Wainy316 Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 "Former" Holte Suite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie09 Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 (edited) The Brighton game is the same weekend as my birthday. A few pre match beers in the Holte Suite would’ve been a great way to celebrate another trip round the sun. As a long standing STH of 50 years and someone who attends all away games with my lads I think AVFC have more than enough of my ever diminishing disposable income. They can stick the Lower Grounds or whatever they’re branding it as option where the sun doesn’t shine. How can they be so out of touch with their fanbase? Edited September 20, 2023 by Robbie09 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanBalaban Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 Sad reality is that we need more revenue in order to have a strong team. And some of that will be geared towards attracting more 'plastics' and corporates, as they bring the cash in. If, at the same time, they can improve things like matchday food & beverage, merchandise, Villa TV and various other subscriptions that we can all partake in, that to my mind is bringing in more direct revenue, whilst giving fans a better experience. Win, win! As an overseas fan, it's not easy buying from the Villa store, especially as their shipping service is expensive and unreliable, yet won't allow us to use our own freight forwarding services. And there's plenty of us who would happily buy more stuff. Same with Villa TV. I have no issues paying a tenner (or whatever it is) for matchday passes from pre-season games and the like, but would be even happier if the product was better. Whilst some very loyal fans can rightly look around and not like everything they see, there's a lot of people that never go to a game, look for a stream for a match that can be bought from the club, or proudly share info on how to buy a replica jersey from DH Gate, but still moan about the 'Americanisation' of the club's marketing policy. Be nice if they could do their bit too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teale's 'tache Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 55 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: Here's my thing, and as I'm an expatriate fan I'm always hesitant to comment on these issues as I know what the default retorts will be ( Where is your season ticket etc ) To me it seems, alot of the fans who moan about things like prices, evolution etc. Are the same ones who will be moaning about wanting better service, players, profile, Europe, acknowledgement and respect from media etc. They moan about the " monopoly " at the top but also fiercely resist attempts and strategy to try and bring us in line and closer to being able to compete. From the things I see online, haven't our prices been some of the lowest in comparison to all other clubs for a long time? As a matter of fact, I see that there are " lesser " clubs with higher prices than us.for example. From a commercialisation standpoint, it must be acknowledged that there are modern and future Villa fans we have to cater to, as well as increasing global appeal. It's a bit selfish from the older generation and us to want to put a halt on any sort of modernisation and future proofing. As you say, the Americans are outstanding at Sports Marketing. I agree, and I'd like to add that a lot of people simply don't like change, they like the status quo(probably the band as well...), especially if it has a direct impact on themselves and that's completely understandable, but if you want to evolve and improve as a club then change is going to happen, and that will always upset some people along the way. If we want to catch the big boys then we need to keep evolving, and standing still at this level of the game is essentially going backward, and that goes for both on and off the pitch. I understand that some people will fear evolution, will be scared of losing any of our traditions, and scared of losing who we are along the way, and those are completely valid concerns. Heck took over quite a mess at the 76ers, and over time and I'd imagine despite plenty of pushback on certain things, he produced something very popular and very profitable, and importantly he used their history to do it. He's taking over another big mess here commercially, and his aims will be the same, it might just be he needs to make us more profitable first before he can focus on making it popular. Heck might not 'get it' yet, but I'm sure he will over time, and I'm sure he is versing himself in our history as he did with the 76ers, we may just have to be a little patient with him, and as we all know football fans have a near-endless supply of patience... /s 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Spoony Posted September 20, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted September 20, 2023 I’m not going to comment either way on whether what is happening is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. What I will say though is football has become completely detached to what it was originally all about - i.e. a sport meant to entertain local people who would pay for a ticket and turn up to watch and kill some time of a weekend. It’s now just an international revenue churn machine and the least important person is actually the local fan. Football is a totally different beast and what “matters” to the clubs has totally changed. One can say that “Villa need to do X to keep up with the big boy” and although that might be true it isn’t actually for the benefit of common fans. But that’s the way it is. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 They’ve worded it to make you think you’re getting free drinks, you won’t be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 2 minutes ago, Spoony said: I’m not going to comment either way on whether what is happening is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. What I will say though is football has become completely detached to what it was originally all about - i.e. a sport meant to entertain local people who would pay for a ticket and turn up to watch and kill some time of a weekend. It’s now just an international revenue churn machine and the least important person is actually the local fan. Football is a totally different beast and what “matters” to the clubs has totally changed. One can say that “Villa need to do X to keep up with the big boy” and although that might be true it isn’t actually for the benefit of common fans. But that’s the way it is. Exactly. People who think the local 3rd generation fan matters to the club is out of touch. Clubs care about social media clicks, international noodle partners and TV money. The local fan is the least of their concerns. These are, in most cases, billion pound businesses but people seem to think they should be concerned about whether you buy a pie at halftime or not. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avfc1982am Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 Sounds like the £60 is just to eat and the drinks are not included. £60 just for street food, which is called street food because it's supposed to be cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 46 minutes ago, Wainy316 said: "Former" Holte Suite Yes it has gone from apologies it is closed to a new corporate rinsing operation without the club batting an eyelid. Now we know where we are in the list of importance for them- behind anyone with more sense than money, a once a year tourist trip, and just about ahead of doris the tea lady. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 3 minutes ago, avfc1982am said: Sounds like the £60 is just to eat and the drinks are not included. £60 just for street food, which is called street food because it's supposed to be cheap. Aston streets are paved with gold mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanBalaban Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 (edited) 25 minutes ago, Spoony said: I’m not going to comment either way on whether what is happening is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. What I will say though is football has become completely detached to what it was originally all about - i.e. a sport meant to entertain local people who would pay for a ticket and turn up to watch and kill some time of a weekend. It’s now just an international revenue churn machine and the least important person is actually the local fan. Football is a totally different beast and what “matters” to the clubs has totally changed. One can say that “Villa need to do X to keep up with the big boy” and although that might be true it isn’t actually for the benefit of common fans. But that’s the way it is. But that's the thing at the Villa - we don't have our own 'international revenue churn machine' as we're not a commercial success outside of the UK. The international revenue that we partake in comes from being in the Premier League, not through anything we've done as a club to increase exposure in the US, Middle East, Asia and Africa. Right now, the local fan is hugely important to the club as they are not only the support at games but the vast concentration of direct revenue too. I'm sure Heck and his team will have a remit to make us more of a global brand, and they need to as we're miles off it at the moment. For comparison, Leicester City have over 4 million more people following their Instagram account alone. Chelsea have 38 million more than us. Heck has his work cut out. Edited September 20, 2023 by StanBalaban 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post blunther Posted September 20, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted September 20, 2023 (edited) 30 minutes ago, villa89 said: Exactly. People who think the local 3rd generation fan matters to the club is out of touch. Clubs care about social media clicks, international noodle partners and TV money. The local fan is the least of their concerns. These are, in most cases, billion pound businesses but people seem to think they should be concerned about whether you buy a pie at halftime or not. It's be interesting to see where we'd have ended up without the useless local fan when we were playing utter shite under Lambert and then in the Championship. Because they sure as shit wouldn't have sold many fancy bollocks packages. Edited September 20, 2023 by blunther 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 36 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said: The only constant is change... For every fan who becomes disgruntled another will take your place. Or preferably for the club, lots more occasional fans. 19 fans who turn up once a season ( who are wowed by the occasion, don't realise the beer, programme and food are overpriced garbage, and want to visit the club shop ) are worth vastly more to the club than the fans who turn up week in week out and know what to expect. You can't blame them looking at it as any other capitalist driven business. But it's probably long past time that people realised they're customers of a business, not fans of a club, and vote with their wallets when they think it appropriate. The "fan" relationship only goes in one direction, it's a concept the club use to exploit us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 5 hours ago, blunther said: It's be interesting to see where we'd have ended up without the useless local fan when we were playing utter shite under Lambert and then in the Championship. Because they sure as shit wouldn't have sold many fancy bollocks packages. Indeed but the fans who followed the team and went to watch that garbage are the ones who the club will have no matter what. Heck and the club can take them for granted. Its the passing social media fan or US tourist they are trying to attract. Its a sad reality but that's football. An easy example is that there should be some discount if you've held your season ticket for multiple years, i.e. if you've sat in the same seat and been to 90%+ of home games then you get 25% off your season ticket as a loyalty bonus. It won't happen but it should, especially with all the money in the premier league. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted September 20, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted September 20, 2023 9 minutes ago, villa89 said: An easy example is that there should be some discount if you've held your season ticket for multiple years, i.e. if you've sat in the same seat and been to 90%+ of home games then you get 25% off your season ticket as a loyalty bonus. It won't happen but it should, especially with all the money in the premier league. But the trouble is we're hundreds of millions of pounds behind the teams above us in terms of revenue. They have so much more based off their global appeal and Champions League money. We're playing catch up and can't afford to give this money back to fans if we want to challenge. We also have a stupidly long list of people who want a season ticket but can't get one. There are people who would happily pay more than the current asking price to get a season ticket but can't get one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 14 minutes ago, Rds1983 said: But the trouble is we're hundreds of millions of pounds behind the teams above us in terms of revenue. They have so much more based off their global appeal and Champions League money. We're playing catch up and can't afford to give this money back to fans if we want to challenge. We also have a stupidly long list of people who want a season ticket but can't get one. There are people who would happily pay more than the current asking price to get a season ticket but can't get one. Yet these new seats will hardly leave a dent in terms of finance 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blunther Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 34 minutes ago, villa89 said: Indeed but the fans who followed the team and went to watch that garbage are the ones who the club will have no matter what. Heck and the club can take them for granted. Not necessarily if they keep taking the piss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rightdm00 Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 I understand the angst over increasing cost for fans. Every franchise/cub goes through this to stay competitive. Winning trophies solves all ills though. A 7th place finish with he off European adventure will not be enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 Really unimpressed with the shady way they've done this. Announce to those renewing season tickets that they're refurbing the Holte suite and it's temporarily closed. Don't let them know what service they'll be getting in the upper holte prior to the renewal. Take away from the upper holte enders half their concourse without informing them that they won't be getting the fast serve kiosks that make the lower holte a viable place to get a drink at half time. Re-open the holte suite and charge them a further £60 to use it. The offering itself isn't horrifically overpriced, and had they not been so underhand about disguising their intentions, it probably wouldn't have grated quite so much, but this is really shit from them. It's not like they needed to hide it from the people renewing, there's enough waiting list to pick up the slack of those on the edge... but no, try and eke one more season out of them by pseudo-lying to them. Increase revenue... f%£k ffp. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted September 20, 2023 Share Posted September 20, 2023 "Fan focused experience". **** off you slags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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