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Chris Heck - President of Business Operations


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I think it's very very hard to point to anything he's done since he joined the club that is genuinely positive or encouraging for the future.

Still all we have is his reputation. That's not a lot to show for nearly 9 months on the job.

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3 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said:

A badge can be fixed.

Ditching the much needed new north stand, I am afraid,  the repercussions of that will be felt for a very long time.

 

It's been postponed on the chance of CL next season and the lost revenue of reduced seating as I understood. 

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12 hours ago, GREAT_BEARD_OF_ZEUS said:

Heck is an absolute wrecking ball, get him out asap.

Everything he's done has looked completely amateurish and lacking in any thought or understanding of the club/fans.  Doesn't feel like he's done any DD before entering this role at all.

Also I know a lot of very good people on the commercial side have left the club as a result of his tenure so far, which has led to huge set backs with the existing and pipeline sponsorship.

The commercial side of the business is a **** shambles and an embarrassment. I'd fire everyone if I was Heck. 

Tbh I love Heck so far. Isn't a little pussy bitch bowing to every moaning old fart who wants everything to stay the same. This is a ruthless business and we need to compete and to do that we need revenue. 

Heck has a proven record and I'm delighted he's here. We've 30,000 on the waiting list for season tickets. We sure a hell better be raising the ticket prices every year until that drops to about 20,000 or so. 

We. Need. Revenue. That benefits the most number of fans because all that money goes into the squad and that means better player and this better performance on pitch. 

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, LondonLax said:

I suspect the club has put out invitations for tender for the new stand and the quotes they are getting back mean the project no longer stacks up financially. 

For all we know the owners made the final call and Heck has been the guy who has to break the news. 

You're missing the point. If this is the case, fine, then tell us. 

It's the insulting clear bullshit explanation given along with the muddled way it was delivered that has got people riled. 

We're (mainly) intelligent grown ups and don't appreciate the lies.  We expect some respect and honesty surrounding OUR club from a club employee. 

Edited by sidcow
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23 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

The commercial side of the business is a **** shambles and an embarrassment. I'd fire everyone if I was Heck. 

Tbh I love Heck so far. Isn't a little pussy bitch bowing to every moaning old fart who wants everything to stay the same. This is a ruthless business and we need to compete and to do that we need revenue. 

Heck has a proven record and I'm delighted he's here. We've 30,000 on the waiting list for season tickets. We sure a hell better be raising the ticket prices every year until that drops to about 20,000 or so. 

We. Need. Revenue. That benefits the most number of fans because all that money goes into the squad and that means better player and this better performance on pitch. 

Vile post.

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He's not wrong about revenue. I've seen a few "If revenue is all you care about..", unfortunately that's modern football. We won't be able to sustain any meaningful level of competition until that's rectified. No disrespect to the clubs, but being behind Leicester, Leeds and Everton is a travesty and shows the general issues we're having on that front.

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1 minute ago, kurtsimonw said:

He's not wrong about revenue. I've seen a few "If revenue is all you care about..", unfortunately that's modern football. We won't be able to sustain any meaningful level of competition until that's rectified. No disrespect to the clubs, but being behind Leicester, Leeds and Everton is a travesty and shows the general issues we're having on that front.

I very much doubt we're behind any of those clubs today.

Revenue is very much a focus for Heck, we need to be able to compete with other clubs.  

Of the four main revenue areas; TV, Sponsorships, Commercial and Matchday revenue - can anyone tell me where they feel he's made most impact so far? 

We're obviously looking for him to make an impact on the Sponsorship and Commercial revenues, that's his field of expertise. Our matchday revenues are a bit of a mystery as we've put 60% on most of our pricing since we last released figures, but it'll be interesting to see how he can impact that - the TV income is the preserve of the footballing side of the business, they'll drive that line.

As yet, from a revenue generation position, he's not got started and I think we probably have to give him the benefit of the doubt at this point - the only real initiative we've seen so far would be the Lower Grounds, which still has a good chunk of ballot winners and club invitees every week - not sure we can judge him on that though.

I don't really think we'll see the positives of him for a good six months, maybe longer depending on how tied into our current deals we are - at the moment, it's difficult and he'll know it - if I can use the classic footballer analogy, he really needs a pre-season.

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4 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I very much doubt we're behind any of those clubs today.

It was just taken from here which is about the most recent I could find. I'm sure relegation has likely affected Leeds/Leicester, but I suppose my point is we shouldn't be remotely close to these. Everton is even worse given their struggled and being the defacto number 2 club in their smaller city.

As to your wider point, I agree that it feels a bit too soon to judge. I guess we'll see when the 23/24 accounts are out and see how they compare to 22/23.

Edited by kurtsimonw
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9 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

if I can use the classic footballer analogy, he really needs a pre-season.

If he's a footballer he's Ross McCormack came in with the hopes of firing us to glory but took the piss and used bullshit excuses.

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1 hour ago, CVByrne said:

The commercial side of the business is a **** shambles and an embarrassment. I'd fire everyone if I was Heck. 

Tbh I love Heck so far. Isn't a little pussy bitch bowing to every moaning old fart who wants everything to stay the same. This is a ruthless business and we need to compete and to do that we need revenue. 

Heck has a proven record and I'm delighted he's here. We've 30,000 on the waiting list for season tickets. We sure a hell better be raising the ticket prices every year until that drops to about 20,000 or so. 

We. Need. Revenue. That benefits the most number of fans because all that money goes into the squad and that means better player and this better performance on pitch. 

Get in the bin.

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34 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I very much doubt we're behind any of those clubs today.

Revenue is very much a focus for Heck, we need to be able to compete with other clubs.  

Of the four main revenue areas; TV, Sponsorships, Commercial and Matchday revenue - can anyone tell me where they feel he's made most impact so far? 

He's only just joined and he inherited commercial deals and business decisions of Purslow and his team. So this is an area he needs time and he should be judged on our commercial growth as that's his specific role. 

Edited by CVByrne
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52 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said:

He's not wrong about revenue. I've seen a few "If revenue is all you care about..", unfortunately that's modern football. We won't be able to sustain any meaningful level of competition until that's rectified. No disrespect to the clubs, but being behind Leicester, Leeds and Everton is a travesty and shows the general issues we're having on that front.

We aren't behind those clubs, especially as two of those clubs have been relegated

According to the last year available (To year end June 2022) Villa's revenue was £238mil of which matchday revenue was £36.4 mil, that's roughly 15% of the total and that compares to a PL average of 13%. So our matchday revenue is above average and when you consider the London clubs are nearly always going to outstrip us here with their pricing and the four North West teams also have massive advantage, we aren't doing that badly on matchday revenue. Matchday revenue isn't where the big gains can be made, thats in the commercial / sponsorship side and that's where Heck should be concentrating his attentions. We will also be in a much better revenue position right now than those 2022 figures due to the success on the pitch

 

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50 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I don't really think we'll see the positives of him for a good six months, maybe longer depending on how tied into our current deals we are - at the moment, it's difficult and he'll know it - if I can use the classic footballer analogy, he really needs a pre-season.

This reminds me when clubs sign Johnny Foreign Name as their star summer signing. He plays rubbish, manager makes excuses for him like he needs to settle, preseason, language, injury blah blah and then before you know it he's off on loan to Trabzonspor and leaves the club for a nominal fee 6 months later. 

So far Heck seems to be causing problems not fixing them. 

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11 minutes ago, villa89 said:

This reminds me when clubs sign Johnny Foreign Name as their star summer signing. He plays rubbish, manager makes excuses for him like he needs to settle, preseason, language, injury blah blah and then before you know it he's off on loan to Trabzonspor and leaves the club for a nominal fee 6 months later. 

So far Heck seems to be causing problems not fixing them. 

Digne, Bailey and others were written off early too.

Sometimes it's just about seeing what happens, but everyone has to have an opinion from day 1. Nothing wrong with that, but it ultimately doesn't mean much either.

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Posted (edited)
32 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Possible, but the costs don't just start with physical works. Before we'll have even heard that this was a possibility, they would have needed to engage architects, planning consultants, traffic management consultants, environmental consultants (that's me), geotechnical consultants (also me), etc etc etc. They would have already spent a butt load of money. These days when you build, especially projects like this, you can't just wing it, or change your mind half way through, you need to be all in or not at all. Otherwise you've wasted a butt ton of money. 

Unless you are HS2, but then you've wasted other people's money.  

Yes, what he's just done is piss away a HUGE amount of money.

And if we don't start the stand by Summer 2025 most of that money will need to be spent again + inflation to get us back to where we are today.

Edited by sidcow
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