Chris Heck - President of Business Operations

[HKP90]

2 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

From the interview, I think this is the key thing to understand about Heck:

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/aston-villa/2024/01/14/aston-villa-not-there-for-the-taking-as-chris-heck-makes-worldwide-claim/

As fans of the team, we tend to think almost entirely about the fans in the stadium and (sadly) from a revenue perspective, that's not the big producer of revenues.

We think of this as a sport or a game that we play at the weekends, a good day out, see your mates, support the lads and hope for a win - and it is, but nowadays, much more importantly, it's a TV show.

Vila Park is scenery - and thirty million people in Palookaville don't care if you had to queue for a burger, you queued for a train, or you struggled to get a ticket. The club will make more money developing it's international instagram following than developing the North Stand - it'll make more money penetrating the Indonesian football market than it will from making sure that eight thousand more Brummies can get in to watch - we're backdrop, we're extras - that's how it is. There's a reason Man City aren't too fussed about empty seats - those aren't the fans that make them most money.

Heck is looking to develop this brand globally and you and I, the folks that sit at Villa Park and watch games, we're increasingly a very, very small part of that. He's not focused on the Midlands, on us, he's focused on the world and that means America, the Far East, North Africa, South America and anywhere else he can potentially find ten million Villa fans that will spend twenty quid a year on us - that's how we grow.

It's not that he doesn't care about us, it's that we're really not that important.

I agree that this is how marketing people think, but the more I think about it the more I disagree with the approach. The long term fans seem to be considered irrelevant, but marketing can't manufacture, it can only sell. The product it sells is based on an identity, and ultimately it is the hard core fans that give the club that identity. 

If you ignore the history, and long term identity of a club, you get Man City. You get junk food. 

Man City is so devoid of personality- the stadium, the heritage, that it has to rely on the personality of Pep to keep it going. As soon as he goes and they lose a few games, no marketing on earth will save them from an enormous revenue crash. And then what. Oh yeah, please save us hard-core fans. We've ignored you for years, but now we need you.

That's not how long term growth is achieved. You need to engage with worldwide audiences while also looking after your base. 

Emery gets it big time, and from a playing perspective it's what he's laboured to do from the first minute he was hired.

[allani]

10 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

From the interview, I think this is the key thing to understand about Heck:

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/aston-villa/2024/01/14/aston-villa-not-there-for-the-taking-as-chris-heck-makes-worldwide-claim/

As fans of the team, we tend to think almost entirely about the fans in the stadium and (sadly) from a revenue perspective, that's not the big producer of revenues.

We think of this as a sport or a game that we play at the weekends, a good day out, see your mates, support the lads and hope for a win - and it is, but nowadays, much more importantly, it's a TV show.

Vila Park is scenery - and thirty million people in Palookaville don't care if you had to queue for a burger, you queued for a train, or you struggled to get a ticket. The club will make more money developing it's international instagram following than developing the North Stand - it'll make more money penetrating the Indonesian football market than it will from making sure that eight thousand more Brummies can get in to watch - we're backdrop, we're extras - that's how it is. There's a reason Man City aren't too fussed about empty seats - those aren't the fans that make them most money.

Heck is looking to develop this brand globally and you and I, the folks that sit at Villa Park and watch games, we're increasingly a very, very small part of that. He's not focused on the Midlands, on us, he's focused on the world and that means America, the Far East, North Africa, South America and anywhere else he can potentially find ten million Villa fans that will spend twenty quid a year on us - that's how we grow.

It's not that he doesn't care about us, it's that we're really not that important.

I'm not sure I agree with all of your above conclusions.  In general - yes the revenue from match day attendance is pretty small in comparison to other channels.  However, I think that Heck does realise that a packed, noisy and intimidating Villa Park is really important in terms of (a) making it more likely that we are winning matches - it is easier to "sell" a club that are winning than a club that is struggling and (b) that an impressive stadium is also a good way of attracting investment (it is one of the things that helps to build the brand).  All of these things do go hand-in-hand to some extent.  But I think he sees there being low-hanging fruit that we can pick quite quickly that will improve our revenue generation that won't have the potential downside of reducing our match-day revenue and impacting on the atmosphere in the stadium.  I am almost certain that Villa Park will look quite different in a few years time - but I think the way we get there might be quite different.

I was expecting better comms in general and I do feel that one of the low-hanging fruit in terms of the local fan-base would have been to get more integration / collaboration between the club and the supporters.  Hopefully that will come.

[allani]

40 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

I agree that this is how marketing people think, but the more I think about it the more I disagree with the approach. The long term fans seem to be considered irrelevant, but marketing can't manufacture, it can only sell. The product it sells is based on an identity, and ultimately it is the hard core fans that give the club that identity. 

If you ignore the history, and long term identity of a club, you get Man City. You get junk food. 

Man City is so devoid of personality- the stadium, the heritage, that it has to rely on the personality of Pep to keep it going. As soon as he goes and they lose a few games, no marketing on earth will save them from an enormous revenue crash. And then what. Oh yeah, please save us hard-core fans. We've ignored you for years, but now we need you.

That's not how long term growth is achieved. You need to engage with worldwide audiences while also looking after your base. 

Emery gets it big time, and from a playing perspective it's what he's laboured to do from the first minute he was hired.

Playing devil's advocate - I'd rather Heck spent his time getting money from the USA, Malaysia, or wherever else we think we can get it.  That's the stuff he is (reportedly) good at and the reason why he hired him.  That doesn't mean that there shouldn't be someone whose specific job isn't ensuring that the experience for fans / season ticket holders / etc is as good as it should be.  But I don't think that person should be Heck and so that's not the stuff that Heck should be talking about.  I want Heck negotiating a nice front of shirt sponsorship deal with a big company with (ideally) no massive question marks against them - not talking about whether the toilets are working properly.  Someone else should be dealing with that.  The two things shouldn't be mutually exclusive.

[The Fun Factory]

4 hours ago, sidcow said:

Can't believe he's doubling down on this nonsense. 

1) Villa Park has regularly hosted crowds of that size in the past. 

2) the transport plan was accepted by the Council. It was accepted WITHOUT the need for the Witton Station development as a requirement and it looks like that is going ahead anyway. 

3) can someone show me the 2 x railway stations within 10 minutes walk from Anfield, one of which has the most frequent train times outside of London?

4) can someone show me the motorway junction 1/4 of a mile away from Anfield?

I really can't believe he's doubled down on this, I really can't. 

Yep totally agree. He obviously has a short term remit to massively increase revenue and doesn't really care where we may be in 5-10 years time. 

Whilst a new Witton station would be very beneficial (and Street to be fair is pushing for it) it isn't the be all and end all. However any other alternatives would probably need Villa actually paying money such as buses back into the city centre and they don't want to do it. 

Now we are talking about development after 2028, so basically another wasted decade of dated facilities at Vila Park. It is utter nonsense, we were ready to go and now we are going round in circles once again.  Nothing significant will happen until he leaves.

A massive project like this should not be dependent of one guy coming in and not liking it. Oh wait a minute that is what Sunak did to HS2.

Edited January 14 by The Fun Factory

[The Fun Factory]

Ok so Heck says we don't have enough infrastructure to cope with the expansion capacity. For 2 years the capacity would actually have been less, and in that time surely the club could have thought of some contingency plans?

I understand us mere plebs who go to the game and watch Villa aren't that important anymore compared to the global markets. But for heavens sake given the amount of money that is sloshing into the premier league, match day facilities should be of a minimum standard. If clubs are going to charge premium prices in the future, then the facilities should match it.  And why can't free travel within the home team city be included with your ticket, like the bundlesliga?

Perhaps the new independent regulator will put pressure onto premier league clubs to offer more but they will need a lot of power to do so. 

[villa4europe]

1 minute ago, The Fun Factory said:

Ok so Heck says we don't have enough infrastructure to cope with the expansion capacity. For 2 years the capacity would actually have been less, and in that time surely the club could have thought of some contingency plans?

I understand us mere plebs who go to the game and watch Villa aren't that important anymore compared to the global markets. But for heavens sake given the amount of money that is sloshing into the premier league, match day facilities should be of a minimum standard. If clubs are going to charge premium prices in the future, then the facilities should match it.  And why can't free travel within the home team city be included with your ticket, like the bundlesliga?

Perhaps the new independent regulator will put pressure onto premier league clubs to offer more but they will need a lot of power to do so. 

I'm guessing by we he means the area and the government 

And he's not wrong is he? 

Not sure why he didn't say that on day 1 though, we can't expand the stadium because the trains, buses, car parking, roads, walkways are all stretched to breaking as it is

40k people who go to villa every week nod and say I know what you mean mate it's **** dreadful already 

[thabucks]

I wonder when Heck refers to the lack of parking he is referring to the lack of Villa controlled / owned parking and that needs to addressed as a revenue stream. Perhaps box park style food outlets to encourage tailgating

[Lichfield Dean]

Ooooh, so they've been filming behind the scenes? That's quite a big piece of news. Could be a very interesting show if they can get it released.

[The Fun Factory]

3 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

I'm guessing by we he means the area and the government 

And he's not wrong is he? 

Not sure why he didn't say that on day 1 though, we can't expand the stadium because the trains, buses, car parking, roads, walkways are all stretched to breaking as it is

40k people who go to villa every week nod and say I know what you mean mate it's **** dreadful already 

We have been pushing for Witton station to be developed, and on the week the stand was cancelled the business case is progressing. Not once was this a deal breaker in the application. 

There could be plenty of alternative options if we worked on a series of active travel measures with the council, rather than just saying no forget the last 18 months of planning work and consultation we can't be arsed to do this anymore. Seems a ridiculous position to take imo. And if we are actually believing Heck would 45,000 be ok with the current infrastructure, and 50,000 would be the end of the world?

[Don_Simon]

A really positive article. 

I was overly critical of the guy, I'm going to back off now and let him do his work. 

[Villa_Vids]

Good interview from Heck. The interviewer is a cock btw.

[Villa_Vids]

43 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Ok so Heck says we don't have enough infrastructure to cope with the expansion capacity. For 2 years the capacity would actually have been less, and in that time surely the club could have thought of some contingency plans?

I understand us mere plebs who go to the game and watch Villa aren't that important anymore compared to the global markets. But for heavens sake given the amount of money that is sloshing into the premier league, match day facilities should be of a minimum standard. If clubs are going to charge premium prices in the future, then the facilities should match it.  And why can't free travel within the home team city be included with your ticket, like the bundlesliga?

Perhaps the new independent regulator will put pressure onto premier league clubs to offer more but they will need a lot of power to do so. 

Keep the corrupt government away from our game!

[sidcow]

2 hours ago, Villa_Vids said:

Good interview from Heck. The interviewer is a cock btw.

That was clear from referring to our tunnel as resembling a council leisure centre and Villa Park as a collection of higgledy piggeldy stands. 

And the fact he questions if our form can continue into next season makes is clear he's got no idea that this year's form is a continuation of last year's form.

[Pongo Waring]

I love Heck! 

 

 

[villa4europe]

I'm guessing he was answering a question 

"how do you feel about the big 6 wanting your players?" 

Whilst also knowing that the term big 6 doesn't necessarily refer to this whole club size thing that football fans get overly excited by but could be interpreted as their revenue which is at least double ours and in some cases triple so with everything going on its not that bad a thing for him to still let people know that, his job is to decrease that gap

[grantholtgolazo]

7 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

 He obviously has a short term remit to massively increase revenue and doesn't really care where we may be in 5-10 years time.  

Not singling you out, I see this comment or variations on it frequently, but (if true) I don’t understand why this is necessarily a bad thing.

Given the context of our current owners wouldn’t a short term “massive increase in revenue” position us excellently for the next 5-10 years? It seems a parallel thought to the idea that it’s of primary importance that we attain Champions league this season to inject revenue and maintain/build our roster.

I could understand skepticism if we had a suspect ownership group, eliciting fears of a cash grab and quick exit, but it seems most believe nswe have, so far, earned our trust.

if Heck moves on in 5 years time, during which time revenue has greatly increased, it seems likely that play on the field will have been relatively successful and we would have ample resources moving forward. If that was the case I’d thank him and wish him the best with his new employers. 

[Don_Simon]

Shouldn't have posted the full article - apologies @blandy. Lesson learned!

[Leeroy]

In agreement with everything he says. Our history has been so volatile, challenging at the top one minute, battling relegation the next, relegated, rinse and repeat. It sounds to me like he wants to stop this cycle that the club gets itself into and try to turn us into a formidable force that consistently challenges the elite season in season out, becoming an elite club ourselves. This is surely what we all want. And key to that is boosting our global brand and consequently our revenue which is way behind the Sky 6.

 

The only thing I disagree with him about is the stadium, I think we need a bigger stadium, 30,000 on the waiting list and we've had incredible support since we returned to the Premier League even when we were struggling under Smith and Gerrard. I'm not sure the infrastructure is a problem, sounds like an excuse. It's a shame we don't have a Wembley down the road where we could play temporarily while it is being renovated, like Spurs did when they were building their new stadium.

[Zatman]

10 hours ago, Pongo Waring said:

I love Heck! 

 

 

Sky wont like that

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

Speaking alot of sense... But will surely get pelters from some...