HKP90 Posted December 19, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 19, 2023 I'm sure there is a good reason for this but it would be refreshing to hear about something Heck has actually done, rather than him having put the brakes on something we were trying to do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderball Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Risso said: 10,000 extra fans will make a huge difference, especially with upgraded hospitality facilities which are unbelievably shite in the North. The stand is terrible, and it needs replacing. What would the bigger vision be exactly? Heck hasn't got a single thing right since he walked through the door. I thought Tom Fox's communication skills were poor, but this imbecile really takes the biscuit. Wow? 10,000 seats doesn’t really move the dial. Even more so if you want more than 50,000 seats eventually. This type of development is a compromise. If we make CL, become regulars in Europe and competing in the PL, our ambitious owners will want 60-75K. They will need revenue like Arsenal and Spurs. VP won’t provide that. 10,000 x £1,000/seat = +£10m/season revenue, but it will cost over £100m before interest, plus loss of revenue for the 7,000 seats you lose for two seasons. You only get payback after about 12-15 years. And they will want a much bigger capacity than 50K. VP commercial revenue is very poor compared with Arsenal and Spurs as their state of the art stadiums are set up to exploit corporate customers who pay though the nose, so we will always be behind them commercially whilst at a compromised VP. Edited December 20, 2023 by thunderball 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted December 20, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted December 20, 2023 I always choose to revert to " I trust the owners ". I'm sure they have to sign off on everything, and will have done so, with data and vision presented to them by the highly qualified man they hired and the team etc. They have gotten almost everything right so far, even if we never agreed with it in the beginning, or had to go through growing pains. Short term pain for long term gain. Even if it turns out they screw something else again, they have enough credit in the bank to be trusted to get it right again. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Risso Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 22 minutes ago, thunderball said: Wow? 10,000 seats doesn’t really move the dial. Even more so if you want more than 50,000 seats eventually. This type of development is a compromise. If we make CL, become regulars in Europe and competing in the PL, our ambitious owners will want 60-75K. They will need revenue like Arsenal and Spurs. VP won’t provide that. 10,000 x £1,000/seat = +£10m/season revenue, but it will cost over £100m before interest, plus loss of revenue for the 7,000 seats you lose for two seasons. You only get payback after about 12-15 years. And they will want a much bigger capacity than 50K. VP commercial revenue is very poor compared with Arsenal and Spurs as their state of the art stadiums are set up to exploit corporate customers who pay though the nose, so we will always be behind them commercially whilst at a compromised VP. I suspect the income would be a lot higher than that as there would be a big chunk of new hospitality paying £8K+ a person per year. But let's use your figure of £10m. All of that is straight on to the bottom line profit for FFP purposes, whereas the cost of the stadium isn't. Interesting that your solution for being miles behind the income for bigger clubs is to accept the status quo and do exactly nothing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted December 20, 2023 Moderator Share Posted December 20, 2023 Just a reminder that the owners, both of the CEO's they've employed and the right hand men of both of those CEO's have all said there is absolutely no intention of moving away from Villa Park, either now or in the future - and that yesterday after Heck's interview when people started talking about the potential for a new stadium elsewhere on social media, John Townley, the journalist that covers the local area most closely, reiterated that the club have absolutely no plans to relocate and leave Villa Park - most likely at the behest of the club. There's absolutely nothing to suggest that the club have canned the North Stand because they're thinking about a new stadium and they've repeatedly and clearly said that they have no intention of moving us. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delboy54 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 Just watched the interview, he said that "we" looked at the proposed new stand in the Summer and had decided to scrap the idea. This guy has been in post for 6 months, so therefore he decided early on to scrap it......so for 6 months of all of us getting excited with the development, Heck had already decided to bin it.... This guy is basically interested in building a big new shop, an easy win for him, risk free before he leaves in 2 years time to maintain his "safe pair of hands" CV 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted December 20, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 20, 2023 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
est1874 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said: Just a reminder that the owners, both of the CEO's they've employed and the right hand men of both of those CEO's have all said there is absolutely no intention of moving away from Villa Park, either now or in the future - and that yesterday after Heck's interview when people started talking about the potential for a new stadium elsewhere on social media, John Townley, the journalist that covers the local area most closely, reiterated that the club have absolutely no plans to relocate and leave Villa Park - most likely at the behest of the club. There's absolutely nothing to suggest that the club have canned the North Stand because they're thinking about a new stadium and they've repeatedly and clearly said that they have no intention of moving us. Thank **** for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 2 hours ago, delboy54 said: This guy is basically interested in building a big new shop, an easy win for him, risk free before he leaves in 2 years time to maintain his "safe pair of hands" CV I'm pretty sure its exactly this. Show he grew the commercial and matchday revenue by X millions in 2 years time, bank some hefty bonuses and move on to the next sports project. No need for long-term thinking or any short-term pain for long-term gain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan95 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 (edited) Has made some very big (and unpopular) calls so far. He's obviously here to make the club as much money as possible though rather than keep everyone happy. The one concern I do have is whether his experience in branding/marketing in basketball in America will translate over here to football. Time will tell I suppose. Edited December 20, 2023 by villan95 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grantholtgolazo Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 If Heck is as short sighted and destructive as some think, how do you square this with the success and demonstrated business acumen of our owners? Is Heck some sort of evil mastermind who has mislead them to an extent none have before? Occam's razor suggests that Heck and the owners communicate and are on the same page with these matters, I'm happy enough to give them the benefit of the doubt at this point. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted December 20, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 20, 2023 4 minutes ago, villan95 said: He's obviously here to make the club as much money as possible though rather than keep everyone happy. Canning the North Stand doesn't achieve that though. it may save money but it won't make money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted December 20, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 20, 2023 2 minutes ago, grantholtgolazo said: If Heck is as short sighted and destructive as some think, how do you square this with the success and demonstrated business acumen of our owners? Is Heck some sort of evil mastermind who has mislead them to an extent none have before? Occam's razor suggests that Heck and the owners communicate and are on the same page with these matters, I'm happy enough to give them the benefit of the doubt at this point. I certainly don't believe that. Exactly the same as Purslow he won't be making any major changes such as hiring or sacking a manager or building or cancelling a stand without full board approval. Which is precisely why the stated reasons make no sense. The owners WILL want long term plans to grow revenue and a new North Stand it it. Which is why this doesn't add up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keener window-cleaner Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 I haven't been impressed from what I've seen of him before and has had bad vibes all along, but I actually liked that interview, I thought he struck a humble tone and much of what he said made sense. I don't know what's best of building the North Stand now or wait and develop a hospitality area first, but I think there are good arguments either way. Didn't he mention Unay when he said he didn't want to disrupt the current goings on the pitch with the stadium being a fortress, perhaps Unay has said he would prepare not to disrupt the momentum by strating a big renovation? At the current interest rates I guess it could be sound to wait a year and see as well. As a supporter abroad I'm quite happy about the hospitality plans and larger supporter shop. I've been missing some areas to spend more time before and after games to make the trip a whole match day experience, not just go to your seat and then being squeezed into a que to the railway station. I did like the North Stand plans, but I got a bit of a feeling that is was a Purslow prestige project, wanting to make a mark (Xia:s theme park anyone?). Now I still would like that to happen in some form (not the theme park) sooner rather than later, but I do appreciate that Heck doesn't rush forward but analyses the current situation and if if doesn't feel 100% right doing it now, better wait, that's good decision making imo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan95 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 49 minutes ago, sidcow said: Canning the North Stand doesn't achieve that though. it may save money but it won't make money. True but it may have taken 10+ years to have been worth the investment. FWIW I would have liked to have seen it happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 He's a bellend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain_Townsend Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 Who is to say how long he will even work for the Villa but the legacy of these decisions he is making (or, to be more accurate, reversing) will be with us for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderball Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 lol, don’t think I’ll be coming back in here in a hurry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Made In Aston Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 Heck has totally missed a trick. The fan base is the most excited, engaged and unified it has been in years. The club should be looking to have more initiatives with them to really build the atmosphere at home, like Newcastle is doing. They would be up for doing so but heck is only up for grabbing a quick buck off them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lainux Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 We saw what happened with Everton and the new stadium, FFP and less activity in the transfer market. Wonder if work on the North stand would have prevented Emery from signing higher calibre players which would push us further to the next level. Hence we need build up a steady challenge for top 4/title during the next few years before thinking about expansion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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