FCG Meeting - 7th December

[OutByEaster?]

There will be a meeting with representatives of the club on the 7th December to go over any issues affecting or concerning supporters.

We'd very much like your input here on what you'd like us to raise and discuss. 

We're already looking to talk to the club around the following issues that have been raised:

• Socios
• AVTV content and charges 
• Season ticket holders and membership rights
• Season ticket delivery
• Matchday ticket returns and resales
• Matchday ticket transfers and the threatening note that the club issued around them
• Fan ID's, the website and how difficult it is to use
• Transport issues around Villa Park
• Communications from the club
• Merchandise supply issues

So we'd be very interested in your experiences around those issues as well as any issues which are affecting supporters that we've missed out.

The more info we have and the more detail we have, the better prepared we can be for the meeting and the better answers we'll be able to get on your behalf.

Thank you.

[nick76]

I’ll jump in on the transport theme.  The focus rightly has been the railway issues but major issues with driving away from Villa Park as well.  When we had police at key traffic points years ago directing traffic it was 10 times better than now.  I know an additional expense but driving away from Villa Park is a nightmare.  

I don’t have the luxury of parking too far away like Powerleague or even Star City as one of my family members is more elderly so we park closer.  We don’t mind bad traffic but currently is just silly getting away.  Never used to be anywhere near this bad when we had police directing traffic just at key points.

Edited November 23, 2021 by nick76

[tomav84]

re: the train issues. it seems that a major issue is the guys restricting the numbers allowed on the platform, resulting in trains leaving 20% full in some cases. i did see a response from the train company basically saying that delays are to be expected during large crowds. i would ask them to experience it for themselves.

went to spurs earlier this season and there was a similar deal with guys restricting numbers on the platform but they seemed to know how many to let through and the trains were packed full.

[sidcow]

We used to lay on free or reduced price buses to certain places.  I remember there used to be a few matchday specials lined up outside Aston Church in the Lerner years.

As has been extensively discussed matchday transport is an issue.   It will get much much worse if they expand the ground. 

Speaking of which, any progress on ground expansion would be interesting.  We're now going to be left in the dust by Everton who have broken ground on their new stadium.  Villa Park falls further and further behind our peers every few years it seems.

Edited November 23, 2021 by sidcow

[The Fun Factory]

Agree re transport.  Yes we had all of those AV1 buses to places like Tamworth back in the day. All of the supporters coaches are run on a ad-hoc basis by fans out of their own spare time. I haven't uses one for a while but a lot stopped going regularly to home matches during the championship years, not sure how many have come back. What happened to that on demand coach service which we used to advertise? I presume it didn't work.

I think in the Bundesliga you get free public transport in the home ground's city/town as part of your ticket. Why can't the premier league do something similar? Especially when they move kick offs to difficult times like the City game.

An update on the inner city academy next to Witton station would be nice as they have now the planing permission.

Could they look into more pop up eating/drinking areas at Villa Park? It would encourage more to get to the ground earlier and maybe bring in more revenue. Don't Albion do something similar at the Hawthorns around Halford Lane?

[villa4europe]

why cant they just use youtube??

[Robbie09]

Would be grateful if the O2 phone network was sorted whilst at VP, no signal there whatsoever.

[fightoffyour]

Balti pies that fill up from the bottom

[TRO]

2 hours ago, nick76 said:

I’ll jump in on the transport theme.  The focus rightly has been the railway issues but major issues with driving away from Villa Park as well.  When we had police at key traffic points years ago directing traffic it was 10 times better than now.  I know an additional expense but driving away from Villa Park is a nightmare.  

I don’t have the luxury of parking too far away like Powerleague or even Star City as one of my family members is more elderly so we park closer.  We don’t mind bad traffic but currently is just silly getting away.  Never used to be anywhere near this bad when we had police directing traffic just at key points.

Brilliant Point....Junction of Aston Hall Rd and Lichfield Rd is a night mare, despite traffic lights.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, The Fun Factory said:

Agree re transport.  Yes we had all of those AV1 buses to places like Tamworth back in the day. All of the supporters coaches are run on a ad-hoc basis by fans out of their own spare time. I haven't uses one for a while but a lot stopped going regularly to home matches during the championship years, not sure how many have come back. What happened to that on demand coach service which we used to advertise? I presume it didn't work.

I think in the Bundesliga you get free public transport in the home ground's city/town as part of your ticket. Why can't the premier league do something similar? Especially when they move kick offs to difficult times like the City game.

An update on the inner city academy next to Witton station would be nice as they have now the planing permission.

Could they look into more pop up eating/drinking areas at Villa Park? It would encourage more to get to the ground earlier and maybe bring in more revenue. Don't Albion do something similar at the Hawthorns around Halford Lane?

I think Aviva ran the Tamworth bus, but when I spoke to them they said, they are not running it this season, due to Covid.....The club, directed me towards Aviva, for answers.

[The Fun Factory]

Yep back in the day when I used to go up on the supporters coaches we had a police escort along with the away fans  from the old transport museum all the way up to the motorway. It was fun gliding past everyone stuck in the traffic waiting for us lol. When they stopped doing it put at least 20-25 minutes extra getting away from Villa Park.

[Risso]

Agree with the transport issues, it's beyond a joke now. You've got tens of thousands of people all trying to get away from Villa Park, a lot of whom are heading for the M6. There's no help from the police to keep traffic moving, and the end result is complete gridlock in the area.

[villarule123]

The food this year is attrocious. The quality of the food has always been really good, but this year it's become as bad as the supply and the service given.

There's constantly no pies, no curry sauce for chips, I want my food God damnit!

I'll post a photo later of the curry sauce I got given with my chips a few games ago, even the staff serving the food were baffled by how bad it was.

[MNVillan]

The website is an absolute cluster. My first experience trying to get into my account, link my claret membership, and then find my tickets was much harder than it should be.

Not the end of the world, but with how seamless everything is becoming these days, that was remarkably the opposite experience with the website.

[ender4]

The usual issue of food and drink during half-time. I’m pretty sure they could double or triple their income if they could serve twice or three times as fast.

 

and yes other clubs do serve faster so it can be done.  Though most of them do have more space in concourses.

[villa4europe]

6 minutes ago, ender4 said:

The usual issue of food and drink during half-time. I’m pretty sure they could double or triple their income if they could serve twice or three times as fast.

and yes other clubs do serve faster so it can be done.  Though most of them do have more space in concourses.

Said before in the VP atmosphere thread and I'm sure someone replied with they can't due to licensing 

Get people in pre game, set something up in the holte car park, get them fed and watered and get the buzz starting, 3pm kick off get fans in from 12 get them fed and watered, we need some kind of pre game fan park 

Then the demand at HT should be less

[Wainy316]

6 hours ago, Robbie09 said:

Would be grateful if the O2 phone network was sorted whilst at VP, no signal there whatsoever.

I find I can’t get any 3 or 4G signal if there’s more than about 20 people in my vicinity.  Seems to be getting worse, I’ll be **** them off for EE as soon as my contract is up.

[mikeyp102]

11 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

There will be a meeting with representatives of the club on the 7th December to go over any issues affecting or concerning supporters.

We'd very much like your input here on what you'd like us to raise and discuss. 

We're already looking to talk to the club around the following issues that have been raised:

• Socios
• AVTV content and charges 
• Season ticket holders and membership rights
• Season ticket delivery
• Matchday ticket returns and resales
• Matchday ticket transfers and the threatening note that the club issued around them
• Fan ID's, the website and how difficult it is to use
• Transport issues around Villa Park
• Communications from the club
• Merchandise supply issues

So we'd be very interested in your experiences around those issues as well as any issues which are affecting supporters that we've missed out.

The more info we have and the more detail we have, the better prepared we can be for the meeting and the better answers we'll be able to get on your behalf.

Thank you.

Too be fair that is a good list and all need to be addressed 

[HanoiVillan]

10 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

We're already looking to talk to the club around the following issues that have been raised:

• Socios

I have a number of major concerns:

• Granting that the idea of fan rewards like signed shirts, trips with the team, or watching games with a club legend - all examples from Socios' website - are a good idea (I think they are), why do they need to be bought via a third party crypto company, rather than sold or auctioned by the club itself?
• The website for 'Socios' makes clear that their 'fan tokens' can be traded, and their prices move in value - this is illustrated with graphs of rising and falling prices - but there are no warnings on the site about how investments can both rise and fall in value etc that you might expect from an investment product, or any 'when the fun stops stop' messaging that you might expect from a gambling product. The website says 'virtual currency wallet services' are 'registered and regulated in Estonia' - what protection, if any, is offered to British citizens from this Estonian regulation, particularly in light of leaving the EU?
• Does anything stop children from joining or from purchasing or trading tokens (I can't see anything on the website?)
• Given the collapse of Football Index this year, leading to many people losing huge amounts of money, did the club have any second thoughts before embarking on a commercial partnership with a risky, apparently unregulated financial product? What was the decision-making process, has it been risk assessed? Has the Socios product changed in any way from what it was in 2019 when West Ham supporters pressured the club into dropping their token because of many of these concerns?
• The website promises that purchasers of fan tokens - who do not have to be fans of the team - get to vote on minor decisions to do with the team. What is the most important decision we would be prepared to put to a vote, consisting of an electorate with an unknown proportion of actual Villa fans? Under 'Fan Decisions', the website states 'In the past, Fan Token holders of other clubs have voted on a host of things, including kit designs, bus designs, official team motto, and even starting XI' - even writing the last one off as absurd, would we be prepared for random assortments of token owners to decide our kit design or motto?
• The website also states (under 'Fan Rewards') that 'Fan Token holders will have VIP access to all home league, cup and European matches' - given that Villa Park now sells out most games, does this mean limited ticket availability for real fans in order to leave aside a number of seats for possible attendance from token owners? Will supporters be asked to purchase fan tokens *in addition* to season tickets in order to guarantee a seat at games?

The general impression I have of this partnership/commercial relationship is that we have entered a relationship with a risky, misleadingly-advertised, poorly- or non-regulated financial product with a number of potential downsides and little obvious upside, certainly nothing that couldn't be provided by the club themselves with some nous and organisation. I doubt I'm going to be persuaded otherwise, but I'd still like them to be grilled about this, and I'm interested in the answers.

[Unused Sub]

A few things:

Transport – I know its not the clubs fault. 45 minute wait at Aston Station to get back to the city centre isn’t good. Could the club put on buses (that could use the mostly empty bus lanes!) that could ferry people back to the centre quickly. Have the club liaised with other clubs that run such schemes?

Website – Sylla is still on the OS as one our U18 players. Furthermore, give the club a bollocking over the BSC coverage. Also, thank the club for putting the Brighton highlights on youtube. I assume they’ll be doing the same for the upcoming fixtures?

Communications – the club put a statement out at a few months ago about supporters should bring evidence of their covid jabs with them to the game. No one at the ground has ever asked me about this. Can the club confirm if they are doing this on matchdays?