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Fixing Villa Park - All the small things


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22 minutes ago, mattyvilla said:

Our season tickets weren't uploaded , refused to let us in without going to ticket office , stood in the queue for 40 min and then was told to go back to the turnstile and they would now let us in. 3rd year in a row the same problem!

Didn't the ticket office only have one single window serving people? No wonder the que was long 

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2 hours ago, PompeyVillan said:

We queued for ages in the upper Trinity for a drink too. 

They would make so much more money if there was quicker service. The staff were pretty slow, but there didn't seem to be enough of them. Like yourself, if this doesn't improve I'll go elsewhere. The Purity Pale was nice though. 

 

I was probably not far away from you in the Sartre-esque existential nightmare of the Upper Trinity queues. I don't want to be too harsh on the serving staff (it's not entirely their fault)... but where is the training? Where is the energy? Where is the leader in a red cap barking orders? I always say the same thing in that 20-minute queue: "How much would it cost to put the manager of a New York lunchtime eatery in charge of our whole catering team?". It would probably pay for itself in a single home game. Still, at least I was able to stare at beer throughout the whole torturous wait – the old stains and drips were all over the TV from last season (I'm guessing the Tuanzebe chant...). Apologies for rolling out the old cliché, but none of this is rocket science.

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It's been the same problems with the service at the concourses for bloody years. Service like that in any industry that didn't have a captive audience, and they'd be out of business as people go elsewhere.

It's the kind of amateur bullshit I was hoping the new owners would have sorted out pretty sharp-ish. There's plenty of money there to be made if they can make it less torturous to try and get food and a drink. I gave up bothering at half time years ago. You either have to miss some of the game, or neck a pint in seconds. Yeah, there's a huge number of people to service in a very short period of time, but it isn't like this at every football ground. 

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On 18 August 2019 at 17:24, S-Platt said:

What was nice was the pictures of Villa Park through the decades as I walked up from the Witton Arms.  Nice touch.

Not seen this yet. Thank you.

Quick question...

If you arrived via Witton station (or walked the cut-through from Aston station) did you notice any kind of litter clean-up operation? For years it has amazed me that home and away fans are greeted by a mountain of crap. You can even spot the Hoffmeister cans and Wham bars from the 80s!

"Love Villa. Hate Litter" – get that somewhere on the wall between the Ian Taylor and Tom Hanks quotes.

 

 

Edited by Five Ken McNaughts
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2 hours ago, Five Ken McNaughts said:

get that somewhere on the wall between the Ian Taylor and Tom Hanks quotes

Those quotes have been replaced with the Villa Park Pictures.  I parked with a mate by the old HP Sauce factory and walked to the Witton Arms to meet other friends.  As you say there is still litter all over the place.

I know it is not upto Villa to clean up the streets beyond a certain point but I like your idea.  Maybe the club could speak with locals and get fans and locals to volunteer on a mass clean up.  Give tickets away or something as a reward.  I think people see a mess and just add to it but if it was clean would think twice.

Bins like you say are few and far between and if you do find one it's full!

These owners seem to want to know things so maybe something to bring up at the next meeting with fan groups.

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From where I was sitting in A5 the main thing I noticed was the amount of people who seemed lost looking for their seat. Most I had seen asking one of the stewards who were pointing in various directions, then 5 mins later I would see the same person wandering past me again. We appear to have employed lots of new people on Saturday morning, gave them a hi-viz jacket and told them to just point

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11 hours ago, PompeyVillan said:

We queued for ages in the upper Trinity for a drink too. 

They would make so much more money if there was quicker service. The staff were pretty slow, but there didn't seem to be enough of them. Like yourself, if this doesn't improve I'll go elsewhere. The Purity Pale was nice though. 

 

Same issue here, except gave up queuing.

Would have bought 2 beers, 1 cider, and some food if the queue at 2.30pm was 5 minutes wait.

If that’s the same for a lot of people... that’s a lot of extra food and drink.

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10 hours ago, Talldarkandransome said:

From where I was sitting in A5 the main thing I noticed was the amount of people who seemed lost looking for their seat. Most I had seen asking one of the stewards who were pointing in various directions, then 5 mins later I would see the same person wandering past me again. We appear to have employed lots of new people on Saturday morning, gave them a hi-viz jacket and told them to just point

It really does stagger me people who ask where their seats are.

Look at your ticket look at the signs. Go left or right depending on your seat number. Up or down depending on your row digit.

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Things I noticed, I am in the Holte Upper so may not be the same throughout the ground:

Positives:

  • The outside of the stadium looks much better, cleaner and brighter with the displays covering the worst parts.
  • The shop and ticket office also look fantastic.
  • A lot of new paint about outside, gold lions, gates painted etc.
  • The beer options are much better - the Pale Ale is fantastic.
  • The food choices are much better - chips and chilli is the one!
  • Contactless card machines on the concourse's should make things quicker if the service can sort themselves out.

 

Negatives:

  • The new PA System is just as bad as the old one.
  • Food and drink service is still slow.
  • TV's need cleaning or fixing, I saw a few that weren't working (they've had two months to fix them).
  • Inside could do with a lick of paint.
  • Toilets need tidying up / revamping.
  • Litter outside needs some attention as others have noted.

 

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33 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

Things I noticed, I am in the Holte Upper so may not be the same throughout the ground:

Positives:

  • The outside of the stadium looks much better, cleaner and brighter with the displays covering the worst parts.
  • The shop and ticket office also look fantastic.
  • A lot of new paint about outside, gold lions, gates painted etc.
  • The beer options are much better - the Pale Ale is fantastic.
  • The food choices are much better - chips and chilli is the one!
  • Contactless card machines on the concourse's should make things quicker if the service can sort themselves out.

 

Negatives:

  • The new PA System is just as bad as the old one.
  • Food and drink service is still slow.
  • TV's need cleaning or fixing, I saw a few that weren't working (they've had two months to fix them).
  • Inside could do with a lick of paint.
  • Toilets need tidying up / revamping.
  • Litter outside needs some attention as others have noted.

 

Starting with taking down the posters advertising last seasons kits would be a start.

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Not sure this is really the thread for this question or if it's something that can be fixed but does anyone else struggle to get 4G signal at VP? I am on 02 and I never get 4G signal no matter where in the ground I sit. It is so frustrating not being able to check/cash out of bets or check other scores etc.

It's strange as I get full phone signal so I can make calls and send texts but no internet. I see other people on their phones so maybe it's just me

Sorry if this has already been brought up

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3 minutes ago, Bizzzle said:

Not sure this is really the thread for this question or if it's something that can be fixed but does anyone else struggle to get 4G signal at VP? I am on 02 and I never get 4G signal no matter where in the ground I sit. It is so frustrating not being able to check/cash out of bets or check other scores etc.

It's strange as I get full phone signal so I can make calls and send texts but no internet. I see other people on their phones so maybe it's just me

Sorry if this has already been brought up

I am on EE it works on internet but very very slow.

They need to introduce wifi I think but might cost a lot!

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4 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

It really does stagger me people who ask where their seats are.

Look at your ticket look at the signs. Go left or right depending on your seat number. Up or down depending on your row digit.

Exactly, that's how I found mine. Was my first time in upper trinity but wasn't difficult to find

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I think you always get that issue with phone signal/internet when you've got 40,000 people in the same place all with phones that use the internet.

 

Some of us have the wifi password for the press wifi though... ;) 

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1 hour ago, Bizzzle said:

I see other people on their phones so maybe it's just me

 

You are seeing people like me pressing refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh,refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh

Half time ends.

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Upper Doug Ellis - same old service at bars - whatever the skills and qualities of those serving, they are not in the catering industry. I gave up as usual. I wasn't prepared to wait 15 minutes in a queue of about 8. Why not just serve bottles at some service points and get the throughput quicker ?  They should get some private operators in as guest suppliers, similar to the "real ale" guys & girls at Wembley. Strangely they seemed to know what they were doing. Only plus point was I could watch a bit more of the Test match. That was a plus - good idea.

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I had a season ticket for years and years but moved away a couple of years ago and so only manage a few games here and there now. I was hoping to read that service at the bars had improved under the new regime, but it appears not. I remember going to Derby, their new ground a few years back and at halftime they had the bar full of pints already pulled or at least half pulled and the service was super quick. Like many I gave up with halftime pints years ago, but the Derby idea seemed to work fine. It was packed but I still got a beer and with time to comfortably drink it. Actually Ian Taylor was in with us, he must have been injured, so come on Tays have a word! It’s such a simple idea. 

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