said) that I thought the game would sell out at the prices suggested - which makes me a bit stupid. I think that the later announcement of the prices for Liverpool fans served to heighten the feeling that we were being overcharged for this one and I'm certainly aware that there's a lot of unhappiness out there.

The club will be too - if you look at the next five home games, which are all on sale now - Newcastle and Leicester have sold out, there are about 3,500 left for Norwich and for Southampton and there are a whopping 16,000 seats left for the Liverpool game - which is even worse than it sounds given the additional away allocation. 

There's still a little time for those tickets to potentially sell - once the other two league games sell out, they might be the only Villa stocking filler available - but I think the club will be very aware that the pricing was wrong on this one, simply based on sales. 

The two league cup games have each been troublesome and I'm sure will be discussed further.

 

[OutByEaster?]

3 minutes ago, Sid4ever said:

@OutByEaster? one for the future, but given that Virgin Trains lose the franchise on the 8th December, has the club spoken to the new owners of the West Coast Mainline about the discount for season ticket holders?

Apologies, I'd meant to add this one under the transport issues - the club have been in talks with FIRST, the new franchisee and we are on the list of partnerships that they are keen to continue. It would seem that they'd like to keep the current relationships in place for at least the initial six months of their taking over the franchise, which would include our deal and then hopefully it's something that will stay in place beyond that.

That's all subject to confirmation by FIRST and their teams, but the club are hopeful that we can continue the offer.

 

[OutByEaster?]

Okay, so I have the following:

• Collect monthly any comments on catering service and forward them to the club
• Ask the question about schools tickets
• Find out how to get tickets for reserve games at Bodymoor Heath
• Raise the subject of the website - not just our video content, but the website as a resource
• Ensure that the Pride Rewards scheme remains on agendas
• Ensure that Travel and Transport remains on agendas

If I'm missing anything key, let me know.

 

[OutByEaster?]

I'm very aware that I've missed off a very big subject in the answers today - Kit and the shop.

The club are aware that fans are looking for answers to a range of questions around kit, kit supply and the online and Villa Park shops - they're looking to arrange a specific meeting with representatives of both Fanatics and Kappa so that those questions can be answered directly by the people responsible.

Once I have a date for that one, I'll let you know and we can gather questions.

 

[OutByEaster?]

The next meeting will be at some point in mid-December - it's one that has Mr Purslow in attendance and it's a chance to ask bigger questions.

Agenda items should be in by 30th November please.